eBay gets negative feedback about ban on negative feedback
80547
Compulsory registrations unpopular too Online tat-house eBay has enraged some of its regular users by banning negative feedback about buyers and a demand that anyone flogging more than a certain amount from the UK must register as a business.â¦
319076
EBay has given notice that from now on, racially offensive terms may be used only if they are part of a book, movie or other product title.
208652
Backdoor man Letters Our story reporting the abundance of people who believe there is a secret backdoor in eBay's network appeared to touch a nerve.â¦
726916
Traditionally, virtual items are banned from eBay; however, the company said Monday that it would exempt items from the popular Second Life virtual world. The change in policy comes from a reconsideration of what the company considers a "game."
156585
Internet auction giant eBay is toughening its offensive-material policy by eliminating offensive words used as search criteria or in descriptions of items.
691595
(InfoWorld) - Someone used an eBay discussion forum on Tuesday to post confidential information about eBay users along with what may be their credit card numbers. The incident, first reported by AuctionBytes.com, a technology news site that focuses on e-commerce, led the e-commerce giant to shut down the forum, which ironically is devoted to the discussion of security issues. Nichola Sharpe, an eBay spokeswoman, confirmed that on Tuesday morning someone the vendor describes as "a malicious fraudster" posted the names and contact information of 1,200 eBay members on the company's Trust & Safety discussion forum. "This information could have been obtained as part of an account takeover. Since this time, our Trust and Safety team has been proactively addressing this situation," she said. Along with members' information, the "fraudster" also posted what appear to be credit card numbers. However, if that's what they are, they don't match the ones eBay has on file for the members whose contact information was disclosed, Sharpe said. "We are in the process of proactively contacting members by phone, so that if the information is valid somehow -- regardless how this fraudster acquired the information -- these members can take the steps they need to take to protect themselves," Sharpe said. The "fraudster" didn't obtain the information by breaching eBay's security systems, so eBay thinks the culprit stole the information via methods like phishing, she said. The company has posted more information in an official blog post. The incident, which eBay continues to monitor, has been broadly reported and commented on by eBay users on this long thread. In its article, AuctionBytes reported being able to access the forum and view several posts before they were removed. The posts included fields labeled "Id verified" and "Store" along with a time-date stamp of the user registration, AuctionBytes reported, adding that it hasn't been able to verify the accuracy of the information viewed.
126087
Executives at eBay apologized to frustrated customers who were frozen out of the online auction&#39;s payment transaction service, which experienced at least five days of intermittent failures earlier this month.
229601
eBay says it will soon drop support for Microsoft&#39;s Passport for log-in to the site and discontinuing alerts sent via Microsoft&#39;s .
465720
(InfoWorld) - A contrite and repentant Google canceled a party that irked eBay and that a source said led eBay to remove all of its ads from Google's U.S. network earlier this week. On Monday, Google announced it would throw a party in Boston on Thursday evening designed to attract eBay merchants who would be in town to attend the eBay Live annual seller conference. The purpose of the party: Protesting eBay's decision to forbid merchants in its marketplace from using Google's Checkout online transaction system. The online auction company found Google's move to be in bad taste, and at some point after the party was announced, eBay took the drastic measure of pulling all of its ads from Google's AdWords U.S. network. A source familiar with the situation said that the decision to turn off the ads had come from eBay's top executives who were steaming over what they perceived as a low blow by Google designed to embarrass eBay in front of its top merchants. It would be hard to disagree with eBay executives' assessment, considering the mocking tone of Google's party announcement, encouraging eBay merchants to gather at the Old South Meeting House, where in 1773 mass protest meetings were held, leading to the Boston Tea Party. "We'll use the same spot where revolutionaries launched the Boston Tea Party to celebrate freedom with free food, free drinks, free live music -- even free massages," the official blog posting reads. Then, on Wednesday afternoon, Google unexpectedly cancelled the party after its officials apparently determined they had gone too far. "eBay Live attendees have plenty of activities to keep them busy this week in Boston, and we did not want to detract from that activity. After speaking with officials at eBay, we at Google agreed that it was better for us not to feature this event during the eBay Live conference," reads a posting on that same blog. eBay, which had earlier blasted Google for the planned party, said it was pleased with Google's decision. "It's reassuring to see that Google recognizes that their actions were inappropriate. We're pleased that our partner chose to do the right thing and cancel their event," eBay said in a statement. However, eBay is keeping its ads off AdWords, eBay spokesman Hani Durzy said. The eBay Live event begins Thursday in Boston. The spat is yet another sign of what many consider a significant deterioration of relations between the two Internet giants in recent years as Google has become a partial competitor to eBay. Earlier Wednesday, Durzy said the decision to pull out the ads wasn't related to the party and characterized it as an ordinary experiment by eBay, similar to others the company constantly does to determine the best allocation of its advertising and marketing budget. But there is nothing ordinary about eBay and Google, and the pullout is likely to have significant repercussions for both companies while it lasts: eBay is the largest paid search advertiser in the U.S., and Google is the country's largest paid search ad network. In March, eBay ranked first in the U.S. among paid search advertisers with 802 million sponsored link exposures, or 4.1 percent of the total, according to comScore Networks. That doesn't even take into account eBay's comparison shopping engine, Shopping.com, which ranked third on that list with 357 million sponsored link exposures, or 1.8 percent of the total. Meanwhile, Google topped the list of search engine referrers, handling 57.3 percent of all paid search ad clickthroughs, comScore said. Yahoo took a distant second place with 26.1 percent of clickthroughs. At the center of this week's confrontation is Google's Checkout online transaction system, introduced about a year ago and so far banned from the eBay sites. EBay argues Checkout doesn't have enough of a track record yet, while Google charges eBay with trying to protect its own PayPal online payment system. In addition to Checkout, Google has been entering eBay territory with other products like its Base listings service. In May of last year, eBay and Yahoo struck a wide-ranging partnership that, among other things, made Yahoo the exclusive provider of search and display ads within U.S. eBay sites. Although Google performs a similar function for eBay sites outside of the U.S., the eBay-Yahoo tie up was seen as a defensive move by eBay and Yahoo against Google. Google hasn't replied to requests seeking comment.ADVERTISEMENTIBM Information On Demand 2006Industrial Industry Leaders, please join us at IBM's premier information management global event, IBM Information On Demand 2006, October 15-20, Anaheim, CA. More IBM business and technical solutions content in one place than ever before! Select from  over 800 sessions. Register today!
100039
(InfoWorld) - When Sandy Scarce began selling apparel on eBay three years ago, she planned to use the company's marketplace as her only sales channel, but today, deeply discouraged, she is moving away from it. Upset at what she perceives as misdirected policies and clunky services from eBay, Scarce opened up her own online storeÂ this week. She's also moving inventory to a rival marketplace from Amazon.com, whose operation and sales climate she finds superior. "I'm transitioning away from eBay," said Scarce, ranked as an eBay Silver PowerSeller, which means her Sandy's Closet eBay store generates between $3,000 and $9,999 in average monthly sales and provides a high level of service. Among her chief complaints is an effort announced by eBay in July of last year to prioritize its core auction listings over its stores' inventory, which she said has hurt her sales. "If you're not an eBay auction seller, eBay doesn't want you on their site. eBay has disadvantaged store owners over the last year to drive them away," Scarce said. To boost traditional listings, eBay began marketing them more aggressively, increased their exposure on the eBay Express specialty site, and raised store listing fees. "As an eBay store owner, this hasn't been a good development for me," Scarce said. "They're hiding store owners and their merchandise, making it harder for buyers to find them." She is also disappointed with the tools and applications eBay provides to sellers, many of which she considers clunky, and with the performance of the site, which she finds has deteriorated in terms of response times and availability. Scarce is not alone. On Thursday, as eBay kicked off its annual eBay Live conference for merchants in Boston, the Professional eBay Sellers Alliance (PESA) posted a scathing paper on its Web site, blasting eBay for what the group considers a significant deterioration of the marketplace. "The eBay marketplace has continued to degrade, and the current state is unhealthy," reads the paper. In the document, PESA, which includes many large eBay merchants, says the buyer experience on eBay leaves a lot to be desired and blames eBay for failing to address this issue and make the necessary investments to fix the problems. PESA is concerned that the eBay marketplace will fall into "a permanent decline." PESA considers as major problems eBay's search functionality, which it rates as subpar, and a lack of incentives for merchants that provide superior service. PESA also faults eBay for failing to fully leverage for the marketplace companies it has acquired, such as Skype and Shopping.com. In eBay's defense, eBay spokesman Hani Durzy said the company is in the midst of a "multiquarter" effort to improve the buyer experience on the marketplace. For example, eBay is actively laboring to improve its search capabilities with an effort it calls Finding 2.0. Some of those enhancements are already being tested with small groups of buyers and will be rolled out to all users progressively this year, he said. With Finding 2.0, eBay wants to improve the relevance of search results without sacrificing what Durzy calls "serendipity," which eBay considers a key ingredient of the eBay experience: Stumbling upon a product that happily surprises you. Another part of the buyer experience improvement effort is the continued reduction of fraud on the marketplace, in order to increase trust and safety. "We've always been good at this," he said. But as online crime becomes more sophisticated, eBay is stepping up its efforts, becoming more proactive in areas like detection of counterfeit products, he said. Regarding the gripes of store owners like Scarce, Durzy said that eBay in no way wants to get rid of those merchants. Instead, it just wants to "reignite" eBay's core auction activity, he said. Back in July, eBay officials explained that store listings take longer to sell and are more costly for eBay to host compared with traditional listings. Thus the reasoning behind the measures it has implemented to better balance auction and store listings. Still, the strategy makes little sense for those high-volume merchants that are distancing themselves from eBay. Designer Athletic generated about 80 percent of its sales from its eBay store a year ago, and today that is heading toward 50 percent, said George Trantas, president of the footwear and apparel vendor. "Our goal is to grow our off-eBay business," Trantas said. "eBay conversions aren't as great as they have been in the past." In addition to selling on eBay, where it is a PowerSeller, the company sells from its own Web site and from the Amazon Marketplace and others like it. Like Scarce, Trantas has found that the traditional eBay buyer requires a lot more customer service attention before a sale is closed when compared with sellers on the Amazon Marketplace and other venues. That adds to the cost of doing business on eBay, he said. Both Trantas and Scarce attribute the difference in buyers to the fact that customers generally feel safer on Amazon than on eBay, so they require less assurances from the seller. Adding to merchant concerns is the decision by eBay this week toÂ turn off all of its paid search ads on Google's U.S. ad network. One of the worried ones is Jonathan Garriss, PESA's executive director and CEO of Gotham City Online, an apparel store on eBay that also has its own site. "This is very concerning for me as a seller that eBay is willing to shut off a lot of traffic to its sellers and listings. This doesn't necessarily hurt eBay, which still collects its fees, but rather the merchants on its site," Garriss said, adding that eBay should reinstate these ads immediately. A source told IDG News Service on Wednesday that the decision was made to punish Google for planning to throw aÂ now-canceled party in BostonÂ for eBay Live attendees that want eBay to allow them to offer the Google Checkout online payment system to their buyers. Durzy said that the ad pullout remains in place as of Thursday afternoon. "I very much hope they work it out. Google and eBay have a lot to offer each other," said David Yaskulka, vice president of product marketing at Kompolt, an online auction agency. eBay says Google Checkout is too new, while Google says eBay is just trying to protect its own PayPal online payments system. Garriss, who is evaluating Checkout for his own site, believes eBay should reconsider its position. "Google has proven there's room for improvement on the online payment side, and if another option makes shoppers more comfortable, as a merchant, I'd like to add that option," Garriss said. Scarce, meanwhile, decided to stay home and not attend eBay Live. Today, her eBay inventory is down to half of what it was a year ago. After only six months, Amazon Marketplace already generates 25 percent of her sales. She'll maintain a minimal presence on eBay to drive traffic to her own store. "I see no reason to go to eBay Live. The events of this past year have made it painfully obvious that eBay isn't interested in what I do."
550432
(InfoWorld) - eBay's security experts have determined that it's highly likely that whoever posted confidential information about its members in a company discussion forum this week stole the data via an e-mail phishing scam, an eBay spokeswoman said Thursday. The perpetrator of theÂ data disclosure on about 1,200 eBay membersÂ didn't hack into eBay systems, spokeswoman Nichola Sharpe said in an e-mail interview, reiterating an assurance eBay made when the incident happened on Tuesday. eBay is working with law enforcement to take action against the fraudster, she said, while declining to answer whether the person has been identified or caught. Because the situation is delicate, eBay can't fully disclose the information it has gathered, she said. Sharpe also defended eBay's reaction to the incident, in which a malicious user posted members' information like names, addresses, user IDs and, apparently, credit card numbers on the company's Trust & Safety discussion forum. In a discussion forum thread, some eBay members have criticized the vendor for, in their view, taking too long in shutting down the forum used by the fraudster. eBay took the Trust & Safety forum offline about an hour after the fraudster began posting the confidential data. Regarding the credit card numbers, eBay now knows they didn't belong to the affected members and is fairly certain that the numbers weren't valid at all. "We have reason to believe this data was falsified to cause public concern," Sharpe said. eBay hasn't been able to determine when the phishing scam may have taken place, she said, while declining to comment on whether the data theft may involve more than the 1,200 members whose information was listed. Sharpe declined to answer whether eBay can or plans to implement changes to its discussion forums so that potentially malicious postings or suspicious activities can be automatically flagged and alerts triggered. She also declined to comment on whether eBay has any theories on why the fraudster would choose to disclose the stolen data in such a public and brazen manner. As part of its investigation, eBay has contacted the affected users by telephone. In an official blog posting Wednesday night about this incident, an eBay staffer urged eBay users to be mindful about phishing scams and how to avoid falling victim to them. Sharpe said eBay shuts down over two-thirds of phishing spoof sites in under 24 hours. "There is no silver bullet to stop spoofing and phishing -- these are Internet problems, which is why eBay collaborates with numerous third parties, such as universities, industry leaders, and law enforcement to ensure eBay is a safe, transparent place to shop," she said. eBay members should always check their "My Messages" queue to verify any e-mail from eBay concerning their account. "If an e-mail affects your eBay account, it's in My Messages. If you get an e-mail that looks like it's from eBay about a problem with your account or requests personal information and it's not in My Messages, it's a fake e-mail," she said. Suspicious e-mails should be reported to these mailboxes: spoof@ebay.com or spoof@paypal.com. "Never click on a link or reply to e-mails that ask for personal information. eBay and PayPal will never ask you for your account or credit card details, username, or password in any communications," she said. It's also advisable for members to change their passwords frequently. More information about safety measures on eBay can be found on this Web site.
765567
Tensions between eBay and Google rose on Wednesday after the auction site decided to pull some of its ads from the search engine's AdWords program.
361382
EBay Inc. says it's changing its user-feedback system to keep buyers from leaving, but the plan has sellers worried they'll no longer be able to weed out untrustworthy shoppers.
274351
Internet auction house eBay Inc. said on Wednesday it would limit the use of racial slurs after U.S. city officials complained the offensive terms were being used to advertise lawn jockeys and other antiques.
514277
PayPal, the popular payment method on auction site eBay Inc., has fixed the technical problems that had plagued the systems for almost a week, leaving many users unable to access their accounts or conduct business.
378679
Online auctioneer eBay on Tuesday sided with conservationists by banning international sales of ivory.
72885
By Abram, Stephen  Feedback is serious business. Getting it through the Web is easy and, with many services, free.  Time for a fun column to start the New Year-I thought I'd disclose a small secret this month. I have an ego.