Google, Inc. announced the launch of its same-day delivery service called Google Express to compete against online retailer Amazon.

Google Express, formerly known as Google Shopping Express, will charge a monthly membership fee to online shoppers starting this week. It will expand its delivery service by charging membership fees, adding more merchants and extending its same-day shopping service to three new cities.

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Google will charge its members US$10 per month or US$95 annually for unlimited same-day or overnight delivery on orders above US$15.

Non-members, however, will pay a delivery fee that starts at US$4.99 for individual orders or US$7.99 on orders less than US$15, Google said in a statement.

The company will still offer free delivery for new members but only for a three-month trial period, TechCrunch, a tech website, reported.

After the launch of the same-day delivery service in San Francisco, San Jose, Manhattan and West Los Angeles last year, Google Express eventually expanded to Washington D.C., Chicago and Boston.

Along with the delivery service's expansion, the tech giant added more merchant partners to its shopping service, including Barnes & Noble, Nine West, PetSmart, Vitamin Shoppe and Sports Authority.

In Berlin, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt explained that many people think their "main competition is Bing or Yahoo." But their "biggest search competitor" is Amazon.

"People don't think of Amazon as search," but if they are looking for something to buy, they look for it on Amazon," Schmidt added.

TagsGoogle Shopping Express, delivery service, Google Express