Ebay pulled all of their ads from Google last week due to a variety of issues.  John Batelle got a note from Ebay communications, announcing they’re back up and running.  Key sentence here:  The test we began last week was successful. We found that we were not as dependent on Google AdWords as some may have thought. By re-allocating our marketing dollars to our other partners, such as Yahoo!, AOL and MSN, we were able to increase traffic and find efficiencies that will enable us to drive more value to our sellers and partners going forward.  It would seem that continually testing which PPC engines yield the best return, and the tortured language suggests there’s more to the story.  Scott Wingo has a great post on the impact on Ebay sellers.

Reporters reading blog comments to find sources for stories? 

Do URL extensions cause issues in Google?

Latest trends in adoption of Google Checkout, Paypal, and Bill Me Later. 

Ever wondered if your blog’s popular?  Google Webmaster Tools, once you register, lets you see all incoming links to your blog.  You can always find some interesting links.  I just noticed that TryBuyShop.com tends to steal the postings from shop.org, and post them on their site. 

Josh