No Google Checkout at eBay

With Paypal and the fairness of it's policies the talk of the PTR world lately, I thought it was interesting that eBay, Paypal's parent company, has changed its rules yet again. But not to make the lives of PTR owners, advertisers and members even more miserable. Not this time. This time they're trying to stick it to Google.

eBay has banned Google Checkout as a valid form of payment. It says so right there in their Accepted Payments Policy. So Google Checkout joins the illustrious group of banned payment systems, including AlertPay, e-Gold, GreenZap, Stormpay and many others.

eBay's story is that they don't allow a new payment system to become an option for eBay members until it's proven itself with a good track-record. The thing is, Google Checkout isn't really a payment system. It's just a credit card gateway and a sort of payment aggregator that lets you do quick and easy purchases from anybody who has Google Checkout as an option, and that lets you keep track of all your purchases in one place.

Clearly eBay is trying to protect Paypal from as much competition as possible and I suppose when you think about it, who can blame them? Still, I'm sure if eBay users really want to use Google Checkout, they can raise enough hell about it to get eBay to change their mind. I don't know that it'll happen, but as both an eBay buyer and seller, and as both an Adsense publisher and Adwords advertiser, I sure hope it does. Having Google Checkout as another payment option for eBay transactions would be good for both buyers and sellers.

I wonder if this means Google will strike back at eBay by putting a stop to eBay's absolutely ridiculous Adwords ads. You know the ones where no matter what you type in as a search term at Google, there's always an eBay ad for that particular word -- for example, "Great deals on everything Acrylic themed at eBay.com."

Doubtful.