United States internet search giant Google saw its stock price surge to new highs on Thursday after launching an online service that challenges classified-advertising sites such as eBay and Craigslist.
Google’s stock topped $400 per share during trading. The company had made its market debut in August 2004 at $85 per share.
The Silicon Valley company on Wednesday launched Google Base, an online service enabling people to advertise freely anything from apartment rentals to used sporting goods.
”Google Base enables content owners to describe and assign attributes to the information they upload and uses this meta-data to better target search results to what users are looking for,” the company said in a statement.
”For example, if a chef chooses to upload their very best recipe for tamales, he/she can further describe that recipe with a photo or by assigning attributes such as ‘medium-spicy’ or ‘spicy’.”
Service features include online information about the art world, college resources, environmental issues and offerings of local retailers, according to Google.
Google Base allows people to list items wanted or offered for sale in an online-classified forum similar to those provided by eBay and Craigslist.
eBay is a major purchaser of Google online advertising, according to MarketWatch in San Francisco.
”This is very big,” Jason Caplain wrote in a Southeast Venture Capital blog after word of Google Base plans leaked in October, ”especially tied in with Google’s plan to have their own online payment system, Google Wallet.”
It remains to be seen how eBay, which owns a stake in Craigslist, will react to the potential for Google to become a competitor.
Online battle
Google’s new service was launched as the search-engine leader continues to battle with online titans Yahoo!, Microsoft and America Online for the loyalty of computer users.
”There is kind of a land grab going on,” Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates, said in an interview earlier this year. ”There could be a natural monopoly that goes to the player who has the most muscle, delivers the best service.”
US internet giants have duked it out in four arenas: search, e-mail, instant messaging and portal services such as mapping and computer telephone calling, according to Yankee Group analyst Su Li Walker.
Yahoo recently added computer-to-computer voice calls to its free instant-messaging service.
Internet giants are offering disparate free services because once computer users step through a portal, they can be directed to features that produce revenue or be targeted for advertising, experts said.
”Ultimately, advertising business gravitates to the largest eyeball count,” Endpoint’s Kay said. ”You want to be the portal of record so they come to you instead of the other guy.”
The stakes are high, according to Kay, since a portal with 100% of the market could cripple competitors by directing online traffic elsewhere.
Google has offered to cover its Californian headquarters town of Mountain View as well as San Francisco with an umbrella of free wireless internet access. — Sapa-AFP