Have you ever imagined what will happen if Google eBay merge? At least, we can imagine a name now... goobay.com! In fact, such a website already exists!! The logo? An owl. Why owl? Because goobay, in Kannada, a South Indian language means owl
I have a feeling your not going to see Google buy ebay, when Google can practically wipe them out by starting their own version without the cost of a buyout.
Google's advantage in everything is that it is always very simple to use and has a very clean interface with excellent performance. Using their products always leaves a good feeling. Ebay leaves a feeling of frustration and irritation after having to wait 10 minutes for the results and having to move through clutter up to your neck. Its easier for Google to just build their own auction site and tie it in with adwords/adsense somehow.
I wouldn't actually be suprised if google went into auctions in the near future, they expanding so big and so fast, and all their services are good....where as ebay is ok since theres no other real competitor and paypal is crap it has a few competitors and they are just plain bad with peoples money. Long live google and stormpay! I wouldn't be suprised if either ebay or google tried to buy that domain off the owner either, it would be a good business domain methinks.
I believe it would be very difficult for Google to steal ebay's business in online auctions (although I thought I heard they might be developing something) This kind of market has a huge first mover advantage just like the job search websites. Whoever establishes a presence in a market first will dominate. In places where ebay has not been first (india for example) they have to either buy the competition or try for a lesser position. If hotjobs gets to a market before monster, then they dominate. Unfortunately the products are similar enough that nobody cares about the differences in the user interface. They just want the most eyeballs on the product they are trying to sell.
new name could be googlebay.com ( i dont know if this too is taken ) or buying goobay.com domain / company as well !!!
As far as I heard google are going to launch their own auctions but have to get their payment system sorted first which they had some red tape to get through.
Google does not seem like the type of company to purchase a site such as Ebay. I would think Google would be more apt to look at ebay's mistakes and build there own site.
The real revolution will be when Google launches online payments. Being rid of PayPal would be incentive enough for many people to leave E-Bay. The question is whether PayPal will even try to improve to meet Google competition or whether it will sit on its hands figuring that it has 84 million customers and even if it loses 10 million it is still a viable biz.
I doubt eBay will just bend over. Firstly they've already spent some money on television advertising, I've yet to see Google to do this. Plus...it's eBay's brad and butter, PayPal they're all extremely related to eBay.
Googlebay.com is not yet taken. It may be your chance to become a millionnaire, so why don't you go ahead and register? I am not registering that as it is your idea.