Google Again Mentioned In Spectrum Speculation

eBay Says Any Enemy Of Google Is A Friend Of Mine

from the alliance-with-the-weak dept

Fri, Apr 21st 2006 9:25am — Joseph Weisenthal

As Google clearly has ambitions outside of their core search product, it makes sense for other companies to assess and hedge against any potential threats. eBay, for one, is always mentioned as being vulnerable. The company seems to think that they could strengthen their position by forging an alliance with either Yahoo or Microsoft, while weaning themselves off all of the traffic they get from buying Adwords. But if Adwords works, and they're happy with the results they get from it, what do they gain by going with an inferior partner, like MSN? Either they're cutting off their nose to spite their face, or they're bluffing, hoping that by threatening to walk away from Google, the company might hold back on any plans to compete with them more directly. Of course, it's not clear what plans, if any, Google has to compete with the auction giant. Their misunderstood Google Base offering is not a competitor, and any payment system, to compete with PayPal, remains a rumor. If eBay is actually worried that Google might develop something superior to eBay's auctions, they should be trying to develop it themselves, not waiting around to get beaten, hoping that shifting their ad spending will somehow thwart the competition.

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11 Comments

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Darren, 21 Apr 2006 @ 9:58am

Google is a trend analysis company
It seems to me that every market space google enters is adding to their massive people tracking database. At some point, they will have the worlds larges database of live trend data.

The data they will have on us all, identifyable or anonymous, will be of extreme value to governments and businesses around the world.

Email and chat allows them to analyize what we're talking about. It's free, so we can't complain. Maps help identify which geographical areas have demand.

Their "core search product" is more about tracking people's interests than search. Search is just what they're known for cause that's what we all use.

Perhaps I am stating the obvious.
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Howard, 21 Apr 2006 @ 9:59am

I really wish...
I have been selling violins on eBay for over a year now, and I'm not particularly happy with eBay. I have often said that there is nothing wrong with eBay/PayPal that some meaningful competition wouldn't cure in a heartbeat. However, that meaningful competition has yet to arrive. Many have tried, and the struggle still continues... For instance, there are weeks that I get more sales on my Blujay.com store than I get on eBay, and Blujay is currently in the top 10 on the PowerSellers Unite auction watch list. There has been a surprising fast rise to the auction site that is currently #2 on that list, which has me a bit puzzled, but hopeful that they might prove to be a meaningful competitor. I don't currently list on onlineauction.com, but I plan to try them out this weekend.
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Howard, 21 Apr 2006 @ 10:09am

I also wish...
I would also like to see some meaningful competition with online payments processing. I was very hopeful when I first heard the rumors about "GooglePay", but that doesn't appear to be happening. The real problem there is security, which is one reason MicroSoft would not make it in that business (those folks have no clue at all, remember MicroSoft Bob? In MSBob, if you typed in a wrong password 3 times, you would get prompted to enter another password that was easier to remember -- and then the program would accept that passwood!). There is just enough dissatisfaction with PayPal to keep several minor competitors (just barely) viable, but I would really prefer to see some real rival in that market.
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Ajax 4Hire, 21 Apr 2006 @ 10:20am

Ebay is here to say.
Like Google, Ebay has turned itself into an icon, a verb.
I google, you google, she googles;
I ebay, you ebay we all ebay but google does not have a theme song by Al Yankovic.

These are two different companies; they may overlap some functions but given a choice, I would use Google.
I don't trust EBay. Google is no saint but EBay/PayPal is ripe with abuse potential.

EBay/PayPal seems to be retroactive to problems, only fixing them after many have been abused. And don't get me started about Shipping&Handling of an EBay item $15 to ship a CD.

EBay is low road;
Google is High road.
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Oh yea, 21 Apr 2006 @ 10:38am

I don't get it
That last line of teh article says it all, "If eBay is actually worried that Google might develop something superior to eBay's auctions, they should be trying to develop it themselves, not waiting around to get beaten."

The problem remains that companies seem like they are just waiting to see what Google does instead of kicking their R&D into gear and beating Google to the punch. Granted Google is a powerhouse but if you are locked into a certain genre like auctions and are now fully established witha reputable name then why sit around. Ebay should have the answers on how to stay at the top not just waiting for Google to piss all over them
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Roy, 21 Apr 2006 @ 11:12am

Google Purchases
I wish Google made a payment system

but i was thinking about "Google Purchases" and how it asked for CC info, and said charges would be on the name of Google....

has anyone considered this was just gonna be an online store for google products?
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SAH, 21 Apr 2006 @ 11:15am

Re: Ebay is here to say.
I am not a fan of Ebay anymore. If you want to sell something, they charge your for every little thing. You can only post 1 picture for free, any addition will be .75 cents. Not to mention they take a percentage of what you sell.

I would love if Google came up with a free auction site where you can actually make a decent profit on your item and not have to pay extremely high shipping charges. I am curious to see if it will be along the lines from craigslist.org.
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Dan, 21 Apr 2006 @ 11:59am

Better service removes fear
I am a die hard Google advocate because I think that most of their services make life so much easier for me. But we live in a day when company loyalty does not play as much of a role as it used to. I think that Yahoo has a much better weather service and so I use Yahoo for weather even though I use Google for everything else. Instead of forming alliances, eBay should just focus on offering the best service. Their name is big enough that if the service is better than Google's, they won't have to worry about losing market share.
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anonymous coward, 21 Apr 2006 @ 12:07pm

google = government
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Justin, 21 Apr 2006 @ 1:21pm

GoGoGoog
Google knows how to commercialize "free". That's why all these fee based consumer ecom sites are afraid of them, as they should be.
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Badger, 21 Apr 2006 @ 3:28pm

Re:
google = government??

I want a hit of what you're smoking!

Google is the only major search engine that spent a few million in defending it's users privacy against the DoJ's invasive subpoena. Yahoo and MSN bent right over.

Even though they certainly have the most thorough database for online user activity of any entity (public or private), they've so far been the most honorable of any of the web's Top 10 trafficed sites for keeping it private.
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