Online Ad Spend Slated for First Dip Since 2001

A new forecast from research group IDC is projecting that in the first quarter of 2009, online ad spending will see its first real decline since the dotcom implosion in 2001. After running the numbers for the fourth quarter of last year, IDC analyst Karsten Weide found that the estimates of his own firm and many others were overly optimistic. He's now expecting online ad spending to drop as much as 5 percent this quarter. "The latest numbers are not pretty," Weide wrote. "While worldwide Internet ad spend continued to grow, if at a muted pace, fourth-quarter U.S. Internet advertising sales have been much worse than anticipated." He warned that things could get even worse in the second quarter, though he remains optimistic that the sector will begin to come back to life by the end of the year. Cautiously Optimistic"The current consensus amongst economists is that the recession will end this year, and with it, online advertising will hit its stride again," he said. "This winter shall pass, too." Online advertising has long been the beneficiary of what financial types call a secular shift, referring to the economic ripple from a fundamental change in people's habits. As people have come to spend more and more time online, advertisers have shifted their spending accordingly. So while the growth rate of online advertising has been trending down as the recession has deepened, total spending has still been increasing by a year-over-year basis. By contrast, in more mature sectors — particularly print advertising — real declines are common in steep economic downturns. Online retail has experienced a similar phenomenon. With e-commerce steadily marching into the mainstream, the sector has enjoyed much steeper growth rates than the offline channel over the past several years. But in the fourth quarter of 2008, e-commerce spending declined 3 percent from the previous year, according to online metrics firm comScore. That's a steep comedown from the growth rates of around 20 percent retailers enjoyed throughout 2007. The Top Performer: Paid SearchWithin the online ad market, not all sectors have fared equally. Paid search has been the best performer, offsetting sharp drops in display and classified spending. In the fourth quarter, IDC reported that search spending increased 10 percent year-over-year, compared to a 7 percent dip in display and an 18 percent drop in classifieds. All told, spending growth was just slightly better than flat for the quarter, up a modest 0.4 percent to $7.13 billion, compared to $7.10 billion in 2007. "All of this does not bode well for the current first quarter," Weide said. IDC, which had previously projected 10 percent growth in ad spending for all of 2009, plans to release its revised forecast in March. This article by Kenneth Corbin appears courtesy of InternetNews.com.


Tenn. economy hasn’t hit bottom yet, UT reports
Click Fraud Rate Continues to Rise
Advertisers see bright spot in bleak economy
Jivox Video Ad Upgrade: Engagement Metrics, Interactive Features

Yahoo Using Search Behavior to Target Display Ads

Yahoo is not sitting still under new CEO Carol Bartz. The company this week announced major enhancements to its display advertising services designed to make the ads more relevant to Web surfers and how searches are conducted. The new features for advertisers include "search retargeting," which is designed to tie relevant display ads to search activities. For example, a user searching for "sneakers" might see an ad for Footlocker. This is similar to what ads tied to keywords do, but Yahoo also said its new "enhanced retargeting" can bring relevant ads to users as they move between different Yahoo sites, not just for search. "Search retargeting is only available from Yahoo," David Zinman, vice president and general manager of display advertising at Yahoo, told InternetNews.com. "The theme here is that marketers are looking for ways in this economic climate to make their marketing dollars go further. Our announcements today are all related to that, to take the capabilities Yahoo has in search and display and deliver better performance." At least one analyst thinks it's a great idea in theory, but Yahoo will need to be careful about how it's implemented. "Obviously relevance is important to advertisers and consumers," Gartner analyst Andrew Frank told InternetNews.com. "Yahoo is now going to use search behavior to target display ads and that's consistent with a long-standing theme of search display convergence that many companies are aiming for. This announcement puts meat on the bone." But Frank said too much relevance could be a turn off to some users who prefer to believe, whether true or not, their searching and surfing activities on the Web are anonymous. "I can see where some people might think search activities that lead to certain types of display ads appearing crosses a line," said Frank. "It's obviously less objectionable in some categories; say you're looking for a car or flat screen TV. But let's say you're looking for a divorce lawyer or psychiatrist. You don't necessarily want related ads appearing, particularly if the computer's being shared," Frank continued. "Yahoo will have to have controls on how this is implemented and I'm sure they have a privacy plan. They don't want to freak out their users." But Zinman notes the ad retargeting program is designed for major brands and is administered by Yahoo in conjunction with the advertiser. "We manage the campaign on their behalf," said Zinman, who joined the company in 2007 as part of its $300 million acquisition of Blue Lithium ad network. While Yahoo has engaged in behavioral targeting of ads for years, Zinman notes there are a number of categories where the technology is not applied because that could be considered an invasion of privacy, such as health-related ads. Yahoo's privacy policy also gives users the ability to opt-out of behavioral ad campaigns. Display ads are one area where Yahoo has an edge over its bigger Web rival Google, which dominates the market for text ads related to keyword searches. With more than 10 percent of the online display ad market in the U.S., Yahoo has about twice the share of AOL and Microsoft, according to Comscore figures released last August. Google sites have only a 1.5 share according to ComScore. The richer content in display ads (graphics, images, video) are valued by advertisers as they tend to hold the user's attention longer than a simple text ad. Yahoo, which announced the new feature at an ad conference in Florida sponsored by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, was not available for comment by press time. Yahoo did note in a release that advertisers will have control over where and when an ad is shown, including what time of day and day of the week, and even what age and gender they'd like to reach. Different time and demographic segments will be available via an online bidding process. One early user, Rico de Leon, senior director of Media Services Operations, at University of Phoenix, counted himself impressed. He said the Search Retargeting display product helped his company achieve an effective cost per lead that was at the same level as search backend goals and 50 percent lower than our regular display retargeting efforts. That ads up to a display campaign performing close to the company's search campaign. The Next Step Beyond Ads? Jordan English Gross, whose company Dorthy.com, is developing a new search engine, gives Yahoo credit for extending what it's search engine can deliver. "Seeing companies like Yahoo using enhanced search technologies to target users is good for the entire industry, especially considering that almost half of all searches are repeated," Gross told InternetNews.com. "The next tick in this evolution will be to stop relying on display ads and moving targeted, rich media placement into the overall online experience." This article by David Needle appears courtesy of InternetNews.com.


Marchex Unveils Local Search Offering
Twitter connects travelers and businesses
Yahoo Tweaks BOSS Revenue Model

Open Source E-Commerce: Survey Rates the Best in OSC

What a difference a year makes. Rarely does an industry landscape change so radically in just 12 short months. This year the upstart New osCommerce Project was crowned Best Open Source Commerce program by respondents in my Second Annual Open Source Commerce survey. It was followed by CRE Loaded, the original osCommerce, Magento, PrestaShop and a long list of "Other open source commerce programs." Best Open Source Commerce Program: Then and Now A year ago, the CRE Loaded version of osCommerce was crowned best open source commerce program by respondents, followed by Zen Cart, osCMAX and osCommerce. Editor's Picks» osCommerce is Dead: Long Live the NEW osCommerce Project

» Open Source E-Commerce Platform Magento Debuts

» osCommerce is Dead: Long Live the NEW osCommerce Project

» Open Source Watch: CRE Loaded 6.31 Released

» Open Source Watch: Magento 1.1 Released

» Open Source Watch: Specialty Hosts for E-Tailers

» OS Commerce: The True Cost of Free Shopping Carts

» Open Source: Noteworthy Newcomers PrestaShop, Ubercart

» Can Iozzia Get the CRE Loaded Love Back?

» First Annual Open Source Survey Results

» Open Source E-Commerce: Twelve Promising Programs

This year 39 percent of respondents voted for the winner New osCommerce Project, an offshoot of the moribund original osCommerce. This year's winner is followed closely by CRE Loaded with 36 percent of respondents. Last year CRE Loaded was far and away the winner, receiving votes three to one over the second place program. The original osCommerce maintains its third-place position, same as last year, but just barely, after receiving only 10 percent of all votes.

Survey Reveals Greater Industry Fragmentation

Last year the vast majority of votes went to osCommerce, CRE Loaded, Zen Cart and osCMAX, and there were virtually no "Other" votes. This year, only CRE Loaded remains in the top three. Two newcomers — the New osCommerce Project and Magento — pushed last year's second place ties, Zen Cart and osCMAX, off of this year's top tier.

An explosion of changes in the industry last year led a full 15 percent of this year's respondents to vote for other programs including Magento, PrestaShop, CS-Cart and a handful of other programs.

A year ago, Magento Commerce, a new open source e-commerce program that enjoyed wild popularity when it debuted in April last year, was not yet released for the last survey. Through most of the past year it looked like Magento was a sure thing to win, place or show, but was suddenly eclipsed with the release of the New osCommerce Project in November.

Individual Category Winners

When a program is viewed in only one category, the results can be very different. To help prevent the vote from being a pure popularity contest, the supporting survey questions are designed to help find out exactly why respondents nominate a particular program. This is because the programs have different strengths that appeal to different types of users, so it helps us to validate the data. It's also an effective method because users value different things — for instance, one user will consider a program the best because it is easiest to upgrade while another because it is friendly to store owners or customers.

In my survey, for example, voters are asked to choose only the program easiest to install, and PrestaShop is the winner in that category. Zen Cart is still the winner for easiest to upgrade.

CRE Loaded was given the highest rating by its voters in the greatest number of categories, including easiest to make additions, and most friendly to customers, store owners and Web pros.

PrestaShop, the second-newest program on the market with a July launch last year, was given the highest rating by its voters as easiest to install, and was rated very high as well for upgrading and friendliness to Web pros.

New osCommerce Project, launched in November, received high ratings by voters for easiest to install, make additions, upgrade, and friendliness to Web pros. It is basically the original osCommerce, but with the code cleaned up and no contributions installed, so it makes sense that it would win in these categories.

Interestingly, Magento was rated by its voters as very customer-friendly and store-owner friendly, but very unfriendly to Web pros. This may be because the architecture of the program is radically different from the other open source programs, forcing Web pros to invest a lot of time learning before they are able to use it.

Winners by individual category:

Easiest to Install: PrestaShop
Easiest to make additions: CRE Loaded
Easiest to upgrade: Zen Cart
Most friendly: CRE Loaded

Overall Winner by # of Votes*Voted easiest
to InstallVoted easiest
to make additionsVoted easiest
to upgradeVoted most
customer-friendlyVoted most friendly
to store ownersVoted most friendly
to Web prosOverall Winner
by Weighted Rating**New osCommerce
Project PrestaShopCRE loadedZen CartCRE loadedCRE loadedCRE loadedCRE loadedCRE Loaded CRE loadedPrestaShopPrestaShopMagentoMagentoPrestaShopPrestaShopOriginal osCommerce New osCommerce ProjectNew osCommerce ProjectNew osCommerce ProjectPrestaShopPrestaShopNew osCommerce ProjectNew osCommerce ProjectMagentoMagentoMagentoMagentoZen CartZen CartZen CartMagentoPrestaShopOriginal osCommerce Original osCommerce CRE loadedNew osCommerce ProjectOriginal osCommerce MagentoZen CartZen CartZen CartZen CartOriginal osCommerce Original osCommerce New osCommerce ProjectOriginal osCommerce Original osCommerce

*Overall Winner is the raw popularity, the program that received the most raw votes regardless of whether or not they matched the supporting questions.
**Overall Winner by Weighted Rating ranks the programs by votes received for each of the supporting questions.

 

About the survey

The Second Annual Open Source Commerce survey includes both a "beauty contest" store design contest for store owners and Web professionals, and a serious survey on what actual users consider to be the best of the industry. Although like any Web survey the results can be influenced by a candidate's campaigning, each respondent is required to answer a short series of questions to help explain why he or she believes the candidate is the best.

It is important to note that any survey on the Web is not a scientific sampling, even when careful controls are used. Not all respondents will answer all questions, and not all questions receive a statistically significant number of responses. Also, it is impossible to independently verify that a respondent has actual experience with a subject.

To improve reliability, this study compares the IP address and e-mail address of each respondent and eliminates duplicate votes. The series of questions that are required with each entry help to eliminate casual voting by persons who did not have actual knowledge of the program, boosting the reliability of these data. Nevertheless, comparing the results over a period of time reveals interesting trends in opinions by actual users.

The Users Have Spoken

This is the second annual study of open source commerce programs by actual users, and the survey results this year correlate well with last year's results. Once again, the survey results imply that the most popular open source commerce programs are correlated with the most user-friendly features toward the store owner. The most popular programs will also be the easiest to install, add additions and upgrade. They will also contain the most features that are geared toward the store owner, rather than the end customer or Web pro. It is hoped that the results of this regular survey will help improve the industry. Congratulations to the winners.

Kerry Watson is a regular contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com, as well as a consultant and author of 14 books in the OSC industry. Her Web sites are osCommerce-Resources.com and osCommerceManuals.com.

Advertisers see bright spot in bleak economy
E-Commerce Design: How to Set Up Web Site Navigation
Macy’s to cut 7,000 jobs as consumer spending falls

Web Analytics, SEM News: Free Tools, Guides, Resources

Recently in e-commerce search engine marketing (SEM) and analytics news: iPerceptions and Web analytics guru Avinash Kaushik announce an upgrade to their free online survey service.

Logic361 announces its "SEM Opportunity Dashboard" designed to maximize pay-per-click campaigns.

Plus, Yahoo's testing of rich media ads in paid search listings show promise for prosperity.

Finally, we provide links to a Google Analytics guide and Website Optimizer's new YouTube channel.


Twitter connects travelers and businesses
Is Yahoo Analtyics Better than Google’s?

Is Yahoo Analtyics Better than Google's?

When it comes to Web analytics, Google has been shaking up the established fee-based players with its free offering — Google Analytics — and quickly grabbed the lead in market share, but researcher CMS Watch said big companies would be well-advised to check out a lesser known analytics player, Yahoo. Editor's Picks» Insider Tips for Using Google Website Optimizer

» Making AdWords Add Up for Your E-Commerce Business

» Web Analytics Primer: Five Basic Metrics Demystified

» Using Google Sitemap to Improve Search Results » Search Engine Optimization Tips: Going Beyond Keywords

» D.I.Y. SEO: Four Rules for High Rankings

» eBiz News: Google Streamlines Feeds to Product Search

» Review: Wordtracker is Key to SEO

» Yahoo Web Analytics: What's the Verdict?

» Eight Free Tools for Tuning Up Online Ad Campaigns Last spring, Yahoo bought Web analytics company IndexTools and converted the company's service to its own under the name Yahoo Web Analytics. CMS Watch said with the conversion complete, Yahoo is slowly ramping up promotion and further development of the service, but it already offers several advantages over Google Analytics. Both services are free, though actively marketed by resellers who offer consulting services to help companies implement them. "Google has more customers than anyone else," CMS Watch Founder Tony Byrne told InternetNews.com. "The difference at a feature level between Google and Yahoo isn't very much if you're a small to mid-level size Company, and those customers might prefer Google's slicker interface. But when you start talking about bigger sized companies with big Web site issues, Yahoo is more relevant." Of course, Google and Yahoo are hardly the only game in town. CMS Watch evaluated 20 Web analytics platforms, including Coremetrics, Omniture, Visible Measures, and WebTrends, against 12 potential use cases in a 470-page report released this week. Byrne said smaller firms are attracted to the free services from Google and Yahoo, but they're not for everyone. Google said it had no comment on the CMS Watch report. Yahoo couldn't be reached by press time. Byrne notes that the Terms of Service (TOS) agreements for both Google and Yahoo give those companies the right to reuse the data they collect as part of their ongoing aggregation of Web traffic data. Paid services typically don't, the data belongs to the client. "Commercial Web analytics vendors, like WebTrends, Coremetrics, and Omniture, those guys will tell you, and I think it's true, that Google has helped them because it introduced a whole generation of Web managers to what analytics can do in a training tools kind of way," said Byrne. "They know there comes a time when these larger firms reach the limits of what Google can do and they'll need to upgrade." On that later point of delivering what enterprises or large companies need, the CMS Watch analysis grades Yahoo higher in several areas. For one, it has a larger default monthly page-view limit, 200 million for Yahoo versus five million for Google. Google offers more if you're running an active Google AdWords campaign. Another key difference is access to traffic data. Unlike Google, Yahoo gives you access to the raw data about Web site, not just the summary reports both offer, and the ability to export that data. Should you choose to migrate to another service, that export feature would let you continue to maintain a historical record instead of starting over. "Enterprises with legal departments care about that availability to the raw data," said Byrne. He notes neither Google nor Yahoo shares the data outside of their own companies, but the rise in privacy and security-related issues have made IT departments more sensitive than ever to who has access to their company information. Overall, CMS Watch found that Yahoo Web Analytics had its drawbacks, including "an administrative complexity that accompanied its functional richness." It also dinged the service for lack of 24/7 tech support. Byrne said neither Google or Yahoo is going to be a good fit for some enterprises that would be better off considering a fee-based Web analytics solutions. "What Google has done is focused on simplifying the report experience, but some enterprises may find the result too simple," said Byrne. This article by David Needle appears courtesy of InternetNews.com.


Temp workers suffer job losses, too
Yahoo Tweaks BOSS Revenue Model

FTC Blasted Over Guidelines on Privacy for Online Marketing

The Federal Trade Commission has weighed in on the online privacy debate with a new set of recommendations concerning how marketers can track consumer behavior on the Web. But the agency's guidelines have privacy advocacy groups disappointed — as well as some of the FTC's own commissioners. The 55-page report (PDF here) aims to lay out some best practices for online advertisers, who can track surfers to target their ads more effectively. According to the FTC, it's based on comments the agency received from tech companies, industry associations, interest groups and others. In the report, the FTC maintains its longstanding self-regulatory approach, where companies are asked — but not ordered — to enact meaningful privacy safeguards for online advertising. In some areas, it softened the guidelines to allow advertisers more freedom to use technologies such as tracking cookies. That has some privacy advocates worried. "The time for baby steps to protect online privacy has long passed," Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD), told reporters during a conference call yesterday. Chester said his group plans to ramp up its calls for Congress to enact legislation that would impose specific limitations on behavioral targeting. With the report, the FTC is aiming to maintain an important balancing act: advertising subsidizes content and services on the Web, and more and better data enable marketers to target users more effectively, which in turn keeps the ad dollars flowing. But the effort comes on the heels of some high-profile deals — and controversies — in the realm of online advertising that some critics say have helped to erode consumer privacy. In the time since the FTC last examined online privacy, new targeting technologies have appeared that, to some, have given the issue renewed urgency. One of the most high-profile cases concerned a company called NebuAd, which aimed to bring ISPs into the advertising revenue stream by intercepting people's Web browsing activities to serve relevant ads. intense congressional probe last summer, and ultimately abandoned its ISP advertising scheme. The FTC has also been taking a closer look at mobile advertising, as consumers are increasingly using smartphones to browse the Web on the go. Chester's group, along with other consumer advocates, pushed the agency to explore whether new rules on mobile advertising and tracking of mobile online activity are needed to protect consumers. Revised GuidelinesThe agency's new report also revisits its consideration of the privacy concerns associated with behavioral targeting in late 2007. The FTC was then reviewing Google's acquisition of advertising giant DoubleClick, which it ultimately approved over the vigorous objections of privacy advocates. The same day the agency cleared the buyout, it issued a set of self-regulatory guidelines — overarching principles staked around broad themes like transparency and consumer consent, which it hoped companies would adhere to rather than the firmer regulations groups like the CDD were calling for. Some major tech companies in the thick of the online-privacy debate, including Microsoft and Google, have already called for a baseline federal privacy law that would apply to all industries, online and off. But Chester and others warned that such a law would be "watered down" without explicit privacy provisions for online marketers. Concern Over Self-RegulationThe most substantive change to the FTC's self-regulatory principles revised the definition of behavioral advertising. The new report excludes activity on "first-party" sites when that information is not share with an outside firm. That would mean that data collected from a person's activities on AOL's sites, for instance, would not be considered behavioral ad targeting if it were not shared with any of AOL's advertising partners. It also excluded contextual advertising, where an ad is served up based on a single search query or site visit, from its definition of behavioral advertising. But for some, the report fell short on a more fundamental level. "My disappointment in the FTC's approach here is that there wasn't more specific renegotiation of the overall model of self-regulation," said Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum. The FTC has advocated the self-regulatory approach as a way to hold companies to a uniform standard without enacting burdensome requirements that could choke off innovation in a fast-moving industry. While the FTC issued the report with the unanimous approval of its four commissioners, two members issued opinions criticizing portions of its findings and the actions of some advertisers. "Industry needs to do a better job of meaningful, rigorous self-regulation or it will certainly invite legislation by Congress and a more regulatory approach by our commission," said Commissioner Jon Leibowitz. "Put simply, this could be the last clear chance to show that self-regulation can — and will — effectively protect consumers' privacy in a dynamic online marketplace." Another commissioner, Pamela Jones Harbour, took aim at the report for taking too narrow a focus on the privacy issue. "Threats to consumer privacy abound — both online and offline — and behavioral advertising represents just one aspect of a multifaceted privacy conundrum surrounding data collection and use," Harbour said. "I would prefer that the commission take a more comprehensive approach to privacy, and evaluate behavioral advertising within that broader context." In response to the report, four major advertisers' associations announced a joint task force to develop a cohesive self-regulatory framework throughout the industry. The effort includes the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the Association of National Advertisers, the Direct Marketing Association and the Interactive Advertising Bureau, who are working in concert with the Council of Better Business Bureaus. This article by Kenneth Corbin appears courtesy of InternetNews.com.


Advertisers see bright spot in bleak economy
Super Bowl ads reflect tough times
Click Fraud Rate Continues to Rise

Directory Combines Social Networking, E-Commerce, Biz Listings

While the Web is full of online directories (Yellow Pages, Citysearch, community sites (Yelp, Judy's Book), e-commerce platforms (Yahoo!Stores, eBay Stores), and social and professional networking sites (Facebook, LinkedIn), there are few (if any) sites that combine all four. Until now.

eBay Marketing: Three Free Widgets, eBay’s Global Hub
Macy’s to cut 7,000 jobs as consumer spending falls

Resources for Online Antique Sellers

eBay Watch: eBay News and Tips for Antique Sellers This week we continue to explore online vintage and antique auctions and offer tips for selling in a recession.




Ruby Lane is a Gem for Online Antique Sellers
U.S. home sales rise in December

Jivox Video Ad Upgrade: Engagement Metrics, Interactive Features

Jivox, an online video advertising service that helps small and medium-sized businesses reach local customers, today announced Jivox 4.0, the next major release of its online video advertising platform.

Marchex Unveils Local Search Offering
Advertisers see bright spot in bleak economy
Online Video Ads: Affiliate, AdWords News, SEO Tips, Trends

Yahoo Tweaks BOSS Revenue Model

When Yahoo pulled the lid off its search engine in July, developers were invited to tap the Build Your Own Search Service (BOSS) API for free. That's about to change. In the next couple months, Yahoo plans to roll out a fee-based model for accessing the BOSS API. Under the new model, developers and site owners will pay a small fee for each 1,000 queries that tap into the technology underlying Yahoo's search engine, a pricing structure that mirrors the cost-per-thousand (CPM) model commonly used in online advertising. The usage-based fee structure will replace the advertising model Yahoo has attached to BOSS since its roll-out. As BOSS was originally conceived, developers were offered unlimited access to Yahoo's search platform for their own sites, with one of the few requirements being that they place ads from Yahoo's network next to the search queries on their sites. Effective immediately, developers using BOSS can tap into the ad repositories of Google, Microsoft or any other network on the Web. But they'll have to pay for the service once the fee structure takes effect, likely late in the second quarter. "It's effectively the introduction of a new business for Yahoo," said Bill Michels Yahoo's senior director of open search. BOSS is one of Yahoo's most prominent overtures to the developer community, a cornerstone of the embattled Web pioneer's turnaround strategy. Yahoo pitches BOSS as a catalyst for innovation in the search industry, where developers are invited to build applications on top of Yahoo's infrastructure. "Our philosophy is we want it to be as open as possible," Michels told InternetNews.com. Using BOSS, developers can tailor searches on their own sites to query Yahoo's Web-wide index of sites, with results ordered using according to Yahoo's ranking algorithms. Tiered Pricing StructureInstead of a static CPM model, Yahoo is rolling out a tiered pricing structure based on how deeply the developer wants to delve into Yahoo's index. If a developer sets the parameters of a BOSS inquiry to only retrieve 10 results from Yahoo's search engine per query, that will entail a lower fee than if the API were set to retrieve 100 results per query. With the new fee structure, Yahoo is bringing its BOSS API more in line with existing cloud-based products, such as Amazon's Web Services business. "Our thinking is it's really along the lines of traditional Web services products," Michels said. "BOSS is basically an infrastructure for building products that rely on a very large search index." Along with the new pricing structure, Yahoo is raising the maximum number of search results that the BOSS API can retrieve from 50 results to 1,000. The company is also offering a service level agreement to provide developers a guarantee that they can build large-scale applications on the BOSS API. Yahoo is rolling out a handful of other features today to improve its BOSS API. Beginning this week, BOSS searches will be able to tap into the structured data that developers append to search results using Yahoo's SearchMonkey program. SearchMonkey, introduced in May, augments traditional search results with information designed to enhance the appearance of a listing on a results page. A restaurant for instance, could submit a link to its menu or reviews to be displayed along with its listing. Yahoo also adds abstracts to its search results to describe the information on the site. With today's update, the BOSS API will now display abstracts of up to 300 characters. Until today, the character limit had been set at 170. Finally, Yahoo is introducing a site navigation feature to BOSS, where queries through the API will be able to tap into deep-level indexing information, such as inbound links and the site map. This article by Kenneth Corbin appears courtesy of InternetNews.com.


Search Engines 101: Paid Vs. Natural Search
In a world of information, listening is a vital tool
Click Fraud Rate Continues to Rise

Marchex Unveils Local Search Offering

Imagine you need to find a sport medicine doctor, legal services, a muffler specialist or some other resource in your community. Those old enough to remember the ad slogan "Let your fingers do the walking" may still use the big Yellow Pages book to find such services. But in the age of Google, why bother? The search giant and its competition can help you find those services online. But upstart Marchex thinks it has a more efficient and focused "local-centric" solution than the big search engines provide. The company specializes in a broad array of local commerce search services that are more specifically targeted to local markets and niches. Marchex said it attracts more than 33 million people a month to its network of search services, which includes its OpenList.com and Yellow.com Web sites. OpenList is an aggregator of local businesses and services as well as reviews and ratings; Yellow.com is a centralized resource of local yellow and white page listings. Advertisers have jumped in, too. Marchex said it has more than 80,000 national and local advertisers. "Our goal is to match up advertisers and SMBs with customers," Leigh McMillan, senior vice president of marketing and communications at Marchex, told InternetNews.com. For SMBs (Small-to-Medium-sized Businesses), that reach now extends to mobile as more consumers look to the mobile devices in their pockets for information such as where to find local businesses. "The advent of the iPhone, mobile is increasingly becoming a key source for local business information," said McMillan. The mobile push is an extension of the company's Business Profile Pages. The Profile Pages give advertisers performance data to measure marketing results and return-on-investment, including click-throughs on the page, and the number of calls generated and forms submitted. Announced last week, Marchex said the Business Profile Pages for mobile are available for the iPhone, BlackBerry, and other smart phones. Analyst Greg Sterling, principal of Sterling Market Intelligence, said big profits from mobile advertising may be years away, but Marchex is smart to be getting in the game now. "It won't go to their bottom line right away, but it's strategic. Companies that can straddle both the Internet and mobile are going to be in better shape in the long run," Sterling told InternetNews.com. "The iPhone has kind of crystallized the market for everyone, so Android and Blackberry are moving in the same direction," Sterling added. Rather than ignore Google, Marchex actually works in conjunction with the search giant's ad network. Last month it became the first, and for now only, Google "AdWords authorized reseller technology platform." Among the requirements Marchex met is being able to provide a platform that is compliant with Google's API (define) and provide comprehensive reporting that includes impressions, click through rates and other metrics. Ed O'Keefe, vice president of product development at Marchex, said its work with Google is key. "With our platform, we control the knobs of what works to deliver a high performance solution," told InternetNews.com. "With Google we're able to choose and diversify and be nimble about how we use that ad inventory." McMillan said Marchex is happy to work with Google and any other current or potential competitors. "We think of ourselves as like Switzerland, we're neutral. We want to get our advertisers on whatever the best distribution is for them, whether that's ours or our competitors. We work and play well together." This article by David Needle appears courtesy of InternetNews.com


Businesses offering value do well in hard times
Yahoo Tweaks BOSS Revenue Model
Online Video Ads: Affiliate, AdWords News, SEO Tips, Trends
Advertisers see bright spot in bleak economy

New Site to Sell User-Generated Content

A new Web site is aiming to make it easier for creators of online user-generated content (UGC) to market and make money from their work. Designed to become a kind of clearinghouse for UGC creators and producers UserGenerated.com made its debut this week at the User Generated Content Conference & Expo. in San Jose, Calif. (The conference is produced by MediaBistro and owned by Jupitermedia, parent company of InternetNews.com.) The launch is aimed at capitalizing on the growth of user-generated content that's led to the success of trends like blogging and podcasting and of sites like YouTube. UserGenerated.com will start off as an industry blog and directory, as well as a social network where producers of UGC can display information about themselves and the content they have produced. However, the creators of the site said they have broader ambitions. Within the next year, they plan to make UserGenerated.com more useful to content producers by providing new ways to market, distribute, and sell their content. The company said in a statement that UserGenerated hopes to help spawn a new "User Generated Economy," enabling more UGC creators to realize revenue from what they produce. "There are truly some great production tools, and loads of people with the skills to create different content," Chris Andrews, executive producer of UserGenerated.com, said in a statement. "That includes video of important or interesting events, short films, tweets, mobile broadcasting, photos, music, audiobooks, e-books and all that content being created around blogs and social networks. The issue is, what else can you do with the content once it has been created?" Andrews noted popular UGC sites like Google-owned YouTube are designed for distribution, not the creation of content. He sees UserGenerated.com as helping a transition from "user-generated vanity" to moneymaking opportunities based on their ownership of the content. "I'd like the person who created the content, to have the maximum flexibility over what they do with their creation," Andrews said. "They own it." This article by David Needle appears courtesy of InternetNews.com


Search Engines 101: Paid Vs. Natural Search
Twitter connects travelers and businesses

Ruby Lane is a Gem for Online Antique Sellers

Ruby Lane: A Gem for Online Antique Sellers This week, we take a look at Ruby Lane, an established selling platform for vintage, antique and artisan sellers.




Businesses offering value do well in hard times
eBay Alternative News and eBay Biz Briefs
Online Marketing: Tapping Teens, Twenty-Somethings

Will Whitman's eBay Legacy Help or Hurt Bid for Office?

By the numbers, Meg Whitman's decade at eBay was a resounding triumph. The once-fledgling startup had less than $5 million in revenue when Whitman took over as CEO, but grew to a $7.67 billion business by her last full year at the helm. Now that Whitman has thrown her hat into the ring to succeed Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor of California in 2010, it's likely that tenure could play an important role in shaping public opinion around her candidacy. Her campaign comes as the economy remains at the forefront of political debate. California faces a budget shortfall of around $40 billion, a microcosm of the blight lawmakers are wrangling with at the federal level. As a result, Whitman seems likely to trade heavily on the business acumen she exhibited throughout her 10 years at the helm of eBay, turning a startup with a quirky business model into a multibillion-dollar household name. "California faces challenges unlike any other time in its history — a weak and faltering economy, massive job losses and an exploding state budget deficit," Whitman said in a statement announcing her exploratory committee. "California is better than this, and I refuse to stand by and watch it fail." Early polling casts Whitman, a Republican, as a front-runner in what could be a crowded field. According to a recent survey by Probolsky Research and the California newspaper Capital Weekly, 14 percent of likely Republican voters said they backed Whitman, trailing only Tom Campbell, a business professor and former congressman, with 15 percent of likely voters. Whitman will also lock horns with California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, another Silicon-Valley billionaire who has announced his candidacy. On the Democratic side, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who has not yet formally announced her intention to run, enjoys an early lead in the Probolsky poll with the support of 36 percent of likely voters. A Mixed Legacy from the eBay YearsBut how much of eBay's success was inevitable? While Whitman can be expected to weave her stewardship of the firm into a rags-to-riches political narrative, her political foes might retort that eBay's winning concept, brought to market when e-commerce was only beginning to gather steam, made its meteoric rise a foregone conclusion, regardless of who was calling the shots. "I think that there is definitely an argument that her opponents will make that she led the company when the expression inside the company was, 'Even a monkey could drive this train,'" said Ina Steiner, a long-time eBay watcher who runs the Web site AuctionBytes.com and is a contributing columnist at ECommerce-Guide.com. Nevertheless, Whitman, who presided over the company's international expansion, can claim credit for having the right people in the right place to ensure that eBay didn't end up on the ash heap of startups with cool concepts done in by weak management. But eBay is not the darling of the Web that it once was. Increased competition from Amazon and a host of smaller auction sites have taken their toll, while the bruising economic climate saw the company's revenue decline for the first time last quarter. The auction giant has also come under fire from some who had once been among its most loyal supporters — its sellers. "Meg was very popular for a long time among eBay sellers because she was running the company in a way that let them make money in ways that they otherwise wouldn't have been able to," Steiner told InternetNews.com. "That's shifted, because each year they've increased fees, and it became more difficult to sell on eBay and make a profit." Nevertheless, Whitman will be able to trade on the innumerable success stories of individual sellers who, thanks to eBay, had an opportunity to go into business for themselves. But with many sellers in open revolt over increasing fees and restrictions on eBay's marketplace, Whitman will not be able to count on the goodwill of the entire online auction community. "A lot of the sellers would argue that eBay ultimately failed them. The eBay of 2005 is long gone," Steiner said. Whitman spokesman Henry Gomez declined to comment on any potential trouble spots from her career at eBay. "We're confident that once Californians look at Meg's background, her success at creating jobs, and most of all, her positions on key issues, she'll be a very strong candidate," he told InternetNews.com. But tying Whitman's political image to her tenure at eBay could have some other political ramifications. The free-wheeling auction process that characterized eBay's early years has given rise to allegations of widespread fraud, bringing the site under fire from industry groups, such as the Software Information and Industry Association, which has threatened suit against eBay and sued many dozens of sellers for copyright infringement. EBay has numerous policies in place to deter fraud, but has claimed in several court cases that it is not responsible for policing its site for fakes. This stance has drawn the ire of groups working to curb the trade of counterfeit and pirated goods, and, presumably, the police trying to bring fraudsters to justice. Still, Whitman may have bought herself some goodwill with the law enforcement community last year, when she contributed $250,000 to a committee working to defeat California Proposition 5, which favored treatment programs over incarceration for drug offenders. Whitman, who by Steiner's account had "few scandals" to mar her name, might have to answer questions over alleged improprieties dating back to the late '90s. The issue was stock spinning, a now-illegal practice where an investment bank offered its preferred clients a sweetheart deal in the form of an early buy-in to shares of a company it is about to take public. A suit brought by eBay shareholders alleged that Whitman and other executives had cashed in on pre-IPO shares of several tech companies between 1999 and 2001, thanks to Goldman Sachs, the investment bank that took eBay public in 1998, and at the time counted Whitman as a board member. The plaintiffs argued that all of eBay's shareholders — not just the top executives — should have benefited from the windfall from the pre-market shares. The parties reached a settlement in 2005, in which Whitman, eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and Jeffrey Skoll, the company's former president, agreed to pay $3 million back to the shareholders. Whitman and the others didn't have to admit any wrongdoing as part of the settlement, and spinning was legal at the time. But that doesn't mean the issue won't resurface in the California campaign, Steiner said. All's fair in love, war and politics, after all. This article by Kenneth Corbin appears courtesy of InternetNews.com.


New eBay Stores: Painful or Profitable ‘Experience’?
eBay Alternative News and eBay Biz Briefs
Joe Rodgers fought for what’s right, friends say

E-Commerce Design: How to Set Up Web Site Navigation

Possibly the single most important factor that impacts your e-commerce site's success is its navigation system. For most of your visitors the distance between them successfully completing a purchase at your Web shop and giving up and going elsewhere is a few mouse clicks.

48 Home Depot stores will close; Nashville loses 1
E-Commerce Payment Processing Beyond PayPal

Affiliate Marketing: New Shopping Portals Promise Profits

What do you get when you cross affiliate marketing with a multi-level marketing business model and social consciousness? Two new shopping portals: ShopToEarn and ShopToEarth. Shop To Earn works by having both well-known retailers — for instance, Victoria's Secret and Expedia just signed on — and small Web shop owners discount up to 30 percent of the sales for shoppers and the people they refer. Editor's Picks» Up the Ante: How To Vet Affiliates

» AdSense Profile: Making Money on Google » Clicking with eBay's New Affiliate Program

» New Affiliate Tool Promises Pick, Click and Pop

» Show Me the Money: Setting Up Payment Methods

» EBay Competitor Launches Storefronts, Affiliate Plans

» Five Free Affiliate Widgets Turn Clicks into Cash These innovative shopping portals do not necessarily aim to change people's core buying habits. Instead, by routing purchases through these sites instead of going directly to the site from a search engine, consumers can earn points and cash back on their purchases.

Mixing Affiliate Marketing with the Green MovementShopToEarn is a turnkey e-business that links to about 700 retailers, while its environmentally savvy counterpart, ShopToEarth, boasts links to about 80 green companies. The portals operate identically — Dan Swiniarski, president to ShopToEarn/ShopToEarth, said that the only real difference is that the retailers linked to ShopToEarth are certified eco-friendly by a panel of experts. This is so consumers can be confident about the environmental impact the products they purchase make.

The business model basically works as follows: shoppers are paid to shop and refer other shoppers. You must be a member to take advantage of these benefits. Consumers are offered three levels of membership (members operate these Web sites as businesses to earn cash and points): Web Site Owner, Business Builder and Broker.

Each Web Site Owner receives two domain names: one that points to ShopToEarn and another to ShopToEarth. These consumers receive payments for each purchase made through their site, which saves them money on purchases. Business Builders earn commissions on their own shopping and earn bonuses for each new member they refer. The third level, Broker, is a combination of the former two levels and receives commission from all activity within their network. (Members receive their payments through monthly direct deposits.)

There is an annual fee of between $350 and about $500, but Joe Locke, vice president of sales, says most memberships quickly pay for themselves. Members also accrue points through various means that add up and are redeemed for additional money.

To make a purchase, all a member has to do is select the retailer from a drop-down menu on his or her homepage (the percentage of cash back is helpfully listed next to each retailer's name). The site then opens in its own window, and purchases are then made as they otherwise would be.

Benefits for E-Commerce Site Owners, AffiliatesRetailers and affiliates obviously stand to benefit from such a portal, as well. Forrester estimates that by 2012, online businesses will make up a $330 billion industry. If consumers see that they can earn a percentage of their purchase back, they'll be that much more inclined to buy a given product. The premise is that retailers have a "captive audience of about 80,000 members," each of whom obviously has a vested interest in shopping with the retailers affiliated with ShopToEarn/ShopToEarth. Further, with the cash members earn through both purchases of their own and referrals to other users, members have more income to spend, which creates a cycle that continually repeats. The portal is growing quickly: Since March 2008, ShopToEarn/ShopToEarth has increased from 1,200 to 80,000 members.

Getting Listed, Getting PaidTo become listed with ShopToEarn, Swiniarski says that retailers must have an affiliate program (sometimes also referred to as associate programs) in place. With that detail squared away, Swiniarski said that the retailer should prepare an offer and submit it to ShopToEarn. After the specific terms are nailed down, the retailer is added to the ShopToEarn network and its link is added to the retailer list. If the retailer deals with eco-friendly products, it must go through a review of the aforementioned experts panel. (Swiniarski noted that the requirements for ShopToEarth retailers have become stricter as it has grown.)

The percentage of cash-back savings is determined by each retailer — currently, discounts range from 1 to 30 percent. Swiniarski said that these numbers are usually based on various margins and profitability. ShopToEarn/ShopToEarth links to a wide variety of retailers both large and small.

Lisa Buyer, a spokeswoman for ShopToEarn/ShopToEarth, says that the goal of ShopToEarn and ShopToEarth is to increase environmental awareness and social responsibility. Swiniarski said that the ultimate goal is to empower people to choose a lifestyle of better health, both for themselves and the environment. Consumers can also feel good about using ShopToEarth: It has a nonprofit foundation dedicated to supporting earth-friendly charities and has plans in place to donate a portion of its sales to it.

Sally Marek Curran is a frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com


Pain of Circuit City’s end spreads
Online Video Ads: Affiliate, AdWords News, SEO Tips, Trends

E-Mail Marketing: V-Day Tips, New Tracking Tools

This week in e-commerce news, two e-mail marketing firms make headlines, with Campaigner providing six tips for capitalizing on Valentine's Day and VerticalResponse announcing new tracking and reporting tools for small Web shop owners.

Online Video Ads: Affiliate, AdWords News, SEO Tips, Trends
Twitter connects travelers and businesses
Online Marketing: Tapping Teens, Twenty-Somethings

Online Marketing: Tapping Teens, Twenty-Somethings

Strategies for E-Mail Marketing to Teens and 20-SomethingsThe e-mail marketing firm eEROI recently conducted a survey of 283 high school and college students, as well as recent college graduates representing 29 states to find out how to market online to this demographic. The report outlines which online channels, including which social networking sites, this group prefers, and generally makes the case for using e-mail as just one approach to reach this market.

eBay Marketing: Three Free Widgets, eBay’s Global Hub
As economy falls, more people put money away in savings
PlayStation 2 finally goes country with new game

eBay Marketing: Three Free Widgets, eBay's Global Hub

Customized Widgets: Expand Sales Channels, MarketingWeb Widgets are an easy and eye-pleasing way to display your online Web store merchandise on your blog, Web site, or even social networking site profile.


Twitter connects travelers and businesses
eBay Alternative Upgrades, eBay Buyer Research
Businesses offering value do well in hard times
New eBay Stores: Painful or Profitable ‘Experience’?

Online Video Ads: Affiliate, AdWords News, SEO Tips, Trends

The use of online video for both e-commerce advertising and marketing, though not entirely common-place, is still increasing. Part of what's driving the trend is that new businesses offering affordable do-it-yourself services continue to roll out more sophisticated features. Editor's Picks» Ad Network Primer: Tips for Targeted Campaigns

» Video SEO: Tips for Clips that Capture Results

» Create Customized Video Ads in Minutes

» MySpace Marketing: All the Cool Businesses Are Doing It

» Trend Watch: Unleash Your Inner Video Producer

» YouTube for E-tailers: Tips, Camcorder Reviews

» DIY Video Ad Service Includes Targeted Campaigns Today we round-up some new announcements in the sector, offer an expert's view on trends for 2009 and, finally, provide some resources for optimizing your online video. Jivox Affiliate Program DebutsJivox, an online video advertising service that helps small and medium-sized businesses reach local customers, today announced an online video advertising affiliate program. The Jivox online affiliate program offers three tiers of participation: Publisher partnership: Online publishers make available a co-branded version of the Jivox online video ad service to their advertisers and market the Jivox service across their sites. Agency partnership: Advertising, marketing and creative services agencies offer online video advertising services to their clients and manage client relationships through a Jivox master account. Referral partnership: Publishers refer their advertisers and Web site visitors to Jivox, where they can easily create, publish, and manage their own targeted video ads.

All Jivox affiliate partners will receive specific customer promotions and savings to drive Jivox registrations and sales targeting; highly effective business-building links, creative assets, and proven "best practices" to drive conversions, according to the company. Plus, affiliates will get a monthly newsletter with updates on promotions, best-converting links and more.

In addition, publisher partners will receive a custom access page that is co-branded and hosted by Jivox, as well as a publisher portal that enables them to administer and manage advertiser campaigns internally.

"The Jivox affiliate program allows all our partners to participate in the fast-growing online video advertising category by providing three levels of integration into our online video platform," said Jim Gustke, vice president of marketing and product management at Jivox. "The Jivox online video service is a modular platform that includes ad creation, online hosting and targeting and access to the online publisher network, which allows our partners to offer all or some of its components. No matter how our partners choose to integrate, by signing up as a Jivox online affiliate, they can give their customers access to highly effective, locally targeted video advertising,"

For more information on how to join the Jivox affiliate program, visit the Jivox affiliate page.

SpotMixer Joins AdWordsSpotMixer, an online video advertising service of One True Media, Inc., announced recently that it has been named an authorized reseller for the Google AdWords online advertising program. By enhancing its distribution offerings through Google AdWords, SpotMixer now provides small and medium businesses with distribution capabilities for their online video ad campaigns, offering them a low-cost solution to manage their ads from creation through distribution.

SpotMixer offers marketers the ability to cost-effectively create, target and manage online video ad campaigns through a self-serve model. With SpotMixer, online businesses now have the option to create and produce their own ads, oversee their ad campaigns, and closely manage distribution of those ads, both online and on television.

SpotMixer's tools are based on One True Media's self-service video creation and distribution platform, a video-editing site used by consumers to produce and share professional-quality online videos. The tools are so intuitive, according to the company, that any business can produce professional-quality video ads, using its own videos and photos, and distribute them to targeted audiences with just a few clicks. The service is designed specifically for small- and medium-sized businesses.

Video SEO Versus ViralMeanwhile, the actual rate of return on video ads remains somewhat elusive, with some industry watchers saying they're successful — if optimized — while others argue that viral marketing is the true key to exposure. A discussion of this topic at one of the Forrester Research blogs is here , along with the following tips for video SEO: Insert keywords into your video filenames. Host your videos on YouTube, and embed those YouTube videos into your own site. Optimize your YouTube videos by writing keywords into your videos' titles, descriptions, and tags. Embed videos into relevant text pages on your site. The context provided by the text on those pages (which is hopefully already optimized for search as well) will help the search engines figure out what your videos are about. Also create a video library on your site, so Google knows where to find your video content. (Google Video Sitemaps can help with this too.) Write keyword-rich annotations for each video in the library.

What's in Store for 2009?With online video on a course to become as widely used as e-mail, Benjamin Wayne, the CEO of plug-and-play online video provider Fliqz, offers these three predictions for what's in store this year: Death of the online video ad model: Video advertising, in terms of running ads on top of the video player itself, as opposed to, say, creating a video ad you place in an ad network, is a broken model that is extremely unlikely to work long term because of the inventory shortage and the prohibitively high cost of producing creative. We will see online video advertising shift to a subscription-based model, as well as more businesses creating and marketing their own branded videos. Jumping on the services bandwagon: Companies that are not currently selling services are going to clamor to enter the application and services spheres in 2009. With the commoditization of content delivery networks (CDNs) and the high end of the market already locked up, providers will use services as their meal ticket into the mid-market. In short, these types of companies will try to figure out how to go from providing the "plumbing" to providing value-add, and the majority of these moves will involve online video services. Standards become a battleground issue: The standardization of online video players and content distribution has been a splintered effort at best. Most vendors are reluctant to embrace universal open standards that would enable companies to easily develop their own branded players for fear that it would cannibalize their business. Meanwhile, Akamai and a handful of other companies are pushing for an open player standard with the Open Video Player initiative, but their proposal fails to improve upon the current implied Adobe standard and is more tailored for engineers rather than Web developers. In 2009, the discussions around online video standards will heat up and there will be clashing initiatives, but no accord will be reached.

Michelle Megna is managing editor of ECommerce-Guide.com


Click Fraud Rate Continues to Rise
Dell to close part of Lebanon facility as PC sales slow
Businesses offering value do well in hard times

New eBay Stores: Painful or Profitable 'Experience'?

EBay will launch a new eBay Stores "Experience" at the end of March designed to improve the look of Stores and to enhance search results for buyers. Editor's Picks» E-Coupons 101: Offering Digital Discounts

» An eBay Seller's Guide to New Year's Resolutions

» eBay Alternative Upgrades, eBay Buyer Research

» Bonanzle: The Best eBay Alternative We've Seen

» Find Profits with Revamped Google Product Search

» Review: Using inkFrog Auction Tools for Princely eBay Profits

» If You Can’t Beat Amazon, Maybe You Should Join It

» Shipping Tips and Free Tools for E-tailers

» SEO Tips: Courting Google with Your Content EBay Stores are optional storefronts where individual sellers pay a monthly subscription fee and can display all of the items they have for sale on eBay. With the new version, searches within a seller's Store will include titles, categories, item specifics, and similar keywords for more relevant results, making it more consistent with the rest of eBay.

Ina Steiner
So far sellers have had a mixed reaction to the news. Some like the new layout — eBay educator Janelle Elms of OSI Rock Stars believes buyers will stay on the site longer and spend more money with a more consistent and less frustrating experience.

Others worry about possible unintended consequences of rolling out a new version or don't see the need for change, particularly after enduring more than a year of major policy and feature changes on eBay.

Storeowners who had customized their Store designs are also worried about whether their templates might break with the new version. EBay said it would begin enforcing Site Interference rules that some owners had been breaking with their design templates. Storeowners who used CSS or Javascript to take over the eBay global header or change the appearance of the in-store search items list might find their Store looks "broken" under the new design, according to eBay, and it will restrict the use of item specific stores tags in the eBay Stores header.

Timed Roll Out, Execution IssuesEBay Storeowners can preview their Stores and may choose to opt-in before April so shoppers can experience the new look and functionality right away. The new format will be optional for now; after March, all Stores will be automatically upgraded. EBay has already identified some issues with the new format and created a thread on its Discussion Boards to keep users up to date.

Cindy Shebley operates the CloverCity Sells eBay Store and has opted in to the new version of Stores. She likes the new design but worries about all of the changes eBay is making to the site. "I believe that this new design makes it easier to skim the page quickly. That's essential," Shebley said. But, she added, "Every time eBay rolls out changes the time it takes to implement them takes away time I could be spending sourcing and selling more product on the site. I hope this new round of changes will stabilize and the upgrades will slow down so sellers can catch their breaths and focus on listing products again."

Storeowners are advised to check the way the new version affects the layout of their Stores sooner rather than later to make sure nothing "breaks," but they may want to quickly opt out again until closer to the changeover date. Because eBay changes the URL of Stores that have opted in to the new design, it appears to cause some temporary problems.

On the Google discussion boards, for example, some users reported they could not send their eBay Stores product feeds to Google Product Search via Base because of the change in their Store URLs. But when they opted back out of the new Stores experience, the problem resolved itself.

EBay had 294,120 Stores in the US as of Dec. 31, 2008, down from 303,600 in June 2008. Worldwide, eBay has 516,000 eBay Stores, 3 percent fewer than a year ago. For more information, read the announcement and FAQ posted by eBay. Ina Steiner is publisher of AuctionBytes.com and the EveryPlaceISell.com merchant directory.


PlayStation 2 finally goes country with new game
eBay Alternative News and eBay Biz Briefs
48 Home Depot stores will close; Nashville loses 1