In eBay developer news, Max Mancini, senior director of platform and innovation at eBay, and the new head of the eBay Developers Program, said in a blog posting that he formed a new team focused on accelerating "Disruptive Innovation." In his blog post Mancini wrote, "This Disruptive Innovation team will be explore new concepts and create new tools to allow our 222 million buyers, sellers and developers to make better use of the eBay platform."  In discussing priorities for 2007, Mancini said that plans include releasing new SDKs, more technical resources and some cool new technologies to create new programs for eBay buyers and sellers. There are also plans to expand the possibilities for new buyer tools by providing more APIs.

EBay has again updated its category structure, with the changes being made based on feedback received from the eBay Community. Some of the categories slated for changes include Cameras & photo, Clothing, Shoes & Accessories, Consumer Electronics, Health & Beauty, and Everything Else.

Finally, eBay renamed its Ad Format listings to "Classified Ads" and made several changes to the program. You can read the full details in our news story 'Wanted: Online Classifieds.'

In The News
EBay is pleased with the roll-out of Yahoo search advertising to boost buyer activity. Despite seller concerns that these ads will send potential buyers elsewhere, eBay said that there were very few conflicts. The auction company is also testing Google ads on some of its international sites.

In other news, eBay also completed the acquisition of StubHub, an online marketplace for the resale of event tickets (See eBay Watch: Security Measures).

Third Party eBay Services & E-commerce Tools Round-up
Chain Reaction released its File Distribution Management System (FDMS) for digital goods. The osCommerce-based shopping cart application, CRE Loaded, assists storeowners with the management, sale and distribution of downloadable media and files. Downloads are stored in a "File Library" and can be viewed and downloaded from their File Categories and File Detail pages. Requirements can be set for individual files such as login, product purchase, or allow free/unrestricted downloads. Files can be attached to any product to allow for automatic distribution of software drivers, user manuals, warranty data, or any other pertinent files. Files can be added to the File Library via FTP.

Image Logik, a member of eBay's Developer Program, announced availability of its picture magnification software, that can be used on any selling platform, including eBay and Amazon. Image Logik combines an image slide show with a zoom tool, and also hosts the images so sellers can save on multiple-image listing fees. There are three different price plans, starting at $14.95 per month and includes 100MB of storage for live listings.

Eye on The Little Guy: Pheebay Profile
Pheebay.com is a relatively new online community looking to unite online sellers and marketplace Web site owners from all over. Open discussion forums give online sellers and site owners sellers a neutral place to discuss auction sites; eBay and all the 'little guys' too. There is also a blog updated regularly by site administrators.

For those not yet familiar with Pheebay, you might recognize one or two of the administrators from the group CORE — Campaign Of Rebuffed EBayers, a UK-based group formed to organize protests and publicly criticize eBay last August when eBay initiated another round of fee hikes (See eBay Watch: Products and Protests).

Jim (aka Junkyardjims), an administrator at Pheebay, told Ecommerce-Guide that he initially became involved with CORE and the UK 'fee hike' protests by launching a few protest auctions of his own, and then went on to help to co-ordinate online boycotts. He says it wasn't fee hikes alone that prompted him to get involved. He was more irked by how eBay handled upset sellers and the continuous shut-down of the seller community's attempt to discuss the fee changes in eBay community discussion forums.

For the past year, Jim says that he's been less vocal about eBay and its policies and become more focused on helping the eBay alternatives gain greater coverage. This view is shared by other Pheebay organizers; the group is comprised of five administrators from various locations such as the UK, Scotland and US. The administrators each bring their experiences with active involvement in various online selling communities to present a view of online little guy marketplaces.

Pheebay currently offers a place to contact people associated with other selling venues and to discuss issues related to scamming and payment processing systems. It also provides a dedicated forum section where sellers are encouraged to post ads and share opinions on alternative selling platforms. Online auction and marketplace Web site owners are also encouraged to use Pheebay as a way to inform online sellers about their services.

Research Says...
comScore Media Metrix says that in the week before Valentine's Day, several online retail categories saw sales increases, but 'flowers' and 'greeting cards' realized the most dramatic gains. The Valentine's report states that more than 29 million Americans visited the Flowers, Gifts & Greeting Cards retail category in January. The American Greetings Property led the category with 8.1 million visitors, followed by Hallmark (5.6 million visitors) and RedEnvelope.com (1.9 million visitors).

In a separate report comScore says monthly analysis of U.S. consumer activity at top online properties and categories for January 2007 saw significant increases in visitation to tax, travel, careers and real estate sites. Heightened interest in tax software and Microsoft's Vista operating system boosted traffic to the Computer Software category.

Only on eBay...
This week our favorite IT is the Sharpie you definitely won't be letting co-workers borrow. In support of The GRAMMY Foundation, Sharpie is offering a one-of-a-kind Celebrity Edition Sharpie — encrusted with a total of 66 Hearts on Fire Diamonds and 1,300 Swarovski crystals.

Bidding on Bling: A mondo-marker, a Sharpie adorned with diamonds. (Click for larger image.)

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