News: Google Sets Sights on eBay Turf
November 10th, 2005 by Laurie BarakSource: The Seattle Times (Seattle, Washington)
Google, targeting the online auction market dominated by eBay, is seeking to patent a system that creates Internet ads automatically and makes it easier for people to sell products on the Web.
Google Automat will let advertisers enter details of items they want to sell and automatically create an ad “in under 1 minute,” according to screen shots included in a filing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published Sept. 29.
The service may spark new competition for Internet auctioneer eBay and online providers of classified listings, including Craigslist.org by making it easier to create ads. The service may also allow Google, the most-used Internet search engine, to broaden its advertising-client base and increase the online ads it sells.
“If I have an old Mickey Mantle baseball card and I want to sell it, in theory I could just put it on Google” without going to eBay or Craigslist, UBS Investment Research,” analyst Ben Schachter said. The service may also help those sites by sending them users, Schachter said.
