Ten out of ten for creativity, though.

Oops.

While it does look pretty bad, it’s not clear at which end the mistake was made. Surely the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) should have renamed the file and deleted the tag to retain Google’s anonymity before it hit the web – not after someone had spotted the mistake and removed it later. A case of the door being slammed shut after the horse has bolted, lived a full life and then passed away. if anything. There also must be someone at among the free snack machines, table football and grand pianos who could have piped up and raised the obvious issue: putting the word ‘Google’ in the filename would rid the document of any sort of anonymity that Google craved.

While it could be debated that both sides are responsible for the leak of the 38-page document’s origin, there’s no doubting that the scenario raises plenty of questions and will, no doubt, stir a variety of opinions – not least in the circles of disgruntled eBay veterans who don’t want to be tied down to Paypal, simply because eBay owns the financial transaction giant. It’s akin to Tesco buying up HSBC and only allowing customers to pay using HSBC bank accounts – and I’m sure that, if that hypothetical situation were to come to fruition, our own Competition Commission would have plenty to say about it.

It seems odd that eBay should be allowed to force its customers to use Paypal at all. Sure, they could use alternative auction sites if they objected to this policy – but what are they? I certainly can’t name any that can even approach the magnitude of eBay.

I’ve read plenty of complaints regarding Paypal and, personally, I try to use alternative forms of payment whenever I can – often, I find sending a cheque in the post is my preferred option. The coverage of this story on Slashdot certainly has its fair share of comments from users angry about potentially having to use Paypal when they’ve had bad experiences in the past. There’s even an active community of anti-Paypal loyalists gathered at Paypalsucks.com.

I’m convinced that it’s not healthy for eBay to restrict users to using Paypal – it’s beneficial to the two organisations, of course, as they both take extra cash from transations made using Paypal. Conversely, it’s awful for customers, robbing them of choice and forcing their hand to a service they may not prefer. It’d make a refreshing change for a company to put its customers first but, even with veritable corporate newcomers like eBay and Paypal, this seems not to be the case.

However, it makes sense for Google to try and hide their considerable clout behind an anonymous complaint – one of a few that have been left nameless among thousands of protests on the ACCC website. Ebay famously halted its advertising on Google AdWords after Google protested about eBay’s refusal to allow users to use Google’s Checkout software – which directly competes with Paypal.

Despite this, though, I’m not sure that plumping for anonymity was the right thing for Google to do. Among the small organisations and individuals protesting about the financial monopoly that eBay are proposing, the huge draw of Google joining forces with them could have had, potentially, a serious impact. Ebay are proposing to trial the Paypal-only restrictions in Australia before launching it across the world: the objection of a truly global company in a public forum could have had an impact that would benefit the millions of disgruntled eBay users instead of the largely faceless coroporations – and convinced other businesses and interested parties to raise their heads above the parapet to voice their objections, too.

Instead, the situation has taken a turn for the farcical: Google have been exposed in a way that they really wouldn’t have liked, and their objection to the plans has suddenly, in my eyes, lost a bit of credibility. Apparently Google are thinking of launching Checkout in Australia as a direct competitor to Paypal – and so can’t face losing the support of eBay if they want to be successful. It’s a huge ulterior motive, sure, and smacks of self-interest in a similar way to eBay’s behaviour.

Hopefully, the situation will be resolved in such a way that some competition and choice remains in the marketplace. I know I’ll certainly be less included to use eBay if I’m forced to rely on Paypal and, judging by the variety of internet responses, plenty of people feel the same way. It’s just not fair on the millions of consumers – the people who keep eBay alive – to force them to use what they consider to be an inferior system. Let’s hope that the objection of Google, however it was exposed, can force eBay to see sense – and please the multitude of angry customers rather than ignoring them completely.