Google and eBay ally on VoIP

Here's an alliance that I'm not quite sure I understand. You know, of course, that eBay bought Skype [1] not long ago--and that stock analysts have been puzzled at the billion-dollar-plus price tag. And you know that Google has its own beta VoIP service Google Talk. You may also know that Google has a payments infrastructure that competes with eBay's PayPal. So there's news now that eBay and Google are partnering. Google will provide AdSense ads on eBay outside the United States (which must delight eBay vendors). But here's the interesting part: Skype and Google Talk will provide "click-to-talk" service on Google's ads. Presumably, people who don't subscribe to Skype would get shunted to Google Talk. The service starts next year.

For more information about the eBay/Google deal:
- read this press release [2] from Google