My heart truly goes out to this woman. She is clearly in a bad spot and desperately worried. But the bottom line is that eBay owes only its stockholders. It is not eBay's responsiblity that this woman might be on welfare. A substantial part of my income comes from Google AdSense and Google has recently made dramatic changes to its AdWords program. Any change to AdWords will inevitably change AdSense revenues. Just as with the eBay changes, Google forums have been inflamed with Google bashing.

But the bottom line is that every job and every business has problems. Years ago I came to the realization that when these problems and changes arose I had two choices:

Choice A: wallow in rage and self-pity, loudly proclaiming about how unfair it all was

Choice B: accept that this is the way it is and get on with finding a solution.

The fact is that it's eBay's site, eBay's game, eBay's rules. If I want to continue to profit from either eBay or Google, then I have to accept their rules. If I don't want to play that game, I can leave. That is the choice that all business people face, like it or not. Yes, I know this is an unpopular observation, but it's still the truth. It's tempting to blame Big Bad eBay or Big Bad Google, and that's especially the case when we see a situation like the sad lady above. But years of choices brought her to her current situation - not eBay.

Am I Defending eBay?

No, not at all. I'm simply being as objective as possible. In fact, I think eBay has made some poor decisions and some choices that I don't understand at all.

First, at eBay Live in June, eBay promised no fee increases in 2006. Yet, one month later they announce what amounts to a 6% increase in store fees. Bad joss, eBay.

Meg Whitman, eBay's CEO, said the store inventory format has "diluted the magic of eBay," and that, "We are trying to get back to the essence of eBay." Oh, please, Meg! If she would say that eBay has made a financial error in heavily promoting stores and it's not economically viable to continue down that path, I could respect that.

This is similar to a recent eBay ruling that they wouldn't allow eBay sellers to use the new "Google Checkout" payment system. Google Checkout is a payment system similar to PayPal, which is owned by eBay, of course. Google Checkout has been dangling economic incentives to lure e-commerce sellers to its payment system. eBay expressed concerns for "safety" as the basis for its refusal. This is hogwash! eBay is protecting its turf and has a perfect right to do so. I am not going to sell my competitors products on my web properties and neither would you. I can respect that reasoning, so just admit it. Don't assume we're stupid and gullible.

In addition, the entire purpose of eBay Express (EE) seems to be compromised. EE is supposed to be a shopping system that will allow buyers to purchase from multiple eBay Express merchants yet pay for everything — including shipping—in a single, secure payment using PayPal or a credit card. If auction listings are going to appear in EE - and above store listings - how is this going to be different from regular eBay? At this time, it's only auction listings that include Buy It Now, but if they're pressuring sellers to get "the magic" back, will regular auctions soon be included? Only time will tell.