Google vs Ebay: the battle continues

Apparantly, the battle is not over between Ebay and Google. In my previous post, Ebay pulls Ads off Google, I mentioned how the two companies were feuding in Boston during Ebay Live. Then, it was announced, that Ebay will run "limited" ads on Google once again. Now, it seems that there is a complete Cyberspace Showdown: Google vs Ebay, the results of which could completely change the world of online retailing.

This will be extremely interesting to watch playout. Both of these companies are such monstrosities, that I do believe things may change way beyond what you and I can imagine in the near future.

All I know is, Ebay is not what it used to be, and with battles like this one to fight, no wonder.

EBay Moves to Recharge Its Auctions

From the NY Times today:

EBay Moves to Recharge Its Auctions

EBay is also testing new ways to deliver search results. Instead of heading each list of results with items whose auctions are about to expire, the company will in the coming months give users the option of seeing search results headed by items the company predicts will be most appealing to buyers — a measure determined in part by how well sellers have been rated by other buyers on eBay.

This should be very interesting! I have almost 5,000 feedback, 100% rating (lavender-haze). Hopefully I will not be lost among the bigger sellers with 5 digit feedback and higher. For those just starting out or with low feedback that is not stellar, this could be very bad. I think the potential is there for scammers to try even harder to steal some hard-working sellers ID info.

Good news for Ebay store sellers?

I'm really really hesitant to even hope that this may be true. But rumor has it, that it was announced today at Ebay live, that they will be placing an Ebay Stores tab back near the header on all the Ebay pages. There was quite an uproar from store sellers awhile ago when any link to stores was removed when the new header design came out.

Ebay pulls ads off of Google - bad news!

This can't be good news for Ebay sellers. No matter what you typed into Google's search before, SOME type of Ebay ad would come up!

EBay Pulls Ads From Google's U.S. Ad Network

Ebay's stand: "an instance in a continued experiment eBay does to determine the best allocation of its advertising and marketing budget."

Google's stand: "an angry reaction by eBay's management to Google's decision to hold a protest party concurrent with the start of eBay Live, the company's annual conference for merchants. Google has been reaching out to media to promote the party, aimed at eBay merchants who are upset that eBay doesn't allow them to use Google's Checkout online transaction system."

If I had to choose, I'd have to say I'm leaning toward Google's stance. It's not like Ebay has a money shortage and needs to trim their budget or anything.

Inkfrog buys Elite Turnkey Design for more template options

I have used Sparedollar, which was bought out by Inkfrog, since the beginning of my Ebay days. I love their easy listing tool, and the fact that they host my pictures as well. Now they have just purchesd Elite Turnkey Designs, in order to expand their template choices! Check out Inkfrog's new Template Center! This is great news for many as Inkfrog's template choices were a bit limited before now.