Google uber alles Can nothing stop the cyber-steamroller that Google has become? Looks like eBay could be the next casualty. At least, according to the above-linked report from Forbes, that's what techblog pundits speculated when Google launched Google Base in February. ("All your base are belong to Google" was just too obvious a headline for this post.)
No way, says Google. But, according to the Forbes report: "Google’s M.O. is always to deny that they’re competing with anyone head on," says Sucharita Mulpuru, an e-commerce analyst with Forrester. "It’s a natural inclination for them to say that they’re in their own league, but since they are about to become a marketplace for buying items, they’re encroaching on this category."
Regardless of whether Google plans to swallow eBay, Google Base no doubt has eBay folks nervous.
While it is clear that Google intends Base to be a place where sellers and buyers can meet to conduct business, the real value for the company may not be in creating competition for eBay. Instead, it appears as if the company is trying to extend its core advertising business, the source of almost all of the $6.2 billion in revenue the company racked up last year. ...
"The quickest way to improve the quality of an ad is to have the ad instantaneously turn into a purchase that is 100% perfect," [Google CEO Eric Schmidt] said. "We now have a solution that we believe enables advertisers to offer a digital product on the Web so that when people click on it, through a credit-card mechanism, it is automatically taken care of."