Weekend food for thought

The Google base vs. msft Fremont buzz is already huge and both products aren't even in beta.  Here's some food for thought for the weekend if you have some time online and want to ponder what these two internet giants are doing:

• Peter Rip at Leapfrog ventures has the closest forward looking thoughts on where I also thing GB is going here.
• My friend, Charlene Li, at Forrester has a great and concise comparison.
• This guy Roger Jennings has a PHD thesis on the topic. I have to admit I made it about 5 paragraphs and got ADD.
• Red Herring has the first trash talk between the two companies. with Gary Wiseman at Microsoft quoted as saying: "Google Base is quite confusing.".    This article also follows what Charlene has said about the application of ecommerce/classifieds to social networking.  It's kind of neat how Fremont will let you say: Hey people that are X degrees from me this is for sale.
• Unrelated to google base, but also some good trash talkin' (that's southern folks!) George Reyes (Google CFO) is quoted in the WSJ as saying: "We study and hear and see what Microsoft does, and so far there is not a lot that we've seen that caused us much angst." - BOO-YOW.  Remember the last guy that said this kind of stuff to microsoft got walloped. So should be interesting.

Mental image:  Steve throwing one of these at these people.  Fortunately Sergey has that scooter so can probably get out of the way.

And the last thought for the weekend.  Who pays for this sponsored listing on Google?  Is Microsoft allowed to advertise fremont there?  Can ebay advertise there?   What happens when this starts showing up for searches for ebay?