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EBay Ends Google AdWords Boycott, Threatens To Work With The Competition

The big boycott of Google AdWords that EBay announced was over in just 10 days. The internet company did announce that it was changing its strategy and planned to focus on partnerships with Google's competitors, but such threatens carry less weight when confronted with the evidence: EBay can't live without Google, at least for now.

The original conflict between the two companies sparked last week during a major marketing event hosted by EBay in Boston. Google tried to lure the attendants to its own event, the Google Checkout Party. As a response, EBay announced that it would pull all of its advertising off of Google's AdWords network.

EBay now adds that its new strategy consists in focusing on alternatives to Google. As it follows, EBay will be spending more money on advertising placed on Google's rival search sites, with Yahoo, AOL and MSN being top of the list. Needless to say, this implies that the company has also decided to seriously cut the budget for Google AdWords.

In addition, EBay claims that statistics from web analytics firm Hitwise show that the 10-days boycott actually lead to a traffic increase, so getting close to other advertising services is the way to go.

However, such statements were made most likely just to appease shareholders. Google's current piece of the search advertising market pie is close to 60%; does EBay honestly believe that they can pull it off without Google? They say they do. Then again, they're also back on Google's program.