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eBay held its fourth annual Developers Conference on June 10-12 and its fifth annual eBay Live user conference on June 13-15 in Las Vegas. The shows were bigger and flashier than ever.
The big news out of the Developers Conference over the weekend was the eBay AdContext program for members of eBay's Affiliate Program. eBay AdContext is designed to give affiliates an automatic way to incorporate dynamic eBay content into their Web sites depending on the subject of the page. For example, a Web site about sports could use eBay AdContext to display ads for sporting goods listings or eBay search results for memorabilia related to a specific sports team. The eBay Developers Program also introduced four forthcoming new APIs that will allow developers to integrate their solutions with eBay Express. The goal with these programs is to drive more traffic to the eBay marketplaces.
http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m06/i12/s02
On Monday, CyberSource re-launched the BidPay online payment service. BidPay had been shuttered since CyberSource acquired it from First Data Corp./Western Union last year. However, the payment service works differently than the previous BidPay service. Users will no longer be able to purchase money orders online. Sellers now pay for the service, in which deposits are made directly to their U.S. bank account.
http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m06/i14/s02
On Monday, Mpire announced the appointment of Matt Hulett, a former president at Expedia, chairman and CEO, and announced additional news, including a new online-shopping service, the addition of consignment features to its eBay listing and management tools, and integration with ProStores.
http://blogs.mpire.com
On Tuesday, Vendio and Andale were the talk of the show when Vendio announced it had acquired a majority stake in Andale. The two companies will work together but remain separate entities.
http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m06/i13/s00
eBay CEO Meg Whitman announced Tuesday evening that eBay would integrate its VoIP telephony system Skype into 14 eBay.com categories as part of a pilot program designed to evaluate Skype use among different types of goods and user communities. If sellers select the Skype option on the SYI form, a "Skype Me" button will appear in a new "Ask a seller a question" section. By clicking on the button, buyers will be able to communicate with sellers using voice, text chat or both. Buyers can use Skype to instantly request more information about a specific item and interact with the seller in real-time. The feature will be available at no cost to users.
http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m06/i14/s08
President of eBay North America Bill Cobb announced Tuesday evening that eBay would begin clamping down on violators of its policies regarding excessive shipping charges and fee avoidance. He also addressed Trust & Safety issues as they relate to global trading ("selling cross-border is a privilege, not a right"). He also introduced eBay Blogs and Wiki.
http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m06/i14/s01
On Thursday, eBay Vice President of Advanced Solutions Chris Tsakalakis sat down for an interview with AuctionBytes and answered questions about Stores in Search, Yahoo ads on eBay, and rolling out initiatives during the holiday season.
http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m06/i16/s02
That was the major news coming out of the conferences. For a flavor of the Developers Conference, read "A Rat Pack/Poker Mash-Up: Impressions of the eBay DevCon."
http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m06/i12/s04
To get a glimpse of the socializing and special events, read "Beyond eBay Live: eBay Extracurricular Events."
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m06/i15/s01
And what did attendees think of the classes and conference? Read "Trying to Soak it All In: Learning at eBay Live."
http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m06/i16/s01
All of the news articles that came out during the show are online (http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/ebaylive2006) along with photographs (http://auctionbytes.com/ebaylive2006/gallery.html) and video programming on AuctionBytes.TV (http://auctionbytes.com/cab/pages/tvguide_ebaylive2006).
The final announcement from the Thursday night gala was that next year's eBay Live conference would take place in Boston (http://www.advantageboston.com/BCEC/Default.asp).
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