Google announced the launch of its Product Search Marketplace Partner program and named its inaugural partner-marketplaces, but the big three are not whom observers might have expected. Google welcomed eBid, eCrater and Etsy into the program. Noticeably absent were longtime ecommerce sites such as eBay, GoAntiques, RubyLane, TIAS, and newer marketplaces such as Bonanzle, Artfire, Silkfair and Wigix.

Google made no explanation for its selection of marketplace partners in its announcement but gave the three sites an endorsement:

These marketplaces will submit product data for their sellers frequently and with all relevant attributes, so online shoppers get the up-to-date information they need to make smart buying decisions. Additionally, these marketplaces are a great solution for merchants who don't have a standalone retail website because they provide online visibility for the merchants' products.

Note that there is precedent for Google singling out certain vendors, as can be seen on its Product Search Partners page.

eBid's Mark Wilkinson said Google contacted them to become an inaugural member of the Google Product Search Marketplace partners program, "citing our experience in providing marketplace solutions, as well as a number of other criteria they used to evaluate our track record of delivering user value on Google Product Search."

Google Product Search is important to merchants to help gain exposure for their product listings in Google natural search results and in Google's Product Search shopping engine. Google had replaced Google Base with Google Merchant Center in September, and said it would begin requiring marketplaces to use multi-client accounts beginning December 1, 2009, and would retire the Google Base accounts of individual sellers who list on marketplaces in order to eliminate duplicate feeds.

Bonanzle was quick to respond to its sellers questions on a discussion board post, stating that Google was not likely to divulge the reason behind its initial selection, but that it would likely have little effect on Bonanzle's traffic.

What I can say is that we have explored numerous avenues for partnership with Google, and we are continuing to explore all possible avenues. One common thread of the first round of partners is that they have all been in business at least three times longer than Bonanzle, which may establish more credibility to the Google powers-that-be.

The other common thread is that these are some of leaders in items posted, alongside Bonanzle. Between our inventory volume, and our willingness to bend over backward to accommodate any potential requests that Google may make, I'm optimistic that we�ll be in the running to be announced in the next round of "official" partners, but in the meantime, we'll still continue to offer all of the same Google Product submission benefits as those touted by the "official" partners in the blog (i.e., items submitted automatically when your items are added or changed).

On eBay discussion boards, reaction from sellers varied from, " This simply appears to be Google Base with some participants aquiring a title," to "by omission, they make it clear that eBay is not playing ball."

In October, eBay responded to questions from sellers about Google's decision to retire Google Base accounts of individual sellers with an announcement stating it was sending information about millions of listings to Google Base at least once every day. "We will continue to work closely with Google to ensure our feeds-and your listings-align with Google requirements."

There has been much speculation about Google and eBay's relationship over the years, and since the spring and early summer, sellers on many marketplaces have complained about change to Google's feed that resulted in lower traffic to their listings. AuctionBytes recently ran a three-part interview with search engine optimization guru (link) that revealed some differences in optimizing for eBay verus Google, as explored in this AuctionBytes Blog post.