I'll believe it when I see it.
I still think that if google opens a marketplace it will be a classifieds type site rather than an auction site.
Google will probably do something *soon*. Ebay knows it...which may be one reason why ebay is buying up all kinds of other types of businesses on the web and diversifying in a major way. I think they know their US auction business is tanking fast, which is why they have half.com, 25% of Craig's List, paypal, skype, ProStores & co., Verisign gateway, etc. All those rake in money with off-ebay users. -- altho I don't know how Craig's List makes money-- maybe ads. Ebay continually needs to find new users (= new money) worldwide, with a good percentage off-ebay, to continue to stay 'vibrant' once google does something *hopefully* stupendous.
Quote: they have half.com
they effectively killed sales on half.com last year when many sellers moved to Amazon (instead of ebay stores) after eBay announced half would close. ebay later changed their mind about the closing but the damage was done. we've sold more on bidville over the past year than we have on half. they paid $300 million to buy half in june 2000 and the site has been on a steady decline since then.
Any auction would be tied into AdWords somehow.
[quote author=bargainbloodhound link=topic=796.msg3015#msg3015 date=1129218154]
I'll believe it when I see it.
[/quote]
Actually so will I after last night. Last night I was searching the Internet about a possible Goggle Auction site and was very surprised to find mention of this on a website forum (I forget which one) of someone saying they just heard that Google was planning an auction site - that was posted in January 2004 - that's 2 months shy of 2 years ago.
Someone even started a "petition for google to start online auctions" at the beginning of the year. Only 103 people signed it, but even if more had signed I doubt that google bases its business development decisions on online petitions. :
http://www.petitiononline.com/ga05/petition.html
