It's Yahoo Plus eBay vs. Google

Octagon Most writes "Yahoo and eBay have announced a broad partnership in their efforts to compete against Google and Microsoft." From the article: "In addition, Yahoo Web search features will be integrated into a co-branded version of the eBay toolbar, and the companies said they would explore developing 'click-to-call' ad technologies on their respective Web sites. 'Click-to-call' provides a link inside an advertisement that allows consumers to directly call the advertiser to pursue a transaction."

Comments

Ad wars, shmad wars

[BadAnalogyGuy]

It's all pretty irrelevant to me how hard these companies are working for my eyeballs. I don't even use the internet.

Re:Ad wars, shmad wars

[bxbaser]

I think its some type of pornography

eBay on Google

[goldaryn]

This begs the question: have eBay now stopped (or stemmed at least) their ubiquitous Google search ad campaign? I did a few quick searches and didn't see as many eBay links as usual...

Re:eBay on Google

[christopherfinke]

I heard an interesting statistic yesterday regarding this method of advertising: eBay is the single largest buyer of search terms for these search engine ads; apparently they have bought ads for 15 million different search terms. (Although I'm not sure why they want to target people looking for outcasts...)

Re:eBay on Google

[D H NG]

Ads with the label "aff" are not made by eBay themselves, but by their "affiliates" (ie. people who get a percentage for each sale).

AN interesting question...

[Shadow Wrought]

If eBay dies and they decide to auction off the assets, how would they do it without themselves? Juast another paradox...

attn bargain hunters

[Douglas Simmons]

I think the threat of Microsoft and eBay to Google is overstated CNBC hype and that the stock market is overreacting to this. Keep in mind that Google's fundamentals include a 65 price to earnings ratio, the improvement of which has exceeded their market cap's growth, and has a one-year projection of under thirty. A 65 P/E is pretty good for a company whose revenues tend to double a lot. Even more impressive, GOOG's earnings-per-share is almost five times that of MSFT's and eight times eBay's. Regarding brand power, you can count on MicroEBay not making it into the dictionary.

When news like this hits and people start selling their GOOG shares, scoop them up because the price has solid support in the fundamentals.

Re:attn bargain hunters

[CaymanIslandCarpedie]

WARNING!!!! Above is a good example of why you should never take stock tips from the internet! Lets just take a look at a couple of my favorite nuggets ;-)

Keep in mind that Google's fundamentals include a 65 price to earnings ratio, the improvement of which has exceeded their market cap's growth........Even more impressive, GOOG's earnings-per-share is almost five times that of MSFT's

OK, first about the P/E ratio. The above makes it sound like a high P/E ratio is a quality you should look for in attractive investments. DON'T DO THAT!!!!! The P/E ratio is basically how much you have to pay for $1 in earnings. Its price per share over earnings per share. So a high P/E means your paying more for each $1 in earnings. The next confusing part is about Goggle's earnings-per-share being almost 5x's what MS has. While that is true, it is completly meaningless by itself. To put it in perspective Google's earnings-per-share (eps) IS just over 4.5x MS's (eps). However, since Google's stock price is over 16x what MS's is you are paying over 16x the price to earn 4.5x more per share.

I am not here to make any recommendations on any stock, but the above is just complete non-sense. A stock with a high P/E ratio could be a great investment (as could a stock with a low P/E). The thing to remember a high P/E ratio generally relates to higher risk. The higher the the P/E ratio the higher expectations the market has for the stock. Now its easy to see that and think "well if the market has that high of expectations, it must be a good investment!" but you must remember (as the P/E ratio points out) those expectations are already factored into the stocks current price. So for the stock to raise, the company has to surpass those already high expectations. However, if the company has completely amazing results but still don't quite match expectations then the stock will dip (or fall).

Another MAJOR thing to consider when looking at any stock in the internet search sector is the expectations (and thus current stock price and P/E ratio) aren't completly based on "who will win" type questions between Google, MS, Yahoo, etc. A large portion of those expectations for each company is based on the forcasted growth of the entire sector. The forcasts are really amazing and that points for good times for companies in that sector but again introduces risk for an investment in any company in that sector. I forget the exact numbers but just for an example lets say its forcasted that spending on on-line advertising has 10x todays number being spent annually by 2010. Now lets say Google wipes everyone else off the board and is the lone on-line ad provider by 2008. Now thats great news, but if in the interm the forcasted growth for the sector just isn't meeting expectations you could still see a drop in Googles price because expecations as a whole aren't being met.

OK the sample scenerio is a bit ridiculous, but it does hopefully show the complexity of the market and the types of things which must be considered in contrast of the original posters wacked out ideas about the market ;-)

If Yahoo and Google want to make me happy...

[AKAImBatman]

...they can stop trying to install toolbars into my frickin' web browser. No, I don't want another upteenth widget that reduces my vertical viewing area, I don't want your special Yahoo! browser bundled with Internet service, and I don't want you to install your toolbar when all I want is desktop search! Someone stop the insanity!

That's my opinion, anyway. I'm sure there are those people out there who looooove their toolbars.

Re:If Yahoo and Google want to make me happy...

[lawpoop]

"I'm sure there are those people out there who looooove their toolbars."

I doubt it. I think it's people who don't understand computers that well, and wait on the genius computer experts to give them the next great computer thing that will make their lives happier. Right now the answer is the toolbar.

Most people don't understand computers well enough to apprehend the potential. They can't fully understand the UI problems they face, and therefore they also can't think of creative solutions to those problems.

So the management of companies like Yahoo! and eBay, in the effort to increase marketshare and make more money, tell their developers to create newer and better toolbars, which are just devices to improve the marketshare of the toolbar owners. Mom & Pop computer users hear about the great new toolbars that are in the pipeline, and think all their problems will be solved in short order.

We are still in the glow of the vast communications improvements that computers have afforded the average person -- email, websites, online banking. That revolution hasn't yet been fully co-opted by marketers who aren't making new revolutionary technology, but instead just fight for existing marketshare. So people still see computers as having the potential to revolutionize their life, and haven't yet become jaded to the constant barrage of marketing and sales pitches that will eventually take over computers, too.

Re:If Yahoo and Google want to make me happy...

[morgan_greywolf]

I guess my days of purchasing off Ebay may be just about over.

Why? Who says you need an eBay or Yahoo toolbar to buy (or sell) stuff on eBay? Unless eBay or Yahoo absolutely require the installation of such software (not likely, since requiring such software usually prevents some class of users from being able to use the service) there's nothing that says you have to accept their spyware.

What will they name it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yabay or eHoo?

Re:What will they name it?

[PFI_Optix]

Yahoo + eBay = YeHay. For ease of use, they will instead merge the sites and call the new entity YEHAW!

Heh..

[goldaryn]

TFA: Yahoo and eBay said they do not expect the partnership to have a material impact on their financial results this year.

Expect a statement soon from Google saying they agree :-)

IE Only?

[BiggyP]

And do they plan to continue confusing ebay users into sticking with Internet Explorer and leaving them more at risk than users without the false sense of security offered by the Ebay toolbar?

Amen!

[mpapet]

"Partnership" means flashing ebay ads in the Yahoo toolbar. Phuleeze!

Click-to-call... Hmm...

[pla]

Click-to-call' provides a link inside an advertisement that allows consumers to directly call the advertiser to pursue a transaction."

As opposed to, say, providing a phone number right in the ad that people could call, which an actual human will then answer?

Oh, No! I'd much rather give them my phone number and have them call me back, thereby establishing a "relationship" and exempting them from the DNC list.

Riiiiiight...

Re:Click-to-call... Hmm...

[poot_rootbeer]

You know what would be even better? If, when you clicked on an ad you were interested in, you were taken to the "INTERWEB HTTP SITE" of the advertiser, so you could "pursue a transaction" in the same medium you're currently engaged in, instead of having to switch to talking on the phone.

I'm surprised no one has tried implementing such a "hot link"-based system yet.

Fees?

[DAldredge]

Does this mean that Yahoo! will start raising it's fees every 3 months and making its sites work better if you have an Intel processor?

Re:I'm rooting for Google

[damiam]

What exactly makes Google less evil than Yahoo? I like Google too, but there's really not that much of a moral difference. Sure, Yahoo caved in to the Chinese thought police, but then again so did Google.

Click to call

[ronanbear]

Doesn't really seem like too bad an idea to me. There are plenty of times where calling is much faster and more effective than web or email based requests. Since ebay own skype it might be handy to be able to instantly call businesses through skype. You could talk to ebay sellers (If they want to include that option) to sort out product details and shipping etc. quickly. Another option would be yellow pages style ads where a local restaurent would have a facility to call and make a reservation from their website or ad. Many restaurants aren't bothered with web based reservation systems (and rightly so). Sure I can order a pizza online or check if a DVD is in stock but sometimes a phone call is just easier. It's usually much faster.

What about yahoo auctions?

[CohibaVancouver]

I know reporters don't have the time or energy to research and just cut-and-paste press releases, but why would they 'write' this article without even *mentioning* yahoo auctions? Is it staying? Going? Yahoo auctions have less restrictions than eBay - For example I can buy cigars on Yahoo, which I can't do on eBay.

Re:What do you mean? Giving them nothing

[pla]

What the hell are you talking about?

How they actually implement this. As in, I read more than the FP summary and discovered how it really works.

You click the link. It asks for your phone number. You enter your phone number. Someone calls you. As the basic premise, you don't need to go through a menu system to get to a human (admittedly good), and don't need to pay LD charges for the call (does anyone not have unlimited LD these days?).


Why would you not prefer to [...] call a business through skype with no number that be traced or ID'ed back to you

First, consider what percentage of people use VOIP, nevermind Skype specifically (yeah, like EBay would support Vonage for this?). Do you really think they plan to spend a good bit of PR-allocated money to target less than one percent of their market?

Second, if you consider VOIP even remotely "anonymous", I have a bridge to sell to you.

Join the queue

[linvir]

Seriously, just how many companies have joined forces into pairs to defeat Google by now? It's getting old already.

And Yahoo can keep eBay for all I care. eBay's ads are irrelevant bullshit, and don't fit in with Google's stricter relevancy for other companies. I posted this image a while back (so if you must mod this up, make it Funny so I don't get karma from the same thing twice) , though it's not exclusively eBay.

One thing though - I can see it being a loss for Google. I bet that it's a pretty sweet deal they have there, using eBay links as filler when no more relevant ads are available.

eHo is better!

[drewzhrodague]

I think just shortening it as eHo would be better. Soudns like a porn site!

Re:I'm rooting for Google

[donutello]

People want a Good (tm) hero to root for. Google is the closest they can find.

They have "Don't be Evil" in their corporate manifesto. The rest is mostly idealization by their fans. Google has been smart with their PR not doing too much blatant (Chinese censorship was their lone misstep here) to violate the image built up by some.