E-Bay vs. Google Online War?

Google and E-bay are facing off in a strange fight - how will it affect you?

Here's the lowdown:

• E-bay is currently running an E-bay live event in Boston
• Google decides to show up in "Boston Tea Party" fashion to promote their "checkout" service (a competitor to Paypal)
• E-bay decides to pull their Google advertising
• E-bay users are up in arms due to the loss of Google search traffic

I don't think anyone wins in this situation. I know many don't like Paypal, but I don't see Google checkout offering any real benefit- except for increased competition.

No doubt Google traffic is a big portion of E-bay, and those of us who sell on E-bay will miss this. A loss for us!

Right now, the E-bay Seller is losing! That's why it's important to have some method to sell outside of E-bay.

I'm a huge E-bay fan, selling a lot on the site, but what E-bay giveth, E-bay can taketh away! If you're selling on E-bay, make sure you have a way to capture contact information from your buyers so you can offer books or trades in the future.

Try to multiply your buying and selling "streams" so you don't get bit in one area.

Let's all watch the developments between these two online behemoths over the coming days and weeks.

Here is the Motley Fool take on this story.