Healthy Breakup for eBay and Microsoft

This breakup was a long time coming. Over the past weekend, we learned that eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) would stop using the sign-in and e-commerce solutions offered by Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) under the promising name "Passport." This is the biggest public kiss-off Passport has had to endure since getting a Dear John from Monster (Nasdaq: MNST) last fall.

Great.

In this Fool's experience, Passport has been one of the worst "technologies" Microsoft has ever offered. Constant re-typing and endless login-loops at eBay were the only reward I ever got for trying to sign in using my Microsoft Passport. I recently had similar non-results trying to get a trip planned via my Passport at InterActiveCorp's (Nasdaq: IACI) Expedia.com.

The idea was nice enough: a single login with storage for your credit card numbers to speed Web transactions. But let's face it; the autofill functions in competing products such as Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) toolbar solve most of these problems.

Now, while everyone else is indulging in the latest opportunity for schadenfreude at Redmond's expense, I like to suggest that this might be a good thing for Microsoft. It would be even better if it led to Passport's quiet demise.

Why? Microsoft is too pervasive for its own good already. Anti-Gates conspiracy theorists -- a title that now seems to describe just about anyone who's used a computer -- have always thought that Microsoft would one day try to grab a share of the world's e-commerce if Passport became widespread. If you were impressed by the EU's recent Microsoft smackdown owing to the nonexistent music monopoly of Windows Media Player, how do you think the world would respond if Passport had actually been a success?

Does Redmond really need more in the way of legal expenses and bad PR, however misguided it might be? I say nope. It's nearly dead, dude. Cut this loser loose for good, Bill, and get that Longhorn out of the chute.

For related Foolishness:

• Phish with eBay.
• Was it a good idea for InterActiveCorp to let Expedia fly the coop?
• See what kind of headaches ubiquity can bring.

Seth Jayson asks that the impassioned tech weirdos about to send him angry email limit their swearing to no more than four filthy insults. At the time of publication, he had positions in no company mentioned. View his stock holdings and Fool profile here. Fool rules are here.