On December 19th, we reported in Newsflash that search site Google is beta-testing a "Search Catalogs" feature of over 700 mail-order catalogs. You can enter a search term, like leather boots, and find all leather boots from across all retailers included in the Google Catalog database - with pictures! Right now, there is no charge, but it is likely Google will charge the catalog companies in the future. (Read http://www.msnbc.com/news/673852.asp?0si=- for more information.)

We were curious what this might mean to eBay, so we talked to search expert Chris Sherman, the author of several books including The McGraw-Hill CD ROM Handbook and "The Invisible Web: Uncovering Information Sources Search Engines Can't See," co-authored with Gary Price. Chris is also Associate Editor of SearchEngineWatch.com http://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/searchday.html.

AB: Chris, I read your article in Search Day about Google Catalogs. I think the implications for eBay are mind-boggling. eBay is chasing retailers and distributors and manufacturers to sell practicals on its site. But they keep a tight control on how auction sellers can market themselves. (You can't link to your own Web site in your auction description; you can't even save a high-bidder's email address to email to them in the future, even though they bought from you.) Here Google is telling them to come to its site, and Google will send people right to the merchants' own Web sites! So, is it possible that Google Catalogs will impact eBay sales?

CS: I honestly don't know if what Google is doing with catalogs will have an impact on eBay or not. Even though Google has killer search technology, there's a separate issue that may ultimately be more important - reputation and brand values.

eBay's rep and value is as an intermediary for people buying and selling stuff on the web. They're unquestionably the best. Google's rep and value is in providing absolutely unbiased, "non-commercial" search results. What happens to Google's rep now that they appear to be cutting deals with merchants and catalog vendors? Will the web community take a different view of them, and trust them less when it comes to search? It's a very tricky question for them. And it may have an impact on their core business, to the extent that they scale back their catalog efforts. It's very unclear at this point.

Also, plenty of others have tried to compete with eBay, unsuccessfully. Even some major players who should have been able to make inroads. Shaking a leader off a throne is a difficult task, so I wouldn't be too quick to write off eBay just yet.

AB: Is it possible eBay would try to get listed in Google Catalogs, or have it be a paid option for auction sellers? What would Google think of that?

CS: I doubt Google would list eBay, since they aren't really a catalog vendor with a relatively fixed inventory, and secondly, since eBay doesn't allow crawlers on their site, as I understand it.
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Chris kindly offered to keep us posted on Google Catalog Search. If you want to keep up with news about Google, Yahoo and the other search engine sites, be sure to sign up for Chris Sherman's newsletter, SearchDay at http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday. It's free!