Almost a year later, this eBay vs. Google Checkout thing is bearing its fangs again.

Is it fear, lack of confidence or something else that makes eBay unwilling to offer Google Checkout as an option for customers? This isn’t about convenience to eBay, it’s about convenience for their customers. It’s like saying: we’ll only let you pay with VISA, not Mastercard or AMEX. It’s a choice by the vendor to limit the number of ways a customer can pay. I agree with Google that this is wrong

And yes, I understand eBay owns PayPal and they make money from the transaction and it’s their site and business and they can run it however they please, yadda, yadda. I believe it would make them stronger to open up more payment options on their auction site, not weaker.

Drama this week around Google trying to organize a party in Boston around the eBay conference protesting that eBay doesn’t allow Google Checkout but that has been canceled after eBay responded by pulling all their ads on Google in the US, some 25 million worth a quarter. Ouch. Not a very good idea by the Google Checkout to run a protest party on eBay turf, but a $100 million dollar penalty seems a little harsh.

But according to a quote in the New York Times, this was not a response to the Google Checkout party protest, but “shifting marketing dollars to determine the best way to attract users.”

Riiiight.

Purely from a customer perspective who happens to like eBay, PayPal and Google Checkout, just make it happen for us — your customers. It’s not only silly not giving customers choice, it can backfire badly.

Did this post make you go hmm?

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