Every time you look at your children and wish they would grow up and stop being so immature, remember that the two are not synonomous. Case in point -- eBay Inc (NASDAQ: EBAY). The market-leading auction website left Google Inc's (NASDAQ: GOOG) AdWords advertising system because it was miffed that Google planned a party the same day as eBay's annual user celebration in Boston.

Well after crying at its party, eBay came crawling back, apparently realizing that although it has other options -- Yahoo Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO), IAC/InterActiveCorp's (NASDAQ: IACI) Ask.com, and Microsoft Corporation's (NASDAQ: MSFT) MSN.com -- none are nearly as good as AdWords. EBay's inability to stay away serves as an example of Google's strength in the Internet advertising market.

Of course, this is not what eBay is claiming. EBay spokesman Hani Durzy said, "Overall the takeaway for us was that we weren't as dependent on AdWords as some out there may have thought... Other partners -- Yahoo and AOL and MSN -- really stepped up and provided a lot of value. And natural search continues to drive a lot of valuable traffic to the site."

Empty words, since the actions don't coincide.