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Students Embarrass eBay With Firefox Add-On
An anonymous reader sends along a posting from the Grooveking blog on a group of Stanford students who got together to help promote Firefox and ended up releasing a long overdue eBay Toolbar for Firefox before Mozilla and eBay could release their jointly developed extension in Europe. Mozilla's COO said the preemptive release of the eBay Toolbar had ruffled some feathers among European eBay execs. "Besides basic search features, it removes external ads on the site and allows users to see thumbnail pictures on ALL search items, even those sellers didn't pay for. An eBay toolbar has been long overdue... eBay can't be too enthusiastic about this toolbar since it cuts directly into its main sources of revenue: ads and thumbnail fees. But eBay users get a really good deal."
I can't see why people want a search toolbar for every site they visit. I just set up a custom search that works in the main address bar. g searches google, w search wikipedia, imdb searchs imbd. Saves a lot of screen space just having the one bar to type into.
No encryption or security was bypassed so it is not a DCMA violation. However, it does directly violate the ToS of their website:
t .html
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/user-agreemen
In other words, you're accessing their content without accessing their site, which is a violation of their ToS. This is theft. They will accordingly code their site to block any access from this new "toolbar".
The new feedback system that just went into testing should help eliminate this. The problem is that the transaction is NOT finished when you pay. You could still dispute the credit card charge, or return the package, or file a complaint with the USPS, or any of a hundred other things. The new system *IS* more discrete and categorized, which hopefully means they will let us leave feedback in stages.
Also, I am in favor of not showing either party the feedback that the other user left until they have both left it. That would almost completely eliminate retaliatory feedback.
PS: I am a seller, and I actually do leave positive feedback as soon as the (proper) payment arrives.
If you visit the site with FIREFOX as your browser, it offers to install the toolbar. If you visit the site with EXPLORER as your browser, it offers to install firefox and the toolbar (making the assumption that you don't have firefox already installed.) Just access the plugin site with firefox and you should be okay.
"They've canceled the show but we're still here. What does that make us?" "Big Damn Junkies, Sir!" "Ain't we just"
No surprise that a post about eBay brings out unrelated complaints about fees. The Toolbar never had ad banners, and in fact you can fill up about the whole thing with the various search buttons (just like the Google toolbar). I did customer service for the Toolbar, and it was free, didn't spam you, didn't spy on you, and really wasn't a gauranteed source of profit. It was just a nice thing to give members who wanted it. Not many people used it, and I'm suprised they didn't can the whole thing. The only reason they didn't build it for Firefox was the same reason they didn't program Enhanced Image Services for Macintosh; there just wasn't enough incentive. Believe me, they wanted to, but I think more directly profitable innovations are going to take a little higher priority. If you want to complain about fees, go to powersellersunite or post on eBay's boards like everybody else.
eBay can't be too enthusiastic about this toolbar since it cuts directly into its main sources of revenue: ads and thumbnail fees.
I'm sorry but TFS is just wrong. Paypal is their main source of revenue. Believe me, double dipping by charging both sellers and buyers a fee to use the service is very lucrative.
I got nothin'
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