Attendees at the fifth annual eBay Live conference had a chance to hear eBay CEO Meg Whitman and eBay North American President Bill Cobb speak at the Keynote address on Tuesday evening. The executives made some major announcements and had some special guests.

Confetti drops on the crowd during the eBay Live Keynote address.
(Photo Courtesy Julia Wilkinson)

Whitman said beginning July 19th, PayPal will begin protecting sellers from credit card chargebacks when they have been shown to have fulfilled their obligation under the PayPal dispute resolution process: "There will be no double jeopardy on buyer disputes," she said.

Whitman introduced Jack Potter, United States Postmaster General, who told attendees, "we at the postal service - we love you." Potter announced a new priority mail box that would accommodate shoes, since there are so many shoes sold on eBay, he said. Beginning Wednesday, users can order the new boxes online.

Potter also announced that the USPS would allow batch printing of postage labels on eBay instead of one at a time - the new feature will roll out in the fall.

Meg Whitman explained her philosophy of the power of three to the crowd: eBay, PayPal and Skype, its new Internet telephony company. "Both eBay and PayPal grew faster after we acquired PayPal," she said.

Whitman told attendees that eBay.com would begin testing Skype in several categories: Motors, Real Estate, and some Business & Industrial categories such as Metalworking. Sellers in those categories will be able to use the Sell Your Item form early next week to add Skype to listings. In addition, eBay will test Skype in a collectibles category: "Lost in Space" - so that users can compare notes on favorite characters, for example.

The most serious moments of the evening came when Bill Cobb addressed the issue of "Stores in Search" (SIS). When he described the rollback of SIS, a number of attendees booed, the first time in five years that eBay Live attendees booed during a keynote address.

Cobb said the rollback was necessary because the buyer experience had suffered with the feature. He said several things had occurred with SIS, including:

• buyers exiting the site more often;
• buyers watching fewer items;
• buyers returning less often.

He said this buyer behavior hurt the core, which is auctions, and which are so important to eBay - at which point, he received applause.

Cobb explained that Store results in eBay.com search results are back to the way things were in January 2006, but that eBay will continue to test ways to filter listings.

Bill Cobb got a positive response when he told attendees eBay would begin clamping down on violators of its policies regarding excessive shipping charges and fee avoidance. A recent study conducted by eBay revealed that the number one reason buyers don't complete a transaction is because of the "nasty little surprise" of excessive shipping charges, Cobb said. Such offenders compete unfairly, "game" the search results, and erode buyer trust, he added.

Cobb addressed Trust & Safety issues as they relates to global trade, and said selling cross-border is a privilege, not a right. Starting later this year, sellers will need to meet a higher seller verification requirement for cross border trading. It will vary by country. In order for foreign sellers to sell in the U.S., they will have to be PayPal verified or have a credit card merchant account.

Cobb also announced eBay Blogs, which are online now. However, when he announced eBay Wiki, a collaborative authoring tool, there was a short period of silence that seemed to indicate puzzlement on the part of listeners. He got much applause when he introduced eBay Alerts, a feature powered by Unwired Buyer that calls bidders on the phone minutes or seconds before the end of an auction to allow them to bid on the items by phone, so they don't have to remember when auctions end.

Cobb went on to discuss the eBay community and eBay employees' role in helping victims of Hurricane Katrina, and then outlined initiatives the company had made to improve customer service.

Cobb officially announced eBay Express and showed videos of eBay's new commercials featuring the new marketplace. He said in the fall, they will also bring back the "It" commercials that ran last holiday season.

One such ad featured a song from the band, the Monkees. The evening concluded with a concert by Davy Jones, a musician from that 1960s pop music band.