Capitalism & Free Markets Keep Google Honest

J.J. Jackson* | June 18, 2007

Ouch!

June 17, 2007 — It may be like trying to re-establish your virginity. You know, Google trying to get back its patina of invincibility.Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the 30-something mega-billionaire founders of the almighty search giant - after a spectacular run of a multibillion-dollar IPO, hot new products such as Gmail and Google maps and its quick climb to the top of the search engine mountain - finally got their first black eye last week.

The powerful duo tried to strong-arm eBay into allowing its Google Checkout service to be used on the No. 1 online-auction site but turned tail and backed away from the threat after eBay pulled a good chunk of its advertising from Google’s AdWords unit.

“It’s the very first time a major advertiser has stood up to Google and Google has backed down,” said Kevin Heisler, an analyst with JupiterResearch. “I think the most dangerous message it sends is that other top advertisers may decide to follow eBay’s lead,” Heisler said.

The lesson here? No matter what you think, you NEVER really have people as firmly by the balls as you think you do.

Google may be learning that it is eventually doomed to the same fate as all the other “popular” search engines at one time or another were … a bit part in a continually evolving market.

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