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The pair's frosty relationship dropped more than a few degrees following Google's decision to hold the 'Google Checkout Freedom Party' in Boston at the same time as an Ebay users' conference.

It was part of an effort to lobby eBay to accept Google's own online payment system, Google

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Checkout, as an alternative to the eBay-owned PayPal. The event, however, has now been cancelled by Google, as you can read here.

eBay's response? Cancel its US spend on Google's online advertising system, AdWords. 'This is part of an ongoing experiment to look at how we market across all media channels,' said eBay spokesman Hani Durzy.

Google Checkout is the search-giant's online payment system that was launched in June 2006. It was immediately seen as a major threat to PayPal, and eBay promptly disallowed its as a payment option on its auction sites.