How to Pick a Fight and Look like an Idiot
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In a surprising turn of events, Google and Ebay had a little row which was quickly resolved with one party backing down like a stray dog with its tail between its legs.
Once upon a time, in its ongoing quest for global domination, Big G launched Google Checkout. This new payment system obviously made leading provider Paypal (owned by eBay) a little bit uncomfortable, to put it politely.
When it came time to integrate this new payment processor into the world’s largest marketplace (eBay), they refused to consume the marriage. eBay declined to approve Google Checkout as an acceptable gateway, stating amongst other things that it had “no valid track record”.
You may think this is complete baloney but if any semblance of logic existed in today’s conflict resolution methods, a lot of lawyers would have to relinquish their BMWs, and that just wouldn’t do.
The aforementioned parties are in court over an anti-trust suit at this time.
You’d think they could leave it at that for now… But Google, in a sweep of great arrogance, which is quickly becoming their new trademark, decided to pick the bone by throwing a party that would cater to eBay sellers protesting for the integration of Google Checkout as an accepted processor.
That’s all fine and dandy, but they chose to do so right in the midst of an eBay event held in Boston.
Now I’ll be the first to say it: business is war. Play dirty, aim below the belt, throw sand in the other guy’s eyes… Playing fair is for wimps.
Except when you do decide to attack, make sure you can win or at least put up a fight that wouldn’t make a third grader blush in shame.
But not this time. When eBay learned of the party, they stopped all their U.S. market Google ads, responsible an estimated $25 million yearly in Google’s pocket.
The party was promptly canceled, the ads came back up and everyone was happy again.
Except Google ends up looking like an elementary school bully that can’t stand and fight when their strong armed intimidation tactics meet with a semblance of resistance.
Considering the Paypal / Google Checkout and now the AuctionAds / Adsense tensions, these two giants are not friends. They tolerate each other as largely silent enemies.
In a world where the thin line between genius and folly grows increasingly fuzzy, things may not be as clear cut as they seem.
So we either have to assume Google is extremely smart because they succeeded in attracting media attention to the situation and ongoing lawsuit, in which case eBay played right into their hands by reacting to their little ploy.
Or they are extremely stupid and made a dumb mistake inspired by their overinflated sense of invincibility…
What do you think?
on June 15th, 2007 at 6:35 pm ¶
Honestly, I believe the “dumb mistake inspired by their overinflated sense of invincibility” is what actually happened– but I am sure it will be spun as a genius ploy. The masses still love Google and all it stands for (see: free shit)
on June 16th, 2007 at 1:19 am ¶
Hey Paul,
I would tend to agree with you on that. Can’t wait for said masses to start waking up a bit. Problem is, it’s more convenient not to.
Thanks for your comment.
on June 16th, 2007 at 10:02 pm ¶
Google scrapes content and re-organizes it. For this they garner the crowd’s applause. For my part, I hope and pray that they will be outdone some lovely, bright day.
on June 17th, 2007 at 12:24 am ¶
Hey Jim,
History proves that day will come sooner or later. Some cracks are starting to show.
on June 18th, 2007 at 10:30 pm ¶
“The party was promptly canceled, the ads came back up and everyone was happy again.”
I had been informed that eBay STILL has not reinstated their ads… is that incorrect?
on June 18th, 2007 at 10:37 pm ¶
Hey Burgo,
At first it seemed they were back up and now I’ve read conflicting reports…
I can’t see pulling the ads being more damageable for Google than Ebay but who knows what they are up to…
on June 19th, 2007 at 7:35 am ¶
I think that google has a few tricks up it’s sleeve and it will soon get google checkout on ebay… that is what it looks like to me.. hmm… I wish that if ebay pulled it’s ads.. we could use ebay related keywords on adwords! That Would Be GREAT
Sincerely, The Coolest Guy On The Planet
Cody Goodman
on June 19th, 2007 at 2:29 pm ¶
“I can’t see pulling the ads being more damageable for Google than Ebay but who knows what they are up to…”
The good thing (at least in my mind), is that the longer the ads are kept off, the more damaging it will be for google, but not in the financial sense… which although large (I read somewhere eBay makes up 2% of their ad revenue) is less damaging than the REPUTATION damage.
There is a mindset that Google cannot be stood up to. eBay is showing that the are still vulnerable. Not that it’s a major vulnerability, but at least it makes known that it is there.
on June 19th, 2007 at 2:36 pm ¶
Hey Burgo,
I agree with that. I like to see Google vulnerable. As and SEO and PPC advertiser, sometimes, and these days, most times, I get very irritated by their antics and bad PR.