Microsoft, eBay form e-commerce alliance

Microsoft and eBay  have linked arms to support each other’s technologies, aiming to expand their Internet footprints.

As part of the new partnership, the software behemoth and the giant online auctioneer will cooperate on several fronts. eBay plans to support Microsoft’s software-as-a-service Plan .Net, and other technology including the Windows 2000 server and Internet-authentication service Microsoft Passport. Microsoft, in turn, will integrate eBay’s proprietary online marketplace technology into a number of its Internet properties including Carpoint.com, WebTV, small-business hub bCentral and some Web sites of its MSN Internet service.

The move underlines both companies’ efforts to bring their Internet technologies and services to the masses.

Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft last year unveiled its Web services strategy, .Net, and since then has been busy touting what may be the most important strategic shift in its history, from selling software to providing services. The company has been battling rivals Oracle, Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard on the services front and has made.

eBay, meanwhile, has pushed the use of its online marketplace technology. Last November, the San Jose, Calif.-based company introduced its API (application programming interface) and developers program–an initiative to bring its flagship technology to Web sites and programmers as it seeks to become the de facto operations system for Internet auctions.

eBay’s XML-based service to integrate the trading services of eBay’s online marketplace into a number of its own Web properties. The combination of the services is scheduled to debut later this year and will be available in a number of MSN’s international markets. In addition, eBay’s online trading technology will be available for small businesses to use via Microsoft’s bCentral Internet network.

Microsoft and eBay  intend to jointly promote the new services on their respective Web sites. The two companies also plan to collaborate on a series of other projects centered on Web services; eBay, for instance, intends to take a hand in the forthcoming Windows XP operating system.