Google's Girth Boosts Yahoo!

While the auction giant is one of Google's largest customers, it is also cautious of the checkout service Google announced in 2006. Google Checkout allows consumers to pay for items over the Internet and competes with eBay's PayPal service.

This puts eBay in a dilemma. On the one hand, eBay can shift its budget to less-effective search engines and watch the number of customers brought to its site drop. Or, it can help line Google's pockets further, knowing full well that part of those proceeds will help the search giant continue to offer the aggressive promotions it has to its Checkout users.

For eBay, this could make Yahoo!, with which it also has a partnership, that much more attractive.

Given the scope of Google's ambitions, even some phone companies may face a similar trade-off. Take AT&T(T Quote), which made headlines recently when it threatened to walk from a deal that it had with Yahoo!.

But while Google could likely pay the company a tidy sum for its role in routing its broadband customers to its search engine -- under the current scenario, AT&T actually pays Yahoo! -- AT&T might be looking at a partial competitor in the search giant as well.

That's because, starting in San Francisco, Google is thinking about rolling out a free Wi-Fi broadband network in major metro areas. For the broadband access companies that spent fortunes laying out these networks, this essentially amounts to Google giving away one of its hottest and most expensive products.