posted on October 13, 2005 10:16:25 AM
Google is reportedly sending 600 workers in engineering and support to a new location in the Phoenix area which is the center of a new Google complex in Arizona. The site has not been established yet, but Google announced their plans on Arizona expansion at an event hosted at the State Capitol yesterday.
BizJournals reports that unnamed sources say that Google is planning a mega auction center in the new Arizona location in a bid to launch Google Auctions, in direct competition with Yahoo, MSN, and of course, eBay.
Aaron Wall of the SEOBook wonders how such an auction service from Google would effect its advertising model, Google AdWords, which includes mega advertising campaigns from eBay and eBay resellers. Will those sellers be advertising on AdWords in the future for Google Auctions listings and reimbursing Google a higher percentage of the item sale instead of paying the Google AdWords pay-per-click price?
posted on October 13, 2005 10:49:02 AM
why auction?
we need more auction sites like we need a hole in the head?
whatever happens to Overstock auction??
posted on October 13, 2005 11:12:54 AM
Apart from the issue of chicken/egg that Google would have to overcome, I think that they're possibly the only company with enough smarts to give eBay a run for the money.
posted on October 13, 2005 11:13:18 AM
who CARES about overstock auctions? poorly thought out. if anyone can give eBay a run for their money, it'll be google. the competition would be healthy.
posted on October 13, 2005 11:37:18 AM
Dollars to donuts Google would run a better shop, and probably wouldn't gouge on fees. When's the last time Google ran slow for you, as compared to eBay, some of whose screens are taking 20 seconds to refresh.
posted on October 13, 2005 11:37:28 AM
I just noticed that Froogle is changing their search results page. Like title items are now clumped together, with price ranges shown. And then you click to "compare" prices.
Ebay sellers are all "rated" 3.5 out of 5 by some type of reviewing system.
posted on October 13, 2005 11:55:08 AM
I remember reading somewhere that ebay stores aren't being crawled by Google anymore (was it here?)...maybe they are setting the stage?
Ebay may regret not throwing us sellers some carrots now and then during the lean times if Google really does get something up and running! Don't think people are as loyal to ebay as ebay thinks. They've just been lucky that decent competition hasn't surfaced..until now...
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posted on October 13, 2005 12:11:54 PM
"we need more auction sites like we need a hole in the head?"
Really? Tell me ONE auction site that is VIABLE competition for ebay? I can't think of any. Overstock had a lot of cheerleaders but it isn't competition. Yahoo? Nope, no competition there. Bidville? Are they still around?
I do hope that google gives this a try. I think it would be good for sellers, because the way ebay operates, they don't really take us into consideration very much. Competition would mean LESS expsense for us to sell, not more. Right now, I agree that google is pretty much the only company out there at the moment with enough resources to pull this off.
yes, i posted earlier this week or late last week, that google had changed their search algorithms (again) in the last five weeks or so. part of the algorithm change affected eBay stores. they don't show up nearly as well now in google searches. they're "weighted" much differently/with less importance attached to them.
you can probably see right about when this change occurred if you look at your eBay traffic reports. at least i know i can see it! a very reliable webmaster/web developer was who told me about it.
posted on October 13, 2005 02:09:47 PM
my points are-
who do you think will be flocking to a new auction site?given GOOGLE 's reputation,the same old same old ebay sellers like you and I will be there in no time to list the same old same old stuff.
so how is Google going to be different from Ebay from seller and buyer's perspective?
second,Ebay way of discouraging same old same old items which dont sell well,items which start and end with low bids is to raise the barrier of doing business by raising the fee .
Google stock is publicly traded like Ebay,what makes you think Google will be cheaper??I think once the honeymoon period is over,Google will be looking to recover its initial investment of hardware and software by raising its fee.
No one complains about Ebay fee when easy money can be made on Ebay,a 10 dollars item get bidded up to 700 dollars,hey,what fee??who cares!!
posted on October 13, 2005 02:58:36 PM
>http://google.com/Top/Shopping/Auctions/
>
>??? clicking on numerous categories in this url shows eBay to be #1 or #2 in many of them. ???
Yeah, ebay will show up on some of the subcatagories on the page (Antiques and Collectibles, etc), but its weird ebay isn't listed on the main page.
posted on October 13, 2005 03:11:10 PM
The real issue with other auction site is that they haven't been able to create the buzz needed to not only get sellers to participate, but for bidders too.
Remember when Vendio was Auctionwatch? Remember when Auctionwatch was free???
This will have to be the strategy for anyone to put a dent into eBay.
I think the ingredients for a new auction site will be:
1) FREE LISTINGS for at least the first year, possibly two or three. This could be limited to 10 auctions a week, or something like that. They need to give something to sellers to entice them. We are stupid enough to post things on their site if nobody is there bidding, but if we were able to list for free... well, i know it would definately raise a few eyebrows. They could easily raise some money by charging a small annual fee to sellers of maybe up to $29.99 or a flat monthly fee of $4.99 or something really inexpensive. They would simply have to bite the bullet for awhile.
2) TONS OF ADVERTISING: And not stupid eBay musicals or that annoying Overstock commercial. Something inventive, edgy, etc.
3) SIMPLICITY: Sellers don't want to have to reinvent the wheel to be able to use a new system.
4) PATIENCE: With Google, the benefit is their search engine. It will still take alot of time to compete with eBay, but Google has the money to truly compete with the eBay giant.
5) CREATIVE EXTRAS: Imagine if we had eBay auctions with Vendio's Auction Manager and Post Sale Management, plus free email, image hosting, etc.
[ edited by rustygumbo on Oct 13, 2005 03:41 PM ]
posted on October 13, 2005 03:33:00 PM
If listing is free,all the junks will be listed,Yahoo is now free,look who is listing ??and who is bidding and where are the deadbeats??
posted on October 13, 2005 04:11:02 PM
probably need both-buy it now at fixed price and auction style bidding.
Some items are truly one of a kind and hard to find,so auction format is good,while others should just go by fixed price.
