After a little spat (6/15/07 RBR #117), eBay has resumed running ads through Google. eBay pulled its ads from Google's search-based AdWords network in the US, potentially in response to Google's decision to hold a party starting at the same time as an eBay conference for merchants who sell on its site. The Google "Checkout Freedom Party," is part of an effort to lobby eBay to accept its online payment system, "Google Checkout," which competes with eBay's PayPal. eBay spokesman Hani Durzy said the ad freeze was an experiment to look at how they market across all media channels.
In the past week, eBay increased advertising on Google rivals, including Yahoo, Ask.com and MSN.com. Durzy told The AP the experiment proved that eBay didn't need to spend as much on Google's search ads.
