Is Google aiming to squeeze eBay?

In a move that could put Google in competition with eBay, the search giant is testing a new service that would allow people to post and make searchable any type of content, a Google spokeswoman confirmed on Tuesday.

A screenshot of a page for "Google Base" gives as examples of items that can be posted to Google's server: "description of your party planning service", "articles on current events from your website", "listing of your used car for sale" and "database of protein structures".

A Google spokeswoman wrote in an email: "This is an early stage test of a product that enables content owners to easily send their content to Google. Like our web crawl and the recently released Google Sitemaps program, we are working to provide content owners an easy way to give us access to their content. We're continually exploring new opportunities to expand our offerings but we don't have anything to announce at this time."

Other screenshots show sample pages, including an entry for a Thai Glazed Chicken Lettuce Wrap recipe. One page includes policies including "posting is not permitted for the promotion of body parts or human remains" and terms of service that give Google the right to "reproduce, modify, adapt, publish and otherwise use, with or without attribution" the content on the site for promotional purposes. It also says the Google Base interface is currently available only in English and German.

Some bloggers speculated that Google Base was the precursor to an ecommerce site that would go up against online auction company eBay.

A blogger called "Dirson" wrote on New Google Blog: "Google's just launched 'Google Base', a service to insert and share all types of content: events, housing, jobs, products, second-hand vehicles.

"The information will be included in the main Google search index and other Google products like Froogle and Google Local. We expect that 'Google Purchases' - the new micropayments service among users - will be also introduced as a complement to 'Google Base'."

Philipp Lenssen wrote on his Google Blogoscoped blog: "This sounds big and immensely interesting. Is Google putting a layer in between dynamic websites and their databases, replacing MySQL/PostgreSQL/MS SQL, and creating a new GoogleSQL... possibly, with their ads in it? I can't wait to try it."

A reader identified as "Lone Deranger", who posted to a Dutch blog called Seweso, predicted Google Base would be a "death knell" for both eBay and Microsoft: "There is much more to this than an "ebay/craigslist" killer. This is the first part of Google putting ALL YOUR INFORMATION online that you currently have lying around on your desktop.

"Before there was no way of doing this other than creating a website which most people are too lazy to do. Oh, and guess what, once you have your documents uploaded on Googlebase, in a few months they'll rollout Google Office and you'll be able to edit them right there!"

Also on Tuesday, Google began hosting a three-day off-the-record confab called Zeitgeist '05: The Google Partner Forum, with 400 invitees, including prominent members of the mainstream media.

Elinor Mills writes for CNET News.com