Pierre Omidyar, founder and chairman of the Board of eBay Inc., received a rousing standing ovation when he appeared on stage at eBay live. Pierre spoke to attendees at the eBay live community conference going on this week in Orlando, Florida.

Meg Whitman, eBay president & CEO, took the stage at the 9am keynote address Friday morning. She gave a pep talk to the thousands of eBay users in attendance.

Whitman explained eBay's current initiatives in the areas of technology, site development; (including site features and functionality); trust and safety issues; and marketing efforts.

Whitman emphasised the company's progress in its ongoing efforts to minimize fraudulent activity on the site and announced the company's plans to introduce a buyer protection program through PayPal, eBay's online payment service.

Beginning in the fall, the company will increase the amount of buyer protection available. In addition to the $200 currently available on eBay, which covers almost all transactions, later this year, eBay will launch PayPal Buyer Protection. The new program will allow verified PayPal sellers with a proven track record on eBay, those with a minimum of 50 feedback with 98 percent positive, to offer buyers $500 in coverage with no service fee. Initially available for sellers in the United States and Canada, the program will cover non-delivery of items and items that are substantially not as described.

Whitman also made note of measures the company is taking to help prevent spam, spoof e-mails and account takeovers, the company has instituted a policy that limits members' requests for contact information of other users to user IDs only. In July, the company will begin to limit the number of bids a user with non-paying buyer complaints can make. The company is currently experimenting in select categories with Immediate-Payment, a PayPal solution that effectively removes non-paying buyer risk by automatically charging the buyer's credit card or bank account on Buy-It-Now transactions.

Whitman also introduced a co-op advertising program that enables PowerSellers with an eBay Store to be reimbursed by eBay for 25 percent of print advertising insertion fees, with a maximum of $8,000 per quarter for Titanium PowerSellers.

According to Whitman, during the testing period of this feature, PowerSellers who included the eBay Stores logo with their eBay Store URL in print ads saw a 76 percent increase in gross merchandise sales, a 34 percent increase in average selling price, and a 27 percent increase in bids.

Whitman then introduced Pierre Omidyar, and the two sat down on stage for an interview. Whitman asked Omidyar about the early days of eBay and his thoughts on the site today. Omyidar stared out at the large auditorium and said, "I'm blown away by the number of people that are here."

The crowd seemed delighted to see Pierre, who keeps a low profile. Whitman asked him about his current projects, and Pierre explained he was spending a lot of time with his wife on a foundation they founded. "We feel we have a responsibility to put our wealth to good use," he said, referring to the fortune he obtained through founding eBay.

Whitman wrapped up the interview and introduced a special guest, musical parody singer "Weird Al Yankovic", whose new album, "Poodle Hat", includes a parody song titled eBay.

The lights dimmed, and Weird Al and four backup singers walked on stage to rousing applause. He performed the song, and the crowd clapped their hands and tapped their toes to the song, with lyrics like "Tell me why I need another pet rock, they say they love me on eBay."

It was a feel-good way to send off attendees to their first classes of the day where they all want to be loved on eBay.