eBay has discontinued its advertising through Google's AdWords platform in the U.S., reports InfoWorld.

The move comes as the latest in the equivalent of a corporate chess match between Google and eBay. The two have been circling each other for a while, largely over eBay's decision to disallow use of Google's Checkout system for auctions on the site.

eBay owns PayPal, one of the biggest online payment services, and a direct competitor to Google Checkout. The camel's back may have been broken over Google throwing a protest party on the same night eBay held a merchant's conference dubbed eBay Live.

Officials within eBay deny the decision to divorce AdWords is tied to the party plans but the company also admitted it isn't thrilled that Google was making such a move.

Yahoo signed a deal with eBay making it the sole provider of search and display ads on the auction site, something that also might be playing into making this decision. The move affects only US AdWords campaigns and was labeled by eBay as simply an experiment in ad dollar relocation.

UPDATE: Google apparently canceled the party, reports TechCrunch. You can read Google's statement on the cancellation here.