FEATURED POSTRichard Brewer-Hay / Wednesday, April 7th, 2010
The new eBay iPad application is now available for download and allows users to buy and sell using the iPad. The app is a stunning visual experience that allows users to browse through hundreds of listings in minutes through a simplified search. The app brings the window shopping experience directly to the large screen of your high resolution iPad.
Check out a video tutorial of the app here:
You can download the eBay for iPad App by clicking here.
FEATURED POSTRichard Brewer-Hay / Thursday, March 4th, 2010
From left: John Donahoe, Srivathsan Canchi, Anand Gangadharan, Pierre Omidyar
Demos in the Social Media & Finding and Internal Tools tent
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FEATURED POSTRichard Brewer-Hay / Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
In the first of a series of behind-the-scenes videos from the demos on display at this week’s Innovation Demo Expo at eBay HQ, I got a quick overview of a proposal from eBay Motors by Danny Chang (@eBayMotors). Before jumping into the video, I want to make sure that folks realize that none of the demos on display yesterday are live on site nor are they in development. Rather, this expo acts as a catalyst for good ideas to go beyond the idea phase and turns them into a reality.
I particularly liked this “green” idea from Danny Chang. Essentially, eBay sellers would get a boost in search & a badge in search results if they opt to buy CO2 offset credits for their cars. Buyers could apply “Green Sort” to rank results by miles per gallon (MPG) and CO2 offset availability. MPG info would also be included and displayed in the search results page. The tag line for this proposal is “Saving the Earth, four wheels at a time.”
Cheers,
RBH
FEATURED POSTRichard Brewer-Hay / Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
I’ve covered the Innovation Demo Expo here at eBay for a couple of years now and yesterday’s event was the best one yet. The internal event is designed to encourage eBay employees to come up with new and innovative ideas that would benefit eBay buyers and sellers. There have been a few apps and technologies that came out of this event – most notable being the eBay iPhone application.
I was lucky enough to walk through the expo yesterday and peruse the unprecedented 81 demos on display. I took some videos of the highlights.
Here is a Behind the Scenes video of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and CEO John Donahoe kicking off the event yesterday. Look for more videos as I edit and upload for you here on Ink.
Cheers!
RBH
FEATURED POSTRichard Brewer-Hay / Thursday, February 25th, 2010
As you know I was lucky enough to attend the Bloom Energy launch event yesterday at eBay Inc. in-person. In addition to covering the event on Twitter, I managed to capture some of the proceedings with my Flipcam.
I’ll update this page with additional clips as I upload them to our YouTube channel.
Cheers,
RBH
FEATURED POSTRichard Brewer-Hay / Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
This morning, eBay hosted the unveiling of a new, state-of-the-art technology at its PayPal campus in San Jose. It’s called the Bloom Energy Server (or “Bloom Box”), and some are saying it will revolutionize the world.
Developed by Bloom Energy Corporation, the Bloom Energy Server is an SUV-sized box that corporations install outside their buildings to generate their own electricity from almost any fuel source. Bloom Energy introduced its groundbreaking technology at eBay Inc. headquarters along with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, General Colin Powell, and several of its early customers. (More …)
FEATURED POSTRichard Brewer-Hay / Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
The eBay Android app is now available for free at the Android Market and can be downloaded by searching “eBay” from the Android Market on your handset. In addition to traditional type search, the eBay application – like most Android apps – comes enabled with speech-to-text voice search. Simply tap the microphone button near the search bar and say what you’re searching for. The app will then automatically search for that item… (More …)
FEATURED POSTRichard Brewer-Hay / Wednesday, January 27th, 2010
All,
I’m still answering specific questions through email and comments here on Ink but in the meantime, I wanted to share a little sneak peak into what is happening behind the scenes. In addition to our usual Customer Service call center and PR efforts around news like this, we have also established two dedicated Communications rooms to allow for real-time collaboration across social media platforms and chat rooms to ensure we could get answers out to folks as quickly as possible. These have been staffed since 6am PT yesterday morning and include folks, such as myself, focused on communicating through a specific channel (forums, blogs, Twitter, email, etc.).
I took a quick video of our Comms Room here in San Jose HQ to give folks a behind-the-scenes look at how we’re working together to communicate information in real-time. The desks are set up in a horseshoe so we can easily ask questions to anyone in the room (representatives from the Buyer & Seller team, Corp Comms, Social Media, Engineering, eBay Annnouncements, etc. are all in here) for quick response…
Out in Salt Lake City, in addition to the Customer Service center, we have another comms room devoted to social media outreach and response. What follows is a sequence of photos taken out of that room where you can see folks on Twitter, Facebook, etc…
Personally, it has been great to see so many people involved in proactively communicating information – regardless of channel or platform. As a global organization, I am hoping we can build on this for the future.
Back to it…
Cheers,
RBH
FEATURED POSTRichard Brewer-Hay / Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
All,
I was able to spend some time with Dinesh Lathi, VP of Buyer and Seller Experience at eBay, to discuss the news coming out of today’s Seller Release (eBaySR) in more detail. I did my best to anticipate some of the more challenging questions that may be on Ink reader’s minds and posed them to Dinesh (I realize you’ll have a ton more… and I’m happy to ask those too). What follows is a 7-part, comprehensive sit-down discussion with Dinesh in the lobby of the Community building at San Jose HQ. I’ve embedded the questions right into the videos. (More …)
