Google Upset’s Single Largest Adwords Advertiser

The Back Story

The two internet behemoths Google and eBay have been at odds recently over the issue of payment services. Google has launched Google Checkout to allow consumers to pay for items and services online which is a natural competitor to PayPal owned by eBay. Thus far Google Checkout has not been a rousing success made all the more clear by the fact that eBay has refused to accept Google Checkout to pay for their auctions. In an uncustomarily blunt move Google decided to nudge it’s advertising client into changing it’s mind by announcing a “Google Checkout Freedom Party” at the same time and location as eBay’s “live” event a conference for eBay merchants. The plan: to entice upset eBay merchants to protest eBay’s decision on Google Checkout.

The Reaction

Assumed to be in retaliation eBay just announced that they are “testing” the removal of all of their Google Search (AdWords) ads. Given that ebay is the largest single advertiser in Google’s program this is a major occurance. While eBay tried to put a non-retalitory spin on their decision common sense would suggest that there is more to it than that.

“(eBay spokesman) Durzy characterized the decision to pull the U.S. Google ads as an instance in a continued experiment eBay does to determine the best allocation of its advertising and marketing budget.”

Conclusion

What does it all mean? Maybe nothing - it’s too early to tell. eBay and Google may kiss and make up or this could be the start of a “holy internet war” but one thing is for certain. It isn’t just the smaller advertisers that are getting frustrated by Google’s decisions recently.

On the bright side, google searchers won’t have to see anymore of the “Looking for venereal disease? Find it on Ebay!” ads when they are doing research for biology term papers.

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Update: Google backs away from the plan to host a Google Checkout Freedom Party near the eBay Live! event. Seems Google is getting the message eBay was trying to send that partners in business shouldn’t tweak each other’s nose.