Doubt anyone is going to be able to topple eBay in terms of popularity. They waited too long. eBay is global now and everyone knows it's the place to go to find auctions. Their downfall however will be their OTHER weakness which in my opinion is their biggest. Their ever increasing and intrusive fee structure. If Google comes out with a product that is lower cost AND easier to use they may not overtake them but they will cut a heck of a chunk out of ebay's market share.
ebay and google are probably the 2 biggest brand names on the internet right now. If want to find something that you can't find, you go to ebay. If you want to search for something, you google it. Its almost MOF online.
I have noticed more and more recently that ebay is getting a lot of press attention from fraudsters etc, i think if a company such as google could offer the same services but with better protection then they would be onto a winner. And i agree about the fees you get stung on everything, i just sold a phone on there, paid to get listed, paid to use paypay, paid to transfer money from paypal to my bank!!
How can you forget Yahoo!! In my opinion Yahoo is the most recognised Brand Name on the internet. Other than Yahoo search it has a loyal following for Messanger , Chat rooms , Yahoo groups , Yahoo mail etc ..I have never met anyone who hasnt used Yahoo As for ebay ..I agree with the first post ...unlike Google's business model which is based on very innovative technologies like Google search and Google Earth...ebay's business model is easier to replicate and it needs to innovate more if it wants to maintain its position.
I use yahoo messenger; but in reality, when I want to find something of actual use....Yahoo is my last destination. Its fun to say Yahoooooo, but beyond that, yahoo is pretty much a waste of my time. At home my homepage is yahoo.com, but only for news and I download games from there sometimes (Fate is awesome! - Diablo with fishing LOL). For everything else I go elsewhere - maybe its just me *shrug*
I didn't really mean it wasn't easy to use, I just don't like some of the design. Also spyware filters always have problems because they seem to use loads of tracking cookies.
I beleive it will have the same relative interest as Froogle.com, so I'm not pouring sweat over this.