Word is spreading that the long-antcipated integration of Skype into eBay’s auction site is close at hand.
eBay are holding their annual developers conference, eBay Live, this week in Las Vegas. There are an amazing 10,000 people going along to the sell-out event.
John Donahoe, president of eBay’s Marketplace unit told the assembled eBay-fans and software developers that there would be a significant announcement about it on Tuesday during Bill Cobb’s keynote speech.
The inclusion of a SkpyeMe, click-to-call button is a no-brainer. Anything that makes the potential purchaser more relaxed about spending their money is good for all concerned – the seller, purchaser and of course, eBay.
Beyond actually physically meeting the seller (you know, like people used to do in shops), voice gets closer to the norm, and the video conference feature currently in Beta with Skype gets as close as you can. The added advantages of video is the ability of the purchaser to ask the seller to turn around the object for sale and ask what the ding in the back of it is.
Skype recently introduced Skypecasting, the ability to broadcast to up to 100 Skype users. While it’s being used for a wide variety of innovative application such as learning of languages and small music concerts, we see the eBay-centric usage being live auctions.
Other things that have come up at eBay Live include eBay Blogs and Wiki’s.
Wall Street hasn’t been that keen on eBay of late with their stock dropping over 20% since they bought Skype.
What’s the difference between a Wikia and a Wikipedia? Trivia, mostly – but also, Gil Penchina (pictured below). Penchina has spent eight years running eBay as a general manager and told me it was “like a whole career with any ordinary company, and I want to stop.”
But a little roaming around exposes the difference: it’s a “community thing.” According to the Astronomy Wikia, “The wiki was started with a focus specifically on topics related to the Mid Atlantic Star Party and will include reports from MASP attendees.”
Why would you do that? In Gil’s view of the future, of course, it would be to prevent the more serious Wikipedia from being cluttered with Buffy trivia. 
Adobe has made available a proof-of-concept version of their new productivity tool, 
As bloggers 
Apple’s attempt to identify the sources of leaked product information that appeared on Mac enthusiast websites has fallen flat on its face after a Californian court ruled that on-line reporters and bloggers are entitled to the same protections as traditional journalists.
The court was having none of it, with a unanimous ruling giving the three online publications protection under the shield law, as well as the constitutional privilege against disclosure of confidential sources.
“The shield law is intended to protect the gathering and dissemination of news, and that is what petitioners did here,” added Justice Rushing.
A number of people that we know who have at one time or another had very serious eBay habits have, at one time or another have been ripped off on eBay. Some see it as a right of passage, one that makes you pay that little bit more attention the next time.
When you realise this is the case you then get angry; contact eBay; they tell you about the scheme they have in place to provide financial recompense; you find out it’s actually not worth doing because the difference between what you paid and the admin charge makes it not worthwhile. You put it down to experience.
It comes as no surprise to the more cynical amongst us, but MySpace is set to offer downloadable digital content for sale from its sister company, Fox.
To entice users to fork out for the full service, Burger King will be offering free downloads of each of the first episodes from series one and five of ’24’
The Burger King/Fox/MySpace love-in reflects the growing power of MySpace as a new distribution platform and advertising magnet, leading Bambi Francisco of MarketWatch to wonder what might happen if MySpace developed a 
Sky News are very proud of what they’re billing as the Highest Ever Video News Podcast (or HEVNP to all of you acronym manufacturers out there).
What kit to take to Everest?
The video is being shot on two cameras, both Sony’s, the HVR-Z1, or Z1 as it’s know in the trade and the HVR-A1 (A1), having the advantage that it’s really small – pretty useful when you’re having to lug it up Everest.
OpenStreetMap, an organisation that is using consumer technology to create copyright-free maps, is meeting this weekend (5-7 May) on the Isle of Wight – to map the whole Island and give the data away under a Creative Commons license.
Once the GPS data is combined with notes of road names taken via audio recordings or even notebooks (shock horror), accurate mapping data will be put into the OpenStreetMap system for all to share. Quite different to the huge cost that the Ordnance Survey (OS) is asking for similar data.
If you’re not submerged in this world, it may surprise you to find out that the United States actually gives its mapping data away for free. So through agents like Navtec, and Teleatlas, it ends up on applications like Yahoo & Google maps. Innovation like that isn’t possible in the UK as it falls at the first hurdle – that of huge expense.
Organisation like the OS who do not let their data free will be be left clutching hold of something whose value has been severely diminished, if not zero’d.
The “Old Media” is still struggling with the idea of the Internet – and discovering that embarrassing mistakes can’t be swept under the carpet. On the Internet, insults are permanent, the Guardian has discovered.
Read the story as it is today on the Guardian web site; you’ll see that Burgess is quite right to point out that the book in question was, as the cannibal admits, “The Vagina Monologues.”
No insult, obviously, was intended to the eminent writer, Steyn. But it looks like some people have got cold feet. Today’s London Evening Standard, early editions, reported that the Guardian had not covered itself with glory: “Great copytaking of our time,” it crowed in its Wednesday Media section; “Yesterday’s Guardian included the correction…” and quoted the correction, as given above, in full.
In February, we reported how 
Blogging has now become such a significant part of some 
Pesky blog spammers have been generating an increasing level of noise with their nefarious activities throughout 2006, but the level of genuine, original content still greatly outweighs the fake and/or regurgitated content churned out on splogs.