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EBay withdraws ads from Google in corporate spat

EBay and Google have turned from ardent partners to nettled adversaries, with the renowned online auction site yanking its ads from the world's most popular Internet search engine.

EBay on Friday sidestepped rumors that stripping its advertising from Google is payback for Google planning to promote a competing online payment service across the street from an annual gathering of eBay users in Boston this week.

The auction Web site's fans from far and wide are at a massive conference center for "three days of celebrating all things eBay" at an event dubbed "Live," according to the company.

EBay executives got word before the event that Mountain View, California-based Google intended to lure eBay aficionados to a party across a street from the convention center in the eastern US city.

The party was to promote Google Checkout, an online financial transactions service that competes with PayPal, which is owned by San Jose, California-based eBay.

EBay reportedly tried to rent the restaurant out from under Google, which cancelled the Thursday soiree.

"EBay Live attendees have plenty of activities to keep them busy this week in Boston, and we did not want to detract from that activity," Checkout team member Tom Oliveri wrote in a posting on the Google Web site.

"After speaking with officials at eBay, we at Google agreed that it was better for us not to feature this event during the eBay Live conference," he wrote.

Google declined to comment specifically on whether its dealings with eBay are combative, saying instead it looked forward to continuing its "positive relationship" with the longtime partner.

"Were we happy with the decision to host the party?" EBay spokeswoman Catherine England replied to an AFP inquiry. "No. We didn't think it was a great way to engage a partner. We were really pleased when they cancelled it."

England downplayed any connection between the aborted party and eBay pulling millions of dollars in annual advertising from Google.

"The reality is, this is something we do all the time," England said. "We always experiment with our marketing mix on eBay. We turned off our advertising through AdWords to see how it affects that."

"I don't know if Checkout really changed our relationship," she said.
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