Earlier this year, Amazon launched Home Services, a new section of its site where users can shop for professional help with everything from plumbing to car repairs. Now, the retailing giant is expanding access to its legions of handymen and women across the US, making Home Services available in 15 new metropolitan areas including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, and Washington DC. (See the map below for the full list of available areas.) Customers can shop for pre-packaged services like changing a faucet or put up requests for custom jobs, with Amazon saying its aim is to make "buying a service as easy as buying a product."

Amazon Home Services availability in the US. (Amazon/Business Wire)

The retailer isn't alone in this ambition either. Earlier this month, Google confirmed that it had snatched up 20 employees from Homejoy, a defunct startup that offered on-demand house cleaning, with outlets reporting that the search giant is gearing up to enter the market. Here, it would be competing with the likes of TaskRabbit — a personal assistant service that's been expanding to become the "Uber for everything" — as well as Amazon itself. But if you're using Google to find a plumber or electrician in the first place, it might seem natural to contract the work through the search engine too. It looks like there's going to be stiff competition to repaint your bathroom.