Thursday, 14 June 2007

eBay Pulls Out Ads From Google

Two of the biggest properties on the web Google and eBay have gone public with their spat after the world’s biggest online auctioneer forced its rival to abandon an effort aimed at luring away its customers...

Two of the biggest properties on the web Google and eBay have gone public with their spat after the world’s biggest online auctioneer forced its rival to abandon an effort aimed at luring away its customers.

eBay is one of Google’s biggest advertisers. The problem arose because Google, which is fast turning out into a major rival for all established software companies, advertised plans to hold a party in Boston on Wednesday night aimed at attracting eBay's customers to advertise its own Google Checkout, an online pay service that rivals ebay's Paypal,. The party was scheduled to coincide with Ebay Live, an annual conference that has become its biggest customer event.

Google’s withdrawal came only after eBay cut some of its advertising spending on the company's search site in an attempt to warn Google to keep off eBay’s market.

The stage for the confrontation was set at the start of this week when Google invited eBay’s customers and asked them to come to "a celebration of user choice" at the "same spot where revolutionaries launched the Boston tea party to celebrate freedom".

Late Wednesday however, eBay's threat to punish Google by pulling advertising had forced Google to change its stance.