Ads on Google Will Once Again Tout eBay

Jun 23, 01:27 PM

Current Headlines: By Rachel Konrad, Associated Press

After a spat between two of the world's largest Internet companies, online auctioneer eBay Inc. resumed running advertising through Google Inc. on Friday.

San Jose-based eBay pulled ads from the world's most popular search engine late June 11 in what the auction company billed as an experiment to determine the most effective means of getting customers to visit the shopping site. The move, however, had smacked of blatant retaliation as it coincided with a June 14 party that Mountain View-based Google had been planning to siphon attention from eBay's annual user celebration in Boston.

In the past week, eBay -- one of the biggest buyers using Google's AdWords marketing program -- increased advertising on Google rivals, including Yahoo Inc. of Sunnyvale, IAC/ InterActiveCorp.'s Ask.com of Oakland and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN.com.

EBay spokesman Hani Durzy said the experiment proved that eBay didn't need to spend as much on Google ads, which generally run to the right of Google's regular search results.

Durzy wouldn't provide dollar or percentage figures but said that eBay's pullback from AdWords in the United States would be "significant."

"Overall the takeaway for us was that we weren't as dependent on AdWords as some out there may have thought," Durzy said.

He said traffic to the site was higher during its 10-day experiment compared with the same time a year ago, and eBay sales don't appear to have been dampened.

"Other partners -- Yahoo and AOL and MSN -- really stepped up and provided a lot of value," Durzy said. "And natural search continues to drive a lot of valuable traffic to the site."

Google spokesman Brandon McCormick confirmed that eBay returned to AdWords on Friday afternoon.

"Over the last seven years, we have worked closely with eBay to drive customers to their site and build value for their business and the business of their sellers," McCormick wrote in an e-mail. "We look forward to a continued partnership."

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