Here is the article:
eBay Says Any Enemy Of Google Is A Friend Of Mine from the alliance-with-the-weak dept
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. (Link)
I think I agree totally with this article, but I do find it interesting. Why is eBay scared? If they are scared, why aren’t they doing something about it. They have lots of money with all these fee increases they should be so advanced of a system and style that nobody could scare them. They are good at what they do. I think they make people mad over time. The fee increases are what made me stop selling on them, but I still buy. I don’t know what other people think, but I do think they should be making more advanced type system and maybe doing some branching to similair type businesses. There can be growth in auctions, but it will not keep up over time.