Google Base Takes on the World

Why bother building a web site? What if you could list everything in a searchable online catalogue instead? Why bother marketing your web site? What if that catalogue already had a large stream of traffic?

Welcome to Google Base, Google's searchable online database where you can list anything and everything: recipes, collectibles, press releases, even jobs, cars and real estate.

By launching the Base, Google is positioning itself as a major e-commerce portal. Doing so treads on a lot of other peoples' turf: AutoTrader.com, Monster.com, Realtor.com and Amazon.com, to name a few. But the biggest competitor by far is the web's leading e-commerce portal: eBay.

Over the past year Google has steadily rolled out features to compete with eBay. Google Checkout competes with eBay's PayPal. The company has even released a Google Base Store Connector to help sellers move items from their eBay Store into Google Base.

Can Google really beat eBay to become the Web's leading e-commerce site?

It won't be easy. eBay has a huge network effect working in its favor. Why does everyone sell on eBay? Because that's where all the buyers are. Why does everyone shop on eBay? Because that's where all the sellers are. Past competitors from uBid to Yahoo have tried to break this cycle, with little success.

eBay is also Google's largest advertiser, and if the Base drives eBay's ad dollars elsewhere, it could cost Google. Indeed, Google's moves have already pushed eBay into a US alliance with Yahoo.

But Google has a big advertising advantage over eBay: it can drive existing search traffic to the Base at no cost.

More ominously, the very nature of the Internet gives Google an edge. eBay is ultimately a middleman between buyers and sellers, and the Internet is very good at eliminating middlemen. Travel agents, record companies and job recruiters have all seen their world turned upside down by the Internet's ability to connect buyers and sellers.

When all is said and done, a search engine may be the only middleman that can survive on the Internet. That thought should worry eBay.

This article originally appeared in the Winter 2006 issue of the Search Marketing Standard magazine.