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Google Businesses The Internet

eBay Pulls Google Ads Over Marketing Stunt 151

Posted by Zonk from the it's-just-business dept.
odoketa writes "According to the BBC, it seems Google scheduled a party to promote their payment system (Google Checkout) on the same day as a big eBay meeting, and this made eBay mad enough to pull their ads with Google. According to the story, eBay says it's merely an 'ongoing experiment' on their marketing. 'Google hoped to alert PayPal users who would have been in Boston attending the eBay Live annual seller event to its own service, according to market experts. It could also have been seen as part of an effort to get eBay to accept Google Checkout, currently banned on the online auctioneer's site. But in a contrite manner, Google cancelled its rival function a day before it was due to happen.'"
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eBay Pulls Google Ads Over Marketing Stunt More

eBay Pulls Google Ads Over Marketing Stunt

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  • UK promo was good (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Linker3000 ( 626634 ) on Friday June 15, 2007 @07:43AM (#19517637) Journal
    In the UK, Google checkout was offering £10 off any order over £30 with a major online IT supplier I use. The number of small orders I placed last month for toners and other parts was quite exceptional!

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by KingJ ( 992358 )
      I took advantage of this too, in effect it gave me free delivery. Certainly swayed me to use their payment system and it's a year long promotion, I wonder what the fees are that google charges retailers in comparison to ordinary card processing services?

      • Re:UK promo was good (Score:5, Informative)

        by daeg ( 828071 ) on Friday June 15, 2007 @08:11AM (#19517863)
        We use Google Checkout. Under their promotions, retailers have it good for the start, too. The ending rates are great, too, much better than PayPal. The Terms of Service are much more agreeable to both the buyer and seller, particularly for physical goods. I'm not sure how they compare to digital goods, but PayPal isn't very good on that front, either.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by WhoBeDaPlaya ( 984958 )
          Not to mention that eBay loves double-dipping - charge ya for auction closing fees and then PayPal fees.
          • Did you think that fees would have come down after eBay bought paypal? Really, wake me up when you return from Neverland :)
            • Heh, heck no. Just venting, is all ;)
              Still, eBay has incredible allure due to the huge number of clueless buyers and sellers there.

    • Re:UK promo was good (Score:5, Interesting)

      by DrogMan ( 708650 ) on Friday June 15, 2007 @08:17AM (#19517933) Homepage
      The promo was/is good and I was about to sign up to Google Checkout to accept smallish payments on a system I'm working on, but was really put off by the fact that Google insist on the person making the payment sign up to a Google account. PayPal dropped this a long time ago, and much as I dislike PayPal, at least now you have the choice to letting your clients make their own decision to signing up to PayPal, or not.

      Once Google removes this restriction, I'll probably use them to accept small payments rather than use PayPal.

      /DM/

      • Re:UK promo was good (Score:4, Insightful)

        by bkr1_2k ( 237627 ) on Friday June 15, 2007 @10:13AM (#19519417)
        Hopefully you've let google know that. Otherwise it's just wishful thinking.

        • Hopefully you've let google know that. Otherwise it's just wishful thinking.

          You act like the people at google are stupid. They are not. At least, not all of them. They are smart enough to compare successful services to unsuccessful ones and examine the differences.

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by bkr1_2k ( 237627 )
            I knew someone was going to say that as soon as I posted. I decided not to bother posting to correct my statement though.

            Of course google would have figured it out eventually, it's not anything particularly insightful for them to do. However, the sooner the customers make comments, the sooner google (or any company) will react. If it looks like there's an obviously high demand from the onset, then it will be implemented sooner.
          • Talking to a crystal ball?

            If they had foreseen this they would have made the correct implementation.

            It is clearly something they did not think about, so the more potential costumers let them know, the faster they will react to this.

            Some people here act like if Google was infallible and all powerful and knowing. Disturbing.

  • eBay wouldn't do that (Score:4, Insightful)

    by 91degrees ( 207121 ) on Friday June 15, 2007 @07:56AM (#19517767) Journal
    They don't advertise on Google to do Google a favour. They advertise on Google to draw traffic to eBay. If they pull their advertising, they hurt themselves. Not as much as they hurt Google, because they can easily spend the advertising budget elsewhere, but still a case of cutting of their nose to spite their faces.

    • Re:eBay wouldn't do that (Score:4, Funny)

      by Rik Sweeney ( 471717 ) on Friday June 15, 2007 @08:10AM (#19517859) Homepage
      They advertise on Google to draw traffic to eBay

      Precisely! Otherwise, how would I know that I can find sinusitis relief on eBay?

    • Re:eBay wouldn't do that (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Applekid ( 993327 ) on Friday June 15, 2007 @08:10AM (#19517861)
      Is eBay not a big enough player to require Google advertising?

      This got me thinking of advertising in general. Do consumers REALLY need another 5,000 Coke commericals nationwide today, too? Are they afraid that we'll all of a sudden forget they exist? Afraid that people who like Coke would switch to Pepsi thanks to those ads so we'd better innundate them with our ads to keep that from happening?

      There are defining sites out there on the internet. You wouldn't google for online auctions unless you're looking for an eBay alternative. You wouldn't goggle for user shared video sites unless you're looking for a YouTube alternative.

      Or, at least I wouldn't. :)
      • The coke/pepsi advertisement thing... sounds very familiar. You been listening to Lewis Black, haven't you?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by chrisd ( 1457 ) *

          You're thinking David Cross. He has a funny bit about McDonalds. "I don't think that people will suddently worry where they're going to get their big mac if you skip a day," and then launches into a polemic about paying thier workers slightly better.

          David Cross is funny :-)

          Although it seems the kind of joke that you'd hear other places, too.

      • Re:eBay wouldn't do that (Score:5, Insightful)

        by xappax ( 876447 ) on Friday June 15, 2007 @08:55AM (#19518341)
        Do consumers REALLY need another 5,000 Coke commericals nationwide today, too? Are they afraid that we'll all of a sudden forget they exist?

        It's a good question, it seems intuitive that those brands are so deeply entrenched in our collective awareness and habits that they've sort of transcended advertising. It seems like we could never see another ad for Nike, and we'd still remember them and buy their shoes just as much.

        But it's not true. The reason we can tell it's not true is that companies like Nike universally continue to spend gobs upon gobs of money on advertising campaigns, which they could've otherwise kept in their pockets. I think the main reason mega-brands advertise is not because they're afraid we'll forget, but because they're afraid we'll start paying attention (or more attention) to their competitors, or even other industries we'd rather spend our money on. Nike doesn't care if we remember them in general, they care if they're the top brand on our minds when we walk into the shoe store, and that we associate them with all the cool things of today.

        In this way, advertising is like an arms race. You may have enough advertising to let people know about your product, but another advertiser is just going to step up their campaign and draw even more attention to themselves (and consequently away from you). Keeping the attention on your brand is what keeps you alive as a corporation, so you have no choice but to increase your advertising campaign to even more intensity...they respond in kind, and the cycle continues.

        Of course, the result of this marketing cold war is what we have today: an almost completely ad saturated environment. It's difficult to look anywhere in an urban environment without seeing a logo or advertisement - it's so universal that people start to tune it out as background noise, which simply means advertisers must come up with newer, more subtle or outrageous or manipulative ways of increasing their brand awareness and appeal.
        • Erm, yeah, I suppose it could be a advertising war. But in Nike's case, they're always making new products. Of course they're going to advertise those, despite their brand power.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by rainman_bc ( 735332 )

          which simply means advertisers must come up with newer, more subtle or outrageous or manipulative ways of increasing their brand awareness and appeal.

          Great post! I want you to run the marketing department in our office ;)

          Thing is though, the outrageous stuff is what gets me. This morning I was watching the morning news, and from the traffic chopper out comes a freaking ad from the traffic lady's mouth. How can the morning news not think that this just annoys viewers, and that most of us are intelligent enough to look past that garbage?

          I don't choose what beverage I drink from what's on TV. I've never seen an ad for Orangina on TV and that's my favou

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by fossa ( 212602 )

            Yet Nike, or all advertisers in agregate, have convinced you that various shoe technologies are necessary. Sure you might not pay the premium for Nike, but you're still buying into the "shoe needed for sport" mindset which is nine-tenths of Nike's job. I'm guilty of the same thing in many areas of life, e.g. "car needed for getting around", "must keep up with the Joneses", and probably many others I'm not even aware of. But I do run barefoot.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by hxnwix ( 652290 )

          It's a good question, it seems intuitive that those brands are so deeply entrenched in our collective awareness and habits that they've sort of transcended advertising. It seems like we could never see another ad for Nike, and we'd still remember them and buy their shoes just as much.

          But it's not true. The reason we can tell it's not true is that companies like Nike universally continue to spend gobs upon gobs of money on advertising campaigns

          FYI, your conclusion is your thesis [wikipedia.org]. What if the actors here are following this reasoning? They'd have to be sure of themselves out of hubris, yes, but remember that these are the sort of folks who thought New Coke and Crystal Pepsi were good ideas.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by LiENUS ( 207736 )
        Ebay advertises under much more than just "online auctions" they had an advertisement for virtually any item you could buy, so if you searched for "silly hats" looking for an online retailer of silly hats, you'd seen an advertisement for silly hats on ebay and then you might decide to purchase them on idea in the hopes of getting a good deal rather than an online retailer.
      • As any marketing expert at Google or eBay or Coke can tell you, half of anyone's marketing budget is wasted. The trouble is figuring out which half.

      • You wouldn't goggle for user shared video sites unless you're looking for a YouTube alternative.
        Using "goggle" is bad for your PC's health [opendns.com], if you're running windows.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by whoop ( 194 )
        What I don't understand are the generic adds for things like milk, pork, beef, etc. Is someone watching and saying, "Hmm, this beef stuff looks like it might be tasty. Let's go get some."

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by bkr1_2k ( 237627 )
        No we don't need 5000 more Coke commercials to remember Coke.

        For the big guys, advertisement isn't so much about knowing the product but let me ask you, do you remember growing up and asking for a "coke" to mean any soda? These days people ask for a soda by name but when I was a kid you asked for a Coke and got whatever was available. Obviously there is some distinction that Coke doesn't want you to forget there.

        Advertisement isn't just about keeping customers, it's also about getting new ones and indoctr

      • Do consumers REALLY need another 5,000 Coke commericals nationwide today, too? Are they afraid that we'll all of a sudden forget they exist? Afraid that people who like Coke would switch to Pepsi thanks to those ads so we'd better innundate them with our ads to keep that from happening?

        Interesting choice of hypothetical scenarios, because that's EXACTLY what, in-fact, happened.

        Go read about "New Coke." It was Pepsi's overwhelming success in advertising their product that led to Coke's downfall.

        Brand advert

    • If they pull their advertising, they hurt themselves
      eBay is as much a household name as google is. Unlikely either will be hurt by it except Google will see a few less eBay dollars.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Rakishi ( 759894 )
        no, they will be hurt and as the other poster said there is a reason they advertise on google. Sure you know what ebay is but lets say you are interested in a doohicky. Now you google this device for some reason likely. suddenly you see an ad for ebay, you hadn't even thought of buying it on ebay for whatever reason but right there is an ad. So you click it to see the prices on ebay for the device and possibly buy it on ebay.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Rakishi ( 759894 )

      because they can easily spend the advertising budget elsewhere
      Except that the reason they spend it at google is because the return on their investment was deemed to be the highest possible. Otherwise they'd be spending the money elsewhere which they aren't so I doubt there is much of a good "elsewhere" left (that they don't already advertise with).

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rtb61 ( 674572 )
      Now. remind me again why I use this tool http://www.customizegoogle.com/ [customizegoogle.com] and have filtered out ebay from all my search results.
  • Now we may see no less than a battle between two MAJOR internet players. It will get v dirty v quick. Basically I predict a last man standing type scenario.

    It was only a matter of time before someone pulled the trigger because you cant have two major companies, with 2 sets of shareholders co-existing for very long. One will inevitably get greedy.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Threni ( 635302 )
      > Basically I predict a last man standing type scenario.

      We'll see how many people dislike eBay and PayPal. I've closed my paypal account because they've become a bank and moved to a EU rather than UK system and were apparently incapable of answering my questions about it. Still, I bet the people they're paying to answer questions are really cheap so that's saving them money.

      I hope Google comes up with an auction site. Perhaps they'll take abuse more seriously than eBay does, too.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward
        I've closed my paypal account because they've become a bank and moved to a EU rather than UK system..

        1. Although it's high time PayPal were regulated as a bank, their move will not make them one any more than they are currently.
        2. The UK is in the EU and has been for a very long time, making the second half of your sentence non-sensical.

        • The UK is in the EU and has been for a very long time, making the second half of your sentence non-sensical.
          Last time I was in England they were still using the Pound. Although they are a member of the EU, they haven't adopted all of their policies it seems. *shrug*

    • It was only a matter of time before someone pulled the trigger because you cant have two major companies, with 2 sets of shareholders co-existing for very long.

      So, it's only possible to have one major company in the whole world??

  • Paypal useless (Score:3, Informative)

    by hesaigo999ca ( 786966 ) on Friday June 15, 2007 @08:02AM (#19517805) Homepage Journal
    I am soooooo glad that eBay will now have competition from on of the top dogs for their
    paypal excuse for a payment system. I hope google can actually tie this into your gmail account with higher security, although if eBay will not use this service, I dont know where else except the p0rn
    sites where this might be usefull?

  • Ebay Thailand (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by yohanes ( 644299 )
    Strange, right now, ebay.co.th is still showing as Adwords ads in Google search.

    • Strange, right now, ebay.co.th is still showing as Adwords ads in Google search.

      TFA:

      Auction website eBay has pulled its US advertising from search engine giant and adversary Google.

  • Message To Ebay: This Is Suicide (Score:5, Interesting)

    by osewa77 ( 603622 ) <naijasms@NOSpaM.gmail.com> on Friday June 15, 2007 @08:05AM (#19517821) Homepage
    Knowing how much traffic Google drives through search and Adwords, this move by Ebay is nothing but suicide. It's a good thing - for Ebay - that Google has decided to back down.

    Ebay is in a bad position, really, because they don't drive their own traffic. If Google decides to launch an auction website, it'd be a real bloodbath, because Ebay is nothing without it's famously massive traffic, much of with it has to buy.

    I suspect that they have an agreement with Google that prevents Google from implementing a simple competitor in the auction space.

    What happens if Ebay boycotts Google? We'll get less "buy used baby's from Ebay" spam. That's it.

    • Re:Message To Ebay: This Is Suicide (Score:5, Insightful)

      by AutopsyReport ( 856852 ) on Friday June 15, 2007 @08:13AM (#19517883)
      It's not suicide. Most Internet users have been to eBay. eBay was successful long before Google showed up and they will continue to be successful because their success is attached to the name, how easy it is to remember, and how quickly you can type "ebay.com" in the location bar without having to go through a search engine.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by winnabago ( 949419 )
        I don't have a source, but it is interesting that ebay still feels the need to tout their own payment systems in real life. About a month ago in Boston, they started putting PayPal ads on the tops of taxis, in bus shelters, and such places. Now that this Google Checkout issue has come out, it makes sense. They saw the pressure from Google coming.

        I don't think ebay feels that Paypal can run via its own momentum, with others trying to gain share in that market.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by bkr1_2k ( 237627 )
          They more likely started putting those ads in preparation for their "eBay Live 2007" event, which is what all the big fuss is about. They're mad because Google planned an event to deliberately conflict with that event. By the way, it's held in Boston this year.
          • I should have been more clear - in hindsight, they knew both the hordes of ebay maniacs and Google were coming to Boston, so in some strange move they take out the Paypal ads. But why not put ebay ads on the signs? You could say that they were trying to get at the thousands of out of town ebayers on the bus system (that I've seen starting yesterday anyway).

            Ebay is a recognized brand, paypal is a recognized evil.
      • The problem for ebay nowadays is that the competition (google) *will* have ads. As google's checkout becomes more refined, ads may attract more users and attract them away from ebay. If google has a continuous presence, and ebay's diminishes, then ebay may very well start to fade.

        About time, too... ebay is not even close to the bargain shop they first were, with sellers abusing the system, fraudsters rollicking around, and ebay cutting in on everyone for as much dime as they can.
      • They both went public in 1998 so I wouldn't say they were successful for very long before Google. Google was much more successful right from the start anyways.
    • Ebay has TV and radio commercials. They were a successful, house-hold name before Google even became popular. It's like saying it would be suicide for Coke to pull advertising from Google.

    • What happens if Ebay boycotts Google? We'll get less "buy used baby's from Ebay" spam. That's it.

      Wait! Where else am I going to buy my used babies and dead whores? Curse you, Google!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tknd ( 979052 )

      Ebay is in a bad position, really, because they don't drive their own traffic.

      Hmm, let's see. Go talk to anybody that has used the internet, ask them about selling and buying stuff online and there's a pretty good chance the verb ebay will come up. That's right, people don't always say, auction/sell it online, instead they just say, ebay it. Because of that, ebay, at least in the U.S. is the most common online auction site and probably gets direct hits all the time.

      If Google decides to launch an auction

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by osewa77 ( 603622 )
        Google's search engine is what gives them lots of traffic. Not just traffic, but traffic whose desires are known. I think search is central to their business, although of course web advertising IS their business. The problem Ebay has with respect to Google is that Google can capture Ebay's potential customers before they have the chance to visit ebay.com. Google can capture them while they are doing their research, which is when they usually clicked those Ebay ads anyway.

  • Paypal and Checkout (Score:3, Insightful)

    by kanwisch ( 202654 ) on Friday June 15, 2007 @08:07AM (#19517839)
    I ditched Paypal when I couldn't reject a credit card payment (I didn't accept them). Assuming Checkout doesn't have the same issue, it'll be my preferred method of payment/receipt for the long-haul.
    • You should have read the eBay rules before accepting Paypal. It strictly states that you CANNOT accept Paypal without also accepting credit card payments through it. If you attempt to make this statement in your auction, the auction can get cancelled on those grounds if eBay notices or someone complains.
  • ...and this is coming from someone who does fairly significant business through eBay.

    eBay's fees are ridiculous now, and PayPal even moreso. eBay has continually raised their fees year after year, taking a far too large cut of small items. What's worse is that 2.9% + 30 cents bit on PayPal transactions, whether or not it was actually funded through a credit card. I understand needing to pay yourself back should someone actually pay with a credit card and get small fee on top of that, but when money is moved from one PP account to another, that costs them $0...not to mention that PayPal's fee is done on the TOTAL, not the pre-shipping price, so they end up taking 2.9% of the money that you're supposed to have to ship the item as well. ...and since eBay and PayPal are so closely knit, and almost everyone on eBay only uses PayPal to pay, trying to use any of the smaller players is pretty much futile. The only payment service that can reasonably knock PayPal off of its pedestal is Google Checkout, and eBay knows this.

    Between those two things, I'm losing well over 10% on any item that doesn't cost a huge amount of money. They wonder why people do stuff like use eBay contact info to sell outside of eBay and to list $1 items with hundred or even thousand-dollar shipping cost to avoid paying eBay as much as they can.

    eBay claims that they want to have payment services with established track records or something like that. Just wait a year or two, and then possibly sue for inclusion, or at least under some law about anti-competitive acts? If Google could get GBay up...

    GBay + "do no evil" = death of eBay.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by LynnwoodRooster ( 966895 )
      As someone who had a business that accepted CCs (we had the contract with a CC processor, terminal, could swipe cards) the fees charged by Paypal are actually in line with real CC charges. Around 2.4% of total sale (don't break out shipping - total amount) and $0.30 per transaction. Processing of CC charges ranged from 1.8% to 3.3% depending upon the volume of sales you did (we did around $30K/month and were at the 2.4% price range).

      EBay's fees are quite high, though, and I don't have any experience wit

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by whoop ( 194 )
      I didn't understand why people charged $10-20 to ship an item like a video game, until I started unloading my dusty collection. By the time you figure in shipping, ebay, paypal fees, you're up in that ballpark.
    • What I've always found fun is how - on top of the fees for the seller etc - paypal is making a nice chunk of change on currency exchange. With the Canadian dollar up at $0.95USD, ebay will still happily only convert cash at $0.915 (for my last transaction). Not only that, but from what I've been able to tell they *require* conversion of funds. I used to use a particular Visa for Paypal specifically because they didn't charge fees for conversion of $USD. Then "Paypal Canada" came up, and suddenly all my fund

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ddent ( 166525 )
        There is actually an option to change that in your profile settings. I think they were forced to add it by the card associations.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by phorm ( 591458 )
          I've found it for receiving payment, but not for sending, but maybe it's either well-hidden or I'm just not catching it?

  • So hard to choose sides (Score:5, Insightful)

    by antifoidulus ( 807088 ) on Friday June 15, 2007 @08:14AM (#19517895) Homepage Journal
    I mean, on one side we have google, a tremendously useful tool that has saved me countless hours when troubleshooting problems/doing research.

    And on the other side we have paypal who called me a liar on the phone because I told them that they, not I, made a mistake

    So hard to choose sides!
  • Now its down to who blinks first, im guessing that Google either have:

    A) An ebay alternative (Killer? )
    B) The resources to create one pretty quick.

    We will have to see what countermeasures Ebay can conjour up. My guess is not a lot because Ebay, to my mind at least, is a one trick pony.

  • The BBC is spinning this... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by owlnation ( 858981 ) on Friday June 15, 2007 @08:18AM (#19517935)
    This is not what it seems. I read this article on the BBC earlier today and it annoyed me then.

    Their use of the word "angry" in the headline is preposterous. This is shamefully hyperbolic sensationalist tabloid journalism -- something the BBC is pandering to more and more -- they really need to fire some editors. Also, it seems to me that someone in the Richmond offices of eBay has the ear of someone in the BBC, eBay gets an astonishingly high amount of free publicity from the BBC (The BBC does not allow advertising -- um, yeah, sure...). Again, they really need to fire some editors, I'd be astonished if at least some of them were not taking backhanders every now and again -- it certainly looks that way.

    Why would a medium sized corporation be "angry". And particularly in this case, although eBay is the largest user of Adwords, eBay is still a very small company compared to Google. eBay has no alternative to Adwords. It's use them, or fail trying something else.

    While I'm personally convinced that eBay's management are far from the sharpest executives out there, they are at least smart enough to realize that they need Google much more than Google needs them. Sure, there's some Corporate game playing around checkout etc, and perhaps this move is simply a reflection of that. eBay, like any firm, needs to try to assert themselves occasionally to negotiate better deals. This is business. This is not news.

    If Google was planning their own negative party then perhaps it would be good for someone to examine their mission statement -- while not exactly evil, that action isn't something that would give any company the moral high ground.

    This is all a storm in a teacup. The whole thing reeks of publicity stunt. Publicity stunts are things the BBC falls for regularly -- especially where eBay are concerned.
    • eBay is Google's biggest AdWords customer. If eBay pulls out for good, you will see it in quarterly earnings and stock price (with billions in valuation gone). This is not worth a marketing stunt (unless Google is ready to release their own auction site very very soon).
  • "It's no secret that part of Google's plan for world domination is to replace eBay, which involves selling products via Google Base and paying for them using Google Checkout. However, Google isn't yet powerful enough to launch the expected blitzkrieg, so the two companies maintain friendly relations under what's been compared to the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact [guardian.co.uk] signed by Von Ribbentrop for Germany and Stalin"

    Who said that amateurism on the Internet was leading to the death of real journalisim ..

    God [killfile.org]
  • I am sure all of you have done this, but notice that when you google for eBay [google.com], the first and only ad is for Google Checkout (thinly veiled as an ad from buy.com). While Google does not manipulate search results by hand, they definitely mess with the Ads :))
    Cheers!
    • "the first and only ad is for Google Checkout"

      Fishtec Fly Fishing
      Fishtec - Your Fly Fishing Partner.
      Fish Tec - Buy Online Today.
      www.Fishtec.co.uk

      http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&q=eba y [google.com]

      was Re:Fun Experiment
    • I just tried this and nothing comes up for ebay... Literally a blank ad pane. I tried other search terms thinking maybe I had some ad-blocking software, but nope. Am I the only one? Perhaps they are freezing the advertising until they get all this worked out?
      • It's disappeared from my search results too! Maybe a smart alec decided it was a good idea to do this and then got fired later for lack of good judgment :)
        Cheers!
    • I just tried a few times, and I got no adverts at all. The first search result was for ebay.com. (I'm in the US)
      • I waited a few minutes and tried again. I am now getting an eHarmony advert (You can't buy love on Ebay), and I clicked search 5 or 6 times and got this same advert.

        It did make wonder what kind of bill these people would run up if everybody on Slashdot clicked-thru their advert.

    • The advert is gone.

      Someone in Mtn. View reading Slashdot must've fixed it (I'd like to think)

      Cheers!

  • Hypocrisy? Or just sour grapes? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by WidescreenFreak ( 830043 ) on Friday June 15, 2007 @08:38AM (#19518155) Homepage Journal
    Wait. Let me get this straight. eBay can deny their customers the ability to use alternate payment methods (Western Union, Google Checkout) in an anti-competitive move to try to force people to PayPal, which eBay owns. That's just a-OK. But if Google tries to take advantage of the opportunity to make people aware of Google Payments, which eBay is denying their paying sellers to implement, all hell breaks loose and eBay gets all upset!

    Don't get me wrong. I like eBay and PayPal. I've never had a bad experience with either of them. But I found it to be more than coincidental that very shortly after eBay bought PayPal suddenly they have to ban Western Union and other payment services, citing "consumer fraud protection". Oh, f**king spare me!! I used Western Union several times for my auctions with no problems at all. Even eBay's sellers tools will reject the submission of an auction if the words "Western Union" are found in the description!

    So, now Google decides to take advantage of an opportunity to make themselves known to eBay customers, and eBay gets all pissed off? Wow.

  • Greed Ego and Why Ebay Sucks (Score:3, Insightful)

    by grapeape ( 137008 ) <mpope7 AT kc DOT rr DOT com> on Friday June 15, 2007 @09:04AM (#19518465) Homepage
    http://news.com.com/Google+cancels+rain+on+eBays+p arade/2100-1024_3-6190905.html [com.com] goes into much more detail.

    You have to love Ebay's comments as to why they dont allow Google Checkout, it reliability is unproven. Which of course translates into we dont get anything out of allowing their service and are much happier double-dipping on our "customers". Their real fear is that people would ditch paypal in droves, which is true, I dont know anyone who really likes paypal but its the only choice you have in dealing with Ebay. Ebay may be surprised to find that accepting other forms of payment would bring people back to ebay. I hated paypal so much after being ripped off for a second time that I just stopped using ebay completely, a better choice of payment options might tempt me back. I did still find myself led to Ebay by google often when searching for specific items.

    I'd like to see the real numbers on traffice from google to ebay, I have seen it listed as much as 10% and as little as 2%. Still it looks like this hurts Ebay more than Google, I havent seen any numbers suggesting revenue from Ebay totalling more than 1-2%. If I was Google I'd stick to my guns and not allow them back until checkout was declared acceptable.
  • mad enough to pull their ads with Google.


    If they are "mad" to pull the adds then they have done so possibly error and definitely without the proper thought applied; however if they are "angry" about the situation then it seems like an understandable business move.

  • But where will I buy my search results now? (Score:3, Funny)

    by glindsey ( 73730 ) on Friday June 15, 2007 @09:43AM (#19519009)
    This is horrible! Now, when I search for "software interrupt," I won't see "Looking for software interrupt? Find new and used software interrupt and thousands more items on eBay!"

    This is going to make things much more difficult.
  • this may be a little OT but.....
    I was recently in the market for a big ticket item and once I found the one I wanted at the price I was willing to pay I began the checkout procedure. I had been seeing the Google Checkout buttons on many of the sites and the allure of getting a little bit more taken off my purchase convinced me to sign up. I mean HAY! this is Google after all so it must be great. I dotted my i's and crossed my t's and completed the purchase. Within minutes I received an email from Google Che

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by D-Cypell ( 446534 )
      I understand this frustration. I used to work for a company that provided payment services and spent at least some of that time doing customer/technical support.

      Our system had a similiar mechanism to google. If a particular card was rejected by the bank, our software would refuse to resubmit the card to the bank for a period of 24 hours. This sounds like an irritating policy I know (and I had to discuss the issue with many people in the same situation as yourself), however what I can tell you is that your c

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by ArhcAngel ( 247594 )
        That explains the why of it. It does not however explain the lack of communication with the customer during and long after the problem.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by cloudmaster ( 10662 )
      Did you actually correspond with someone from PayPal who helped you, or are you just presuming that, in the instance you needed help, you could get it by corresponding with them?

      I ask because a few months ago I sold a cordless drill on eBay through PayPal. I clearly said that either the battery or charger was dead in the as-is ad, and that I didn't know which one. I also said that I woudn't ship the battery in order to save the recipient shipping costs. When it sold, though, I found that everything fit b
      • I never said they were any good just that they actually existed. I'll still take bad support over non-existent support any day. At least I have somebody to yell at.

        oops!
        almost forget to give you your
        "We are sorry to hear about the trouble you are having. Perhaps if you look at our online FAQ you will find what you need there."

  • 1) compare your total quarterly sales (minus the cost of the ad campaign) after your ad campaign to the previous (ad-free) quarterly sales.
    2) ???
    3) Profit!

    Promotion works in the same quantifiable way:
    1) Clip out all of the newsmedia references to your product and multiply that media line rate by 2 and invoice client.
    2) ???
    3) Profit!
  • googleguy1: hey, I got a prank here I want to put on-line for just a few secs
    googleguy2: nice! If you would post that ad on the e-bay frontpage it will make great coverage!
    googleguy1: and they won't even notice!
    googleguy2: hahaha but we cannot do that, it's immoral!
    googleguy1: naah, if you press enter, I typed in the command for you
    googleguy3: hey whatcha doing?
    googleguy2: want to make free commercials of Checkout on the ebay site?
    googleguy3: how do you mean?
    googleguy1: just press enter and you will see!
    goo
  • I haven't used Paypal since they canceled the BillPay program.

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