Google announced on Monday that it has signed a multi-year agreement with online auction giant eBay, to provide text-based advertising for eBay outside the U.S. The companies also plan to launch “click-to-call” advertising functionality on eBay, which will allow a user to click on a link or icon within a product or service ad to initiate an Internet-based phone call to eBay merchants or Google advertisers. The click-to-call service will utilize both eBay’s Skype Internet telephone service and Google Talk, the company’s Web and voice chat software. Google and eBay plan to begin several months of testing for the text-based advertising and click-to-call initiatives in early 2007, and will also explore interoperability between Skype and Google Talk via open standards.

Links: biz.yahoo.com tinyurl.com/hbcap (Reuters) skype.com google.com