EBay, the search giant's largest buyer of search ads, last week became the first major
advertiser to pull ads from Google. How deeply that decision affects both their businesses remains to be seen, but more importantly, says Jupiter Research analyst Kevin Heisler, eBay stood up to
Google, and Google backed down. "The most dangerous message it sends is that other top advertisers may decide to follow eBay's lead," Heisler added ominously. Indeed, other big Google spenders may be
inspired by eBay's little experiment. Today, they are no doubt asking themselves: just how valuable is AdWords to our bottom line?
But eBay's stand, commendable in one sense, was also expected. Expansion was leading the companies into each other's turf, particularly e-commerce. Interestingly enough, Google's little Boston Tea Party for Google Checkout proved to be the last straw--but this one failed. And traffic to eBay may have dipped as a result, but at least the auctioneer proved it could survive without Google, so the search giant better keep a respectful distance in areas where the two compete.