C’mon…Google Did It On Purpose!
Jun 14th, 2007 by Kirk M
Go ahead, tell me they didn’t, I won’t believe you. Who knows the whys and wherefores of the all powerful Google (of OZ) but this little snafu of throwing a Google Checkout party right in the middle of Ebay’s annual convention is so against the grain of Google’s usually smart business sense that I smell nothing but a big sneak. They planned it this way!
EBay pulls ads from Google over party
At issue are online payment systems — eBay’s PayPal, which handles roughly 80 percent of online transactions — and Google’s Checkout, which launched last year.
Google invited eBay’s conference attendees to a party, billing it as a “Let Freedom Ring” event and rally against eBay ‘ s refusal to allow sellers to advertise that they accept Checkout payments, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday. “When we heard of their plans to have their party and the way they were marketing it, we were disappointed,” said Hani Durzy, spokesman for San Jose-based eBay. Google canceled the party Wednesday.
And immediately after that story was published came this:
Google Cancels ‘Freedom’ Party To Appease eBay — eBay and Google — InformationWeek
Google’s call to “Let Freedom Ring” sounds like a repudiation of censorship. In fact, it was Google’s challenge to eBay to accept Google Checkout.
Google had planned to host its Google Checkout Freedom Party in Boston today in conjunction with the commencement of the eBay Live developer conference. The company wants to rally support among eBay sellers sold on processing their online sales using Google Checkout, something eBay, as the owner of the competing PayPal service, doesn’t allow.
Google’s cry for freedom, however, only freed Google from eBay ad revenue. The online auction site reportedly canceled its search ad purchases in response to Google’s agitation.
Google cancels party? Yah…I bet they did.
Heck, both of these types of reports came out the same day at almost the same time for heavens sake. On Google news of course. Sorry folks…Google may still be a bit young on the scene but they are most definitely not any sort of naive startup that would make this type of stupid mistake. Google didn’t put those billions of dollars in the bank by pulling these type of stunts—not at all.
So why did they want out of a partnership with Ebay? Like I said…who knows? But whatever the reason, Google sure can’t be accused of any sort of breach of contract now, can they? And as for me, all I can say is YEAH GREAT!!! GOOD DEAL!!! WOO-WOO!!
I got so sick and tired of seeing “Buy this at Ebay”, “Get that at Ebay”, “Find the other at Ebay” every time I tried to search for something using Google. No matter what I might type into Google search I could get it at frickin’ Ebay. If I typed “Joe Blow” into a Google web search box I could guarantee you that there would be a Google ad on the right stating “Find Great Deals on Joe Blow at Ebay!“.
Not anymore…
Now all I have to put up with is “Find Great Deals on Joe Blow at Amazon!”
So thanks from me, Google, for eliminating one large eyesore from my favorite search engine. No longer will my insatiable curiosity finally win the day and force me to go find out the “Great Prices on Baby Poop at Ebay!” or fighting the urge to place a bid on “Hairballs at Ebay Auctions!”—Peace at last.
Ah…Life is good!
Note: I just had to do this…I couldn’t resist.
Technorati tags: Google, Ebay, Google Checkout, Google party, Google ads
