Google To Sells Ads For eBay/Skype

It's early here on the left coast, but already the blogosphere is alive with commentary about the Google/eBay click to call deal.

Russell Shaw pins Google's ears back on the lab experiment called GoogleTalk saying this means it's not going to be a major factor, and he may be right. I'm hearing noises that Google is not being very aggressive in chasing PSTN termination like Yahoo, AOL and MSN are.

But remember, at the end of the day Google, like Yahoo, is all about advertising presentment using search, and Google's ancillary services simply provide one more way to present adverts that makes money. At the end of the day, Google doesn't care if it picks up a free click to call (which would cost them money to manage) versus letting Skype worry about the call and still make money off the ad click. As a matter of fact, for every ad clicked that doesn't result in an ebay sale, it means that ebay lost money as they still have to pay Google.

In addition, Google picks up real estate inside the Skype browser. Since the Skype DevCon in June, I've felt that Skype is looking to be more and more an alternative browser, with communications as a focus. This deal only further cements that in my mind.

I'd say Google won on this deal. More later.