• San Francisco Chronicle , Friday, June 15, 2007 11:03 AM

The San Francisco Chronicle has more on the about-face in partner relations between eBay and Google. The online auctioneer on Wednesday pulled all of its advertising from Google's U.S. network (eBay is Google's largest buyer of AdWords). The move was seen as punishment for Google trying to rain on eBay's user conference in Boston by throwing a counter launch party for its Google Checkout sellers. Checkout is a direct competitor of EBay's PayPal.

Childish? Probably. And probably Google's fault for lowering the competition bar to a popularity contest. Either way, Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Derek Brown says, "We've seen that the two companies have been on a collision course for a long time. This seems to be the latest and most bizarre twist." Google tried to swipe eBay conference attendees-made up mostly of sellers, Google Checkout's target, by offering free food, drinks and massages. The search king's move was also intended as a directive to eBay to open up its user base to PayPal rival Checkout. EBay banned Checkout last year, saying it hadn't yet proved itself in terms of fraud protection.

As for Google's so-called Google Checkout Freedom Party, eBay spokesman Hani Durzy said, "We didn't think it was the way for one partner to treat another." After speaking with eBay officials, Google later cancelled its party. Meanwhile, two days later, eBay ads are still missing on Google.com. This isn't over.

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