May 31st, 2008
Google caught "anonymously" bashing eBay
If you thought the Google Checkout party last year caused some tension between them and eBay, listen to this. eBay Austrailia is toying with the idea of only accepting Paypal and Cash on Delivery for auction items. After their plans were announced, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission asked for public comments.
Lots of responses were submitted, but one 38 page document that is squarely opposed to the actions of eBay was filed anonymously. Unfortunately for Google, David Bromage was smart enough to look through the document’s meta data. He found that the title of the original document[pdf] was “Microsoft Word - 204481916_1_ACCC Submission by Google re eBay Public _2_.DOC”. So much for being anonymous.
Last year, when eBay found out about the party Google threw during an eBay event, they pulled the plug on all advertising from Google. That only lasted a short time, but I wonder if this most recent action may have a similar result.
Google has yet to respond to reports of this news, and I expect it might stay that way.
Garett Rogers is employed as a programmer for iQmetrix, which specializes in retail management software for the wireless industry.
See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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