It was just a party invitation, but the intended recipient didn't want to come.

When Google invited eBay sellers to attend an event in Boston for its Checkout service, it promised "free food, free drinks – even massages".

But eBay, which was holding a conference for its users at the same time, was not amused. The auction site, which prefers that its customers use its own payment service, PayPal, announced that it would pull all its advertising on Google, which is estimated to be worth as much as $100 million (£51 million) per year.

Google soon politely revoked its invitation: "After speaking with officials at eBay, we at Google agreed that it was better for us not to feature this event during the eBay Live conference," an update on one of its blogs read yesterday.

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But that did not stop commentators – large and small – weighing in on one of the most lively web spats in recent times.

"It had all the appearances of a marketing stunt gone awry," Miguel Helft wrote in The New York Times, "the internet industry’s version of a wily playground taunt that quickly escalated into a tense standoff, until the taunter – Google, in this case – blinked."

Adario Strange, writing on the Wired.com blog, said: "The uneasy peace between the two companies really seemed like a fraud in the first place. Now that the swords have been drawn in the light of day, we’ll finally get to see how Google swats competition at a time when its “don’t be evil” reputation is just about completely erased as early stage mythos."

Mathew Ingram, on his self-titled blog, rewrote the whole exchange as a "90210-style catfight."

"Hey girlfriend, I know you’re having a party on Wednesday, but I’m having a little bash thingy of my own that night," he imagined Google saying.

Then eBay replies: "Excuse me, but WTF? You knew I was going to have that party for months, and so you planned yours the same night?", to which Google responds: "“Hey, what’s with the attitude? I can totally call off the party. No biggie.”

Kirsty McCubbin, striking a similar note on affiliatestuff.co.uk, described the whole affair as "two online giants apparently having a bit of a lovers' tiff."

"There is still a wide-ranging outbreak of 'petted lips' among various executives at eBay and Google towers," she wrote.

Hani Durzy, eBay's spokesman, would not comment on whether his company's decision was related to Google's party invitation, but was quoted in The New York Times as saying: “We are pleased that they apparently have seen that the party was inappropriate. It is not the way one partner should act with another."

That didn't stop analysts wondering to what extent eBay – which prevents its merchants using Google's rival service to PayPal, Checkout – "had any hand" in the relationship.

Some suggested that despite eBay's position as Google's largest advertising client by far, its estimated $25 million spend per quarter was small fare in the scheme of the search engine's $3.7 billion quarterly income.

A writer on the blog Rain City Guide mused about the consequences "if other partners and Google advertisers decide the best way to counter their fear of Google is to hit back? Perhaps, this is the break Microsoft or Yahoo! needed in order steel [sic]some of Google’s thunder?"

One anonymous post on the Register.co.uk was rather more gloomy: "Here's my prediction: eBay revenue falters, Google buys eBay, the internet sucks more. Death to IT and to the internet," it said.

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