The iron is hot for the striking, in fact it's blazing red hot. Right or wrong, there's another "shake down" happening at eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY). I'll spare you the details.

I'll get right to the point here because I know you have other reading to do. It's time for someone, anyone, to readjust the online auction game. However, I think it's about time to give up expecting that savior to be Google (NASDAQ: GOOG).

Someone with a couple million dollars needs to find and use the synergies among the growing multitude of independent online auction sites. I'm not talking about someone trying to buy them all in an attempt to sew them together. What is needed to completely change the playing field is for one single entity to create a one stop pipeline where all the little auction sites can be found.

"Gas prices are just going up, up, up, just like Google stock, baby, just like the Google stock," says Om Malik in his podcast with Niall Kennedy. eBay isn't, and in fact it is considering partnering with Microsoft (or maybe that's just a rumor it is putting out there for more bargaining power with Google).

eBay isn't working hard enough to improve the user experience, says Niall, and despite the coolness of Skype and Paypal, the core business - the auction business - is really where it needs to grow if the company is going to continue to increase its earnings.

What does eBay need to do to accomplish that? Simple, Niall and Om tell us, do these five things:

1. Integrate Paypal with the same address system, and with other services like Evite;
2. Develop a shareware application;
3. Have the ability to resell digital media like iTunes (maybe this is what they're thinking about with the Skype deal?);
4. Create a separate eBay 2.0 company that helps facilitate digital assets;
5. Buy Quicken and add it on to the eBay product line.

Of all these I like the ideas about Quicken and the Paypal integration the best. What do you think?