Google and eBay’s love-hate relationship

Julie Kent @ Cleveland Leader:

Google and eBay’s bitter rivalry has finally reached a boiling point. When Google decided to throw a party in the middle of an eBay conference, they sure ruffled some feathers over at eBay.
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This week, eBay held a three-day eBay Live marketing event in Boston. Hoping to spoil the party and lure away a few customers, tech experts, and partners, Google decided to throw a party of their own. But of course, in true Google fashion, they decided to one-up eBay with an attractive set of features.

eBay didn’t take the threat lightly, and immediately withdrew all its US advertising from Google’s website. Somewhat shocked by the response, Google backed down and called off the shindig.

While eBay didn’t come right out and say that Google’s actions were the reason they pulled advertising, the message was pretty clear. An eBay spokesman did, however, acknowledge their displeasure: “We don’t view that kind of activity as an appropriate activity for one partner to do to another.”