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Google strikes up one more mega deal

Following a string of deals involving Viacom`s MTV network and Myspace, Google has recently struck another big one with eBay. The company will supply eBay with web search advertising outside the United States, and the two giants will join forces on `click-to-call ads that direct shoppers to customer service operators. The service will use both Skype and the much smaller Google talk. Listed ads on eBay and Google ads will have a click-to-call link, an action that marks the ongoing merging of advertising into e-commerce. The technique is seen as a promising way to reach merchants or advertisers who may not have a Web site, or who rely on Yellow Pages telephone directories to find possible customers.

Google has been exploring eBay`s main business categories and is becoming a noticeable player in these areas. Google Base list provides listings of products for sale, Google Checkout is eBay`s PayPal distant cousin and Google talk is the alternative to Skype`s online phone service, a service which eBay has popularized, by signing up more than 100 million users worldwide.

The recent deal follows an eBay-Yahoo deal that was signed in May, in which Yahoo sells ads on its pages in the United States, and back then it seemed that the alliance between the two was a way to counter the growing power of Google. eBay recognizes that striking a deal with Google this time around, is the right move in order to obtain a much larger share of the worldwide search market.