eBay Pulls US Ads from Google Pages

Tensions between eBay and Google rose on Wednesday after the auction site decided to pull some of its ads from the search engine's AdWords program.

The move only affects ads within the United States. eBay will continue to run ads through the program outside of the country. While the company is saying the move is part of a regular switch in strategies to determine the best use of advertising dollars, some are saying differently.

An unnamed source told IDG that the move was payback for Google's decision to hold a protest outside of its eBay Live conference. The search giant is protesting the ban on Google Checkout in its online auctions.

Making matters worse, the Mountain View, Calif. company has decided to market the party to the media, which is apparently making eBay upset. Meetings have been taking place at eBay to decide whether the sanctions should go further, the source claims.

The move is somewhat curious: not too long ago, Google was claiming its service was not intended to compete with PayPal directly. However, with adoption of its service increasing, the opposite now appears to be the case.