eBay Looking for Allies Against Google

Vitaly Friedman writes "A report in the Wall Street Journal today talks about how eBay is looking for partners to defend against the growing threat of Google. Specifically, Google Base and the payment system in the works in Mountain View are seen as possible dangers to eBay's auctions and PayPal payment operations, says the report. Google Talk just throws some salt in the wounds by looking for a toehold in Skype's turf."

Comments

Whose wounds?

[slofstra]

"Salt in the wounds". Whose wounds? Competition is a good thing for most of us.

Oh no!

[EraserMouseMan]

Now we finally know what the "e" stands for in eBay. Yep you guessed it, "Evil". If you're not on Google's side you must be wrong.

I hope Google shit on ebay

[Idimmu Xul]

I'm sick of essentially being blackmailed by people I buy stuff off who refuse to give me feedback until I've given them feedback, even though I've just paid them £100 for an item they are yet to post.

And fucking the Katrina victims out of Something Awful's donations was the straw that broke the donkey's back.

Re:I hope Google shit on ebay

[LunaticTippy]

That is an increasing problem. I've had an even worse variant of it:

Seller sends defective product, drags replacing it out past the 30 day mark (so I can't get my money back no matter what) and then stops dealing with me. I checked the seller feedback and they had lots of mutual retractions, and every negative feedback they received (over a legitimate problem such as mine) was retaliated against with improper negative feedback.

I decided to leave no feedback, didn't want the strike on my record.

Re:I hope Google shit on ebay

[damiangerous]

Just never use your seller account to buy. No one cares about negative feedback for a buyer, so you're free to leave whatever feedback is appropriate without fear of retaliation.

Re:I hope Google shit on ebay

[Pollardito]

Once you break one rule... why not all of them ?

i thought pretty much the same thing to myself when i was driving home last night at 5 over the speed limit. so i cracked open a beer, and did some drive-by shootings near the local elementary school. i mean, c'mon, i was already speeding.

Re:I hope Google shit on ebay

[LunaticTippy]

Fuck their terms of service. They change constantly, every time I've had a problem (buyer or seller) it seems tilted against me, they have inserted so many fees over the years, they ruined half.com, and as soon as there is a viable alternative I'm gone.

ebay would love for me to sell myself stuff. They get $.25 + 3% + 1.25% + 4% of every transaction. I get 2 feedback points that they generate for free. Heck, if everyone did this ebay'd make a trillion dollars.

And as for breaking rules, every time something rubs me wrong I think of ways around it. They stop irritating me, I'll stop seeking a less painful path.

Re:I hope Google shit on ebay

[damiangerous]

Possibly because having multiple active accounts is against ebay's terms of service.... :)

No, it's not. In fact it's explicitly mentioned as acceptable.

Re:I remember

[servognome]

So, you're saying that Steve Jobs should have stated that Google, a non-existant company, was the enemy?

Yes, if he truly was a visionary ;)

One good outcome of Google Payments..

[WarwickRyan]

Is that eBay will be forced to stop screwing their customers http://www.paypalsucks.com/ and improve their service.

Oh the joys of competition.

Interesting...

[cp.tar]

So, eBay is afraid of Google.

I've heard many complaints so far about both eBay and PayPal - could it be that they feel Google's service will be beta^Hter?

So see if I care... they can get all the partners they want, but if Google rolls out a superior service, they can either adapt or go sulk in the corner.

God forbid eBay would clean up its own act

[Anonymous Coward]

a. How about bringing back a real archive of auction results. Not the crummy 2 week limit in place now.
b. Penalize bulk category flooders. Some categories are filled with sellers listing the same item over and over again. They should be forced to use the bulk option.
c. 0 rated sellers should not be allowed to list without verified bank account/address info.
d. Allow sellers to set feedback threshold restrictions on buyers.
e. Finally, ebay should stop spamming its own users with "deals" and credit card offers.

Re:God forbid eBay would clean up its own act

[mmell]

. e. Finally, ebay should stop spamming its own users with "deals" and credit card offers.

Oh, good . . . I was worrying that the e-mail I responded to with my credit card and social security numbers might have been a phishing scam. Good to see that it may have really been from E-Bay after all.

Q: How do you tell a genuine E-Bay e-mail from a phishing scam?

A: The phishing scam will probably cost less!

Re:God forbid eBay would clean up its own act

[djmurdoch]

f. And they should try offering "Customer Service" in response to questions/complaints.

I received a "free listing for new sellers" offer, listed an item at too high a price, and it didn't sell. After the auction, someone who had been asking questions during the auction wrote to me to ask if I would re-list it at a lower price. E-bay would not let me respond to the question, because I had "exceeded my daily limit of messages". I never did get a straight answer about what the limit was, just that I could raise it by giving them my credit card information. I had a "conversation" with 5 or 6 different monkeys passing me boilerplate FAQ answers, but never any answers to the questions I actually asked.

Re:I for one welcome our Google payment overlords

[Alex P Keaton in da]

I would too, but not just for the usual reasons that are cited against PayPal. I don't use paypal for a lot of reasons, and one of them is that it is seen as unprofessional. (For example, a professional organization I belong to needs a way to take cc payments over the web, but is too small for a merchant acct. And PayPal makes you look like a doofus, like an aol email addy.) Because Google is so much "cooler" and trendier, it would be easier to get google payment adopted instead of PayPal. I have no idea why PayPal seems so hokey... Is it the name?

Well...

[voice_of_all_reason]

Maybe if Paypal didn't confiscate its customers' money at will, they wouldn't have this problem.

Ebay Vs.Google

[TheRecklessWanderer]

Can I be against both?

I remember when Wal-Mart was young . . .

[mmell]

I actually was willing to drive an hour to shop at Wal-Mart; there was nothing even remotely like it in the major cities.

I actually was willing to learn to type "http://www.google.com" instead of "http://www.altavista.com" to search on Google; even from the outset, no other search engine came close to their level of quality (read: good search results).

Nowadays, Wal-Mart routinely grinds competition unto the dust. Woe betide the small businessman whose future neighbor is a Wal-Mart Supercenter. They're big, monopolistic, anti-competitive, predatory . . . all of the wonderfully evil traits which characterize success in our free enterpise system. This makes them fairly well hated, the price of success.

Nowadays, Google is percieved as the ultimate digital destructor - crushing internet opposition wherever it rises, brutally redefining markets and networking in that fashion most likely to lead to their own growth and the demise of competing technologies.

Either you love free enterprise or you hate it - either way, I wouldn't trust it!

Re:I for one welcome our Google payment overlords

[Rob T Firefly]

I have no idea why PayPal seems so hokey... Is it the name?

Apart from the usual barrage of reasons to not like paypal, they are hokey in exactly the same way as an AOL email. Anyone can get one, no technical or professional qualifications needed. It's impossible to seem in any way ahead of your competition with a system that a teenager can sign up for in ten minutes.

Paypal alternative?

[heresyoftruth]

I would jump on a paypal alternative. I juat want to use my online payment service to buy adult goods along with the non adult goods. I hate that Paypal makes a distinction, and doesn't allow that. The alternatives for payment for adult goods just aren't widespread enough to use, in my opinion.

just wait

[vee_voojagig]

can't they just wait until steve ballmer f***ing kills google

Google, Destoryer of Dreams

[Duncan3]

Here in Silicon Valley, the most often spoken line is now "We would fund your company, it's brilliant, but Google would just copy it, so no."

Google doesnt even have to do anything anymore... the fear of Google is killing the whole tech industry. They are the online version of Walmart, crushing every business within their grasp, and forcing everyone to play by their rules.

Just ask any online business not on page 1 of a search result, if you can find one that's still in business that is.

Anything Google even might possibly copy, isn't happening at all, just like Microsoft used to do - and did very well. Google will crush everyone just as effectively in the end.

Re:Google, Destoryer of Dreams

[sfjoe]

Here in Silicon Valley, the most often spoken line is now "We would fund your company, it's brilliant, but Google would just copy it, so no."

The fact of the matter is that there are more startups being funded now than any time in the past 5 years.
http://money.cnn.com/2006/03/03/technology/busines s2_nextpanel0303/index.htm
Maybe your idea just sucked?

Hey!

[Feminist-Mom]

Some of us enjoy having things forced down our throats. :)

Re:I remember

[wakejagr]

echo hell yes > /tmp/temp_a.txt;
echo hell no >> /tmp/temp_a.txt;
grep -v no /tmp/temp_a.txt;

What about the advertising?

[AusIV]

If eBay wants to fight google, they should stop being one of google's biggest advertisers. Search for any noun on google, you get an ad telling you that it can be found on Google. Example:

A search for George Bush provides:
George Bush
Looking for George Bush?
Find exactly what you want today.
www.eBay.com

A search for Eggs provides:
Eggs
All your favorite collectibles!
Eggs and more -aff
Ebay.com

A search for Milk provides:
Milk
Save on Glass and Glassware!
Milk and more -aff
Ebay.com

In fact, I dare you to find a noun you can search for on google without coming up with an eBay add. As near as I can tell, eBay is Google's single largest advertiser. If they want to hurt google, they should start by cutting off some funding.