eBay Desktop 1.0 released

What a time for 1.0. Hot on the heels of Adobe's official release of AIR version 1.0 comes the 1.0 version of eBay Desktop. The two releases are so close you would think the makers of eBay Desktop planned it (which of course they did).

eBay Desktop 1.0 provides a desktop alternative to the eBay website - you can use it to search, browse, bid, keep track of your auctions, and more. And because it uses Adobe AIR, it runs on both Windows (XP and Vista) and Max OS X (10.4 and 10.5).

The eBay Desktop installer weighs in around 7 MB (the AIR installer is included if you don't have it installed on your system already). Install was quick and easy, though getting the program to run was a little more work: on our test Mac, the program kept crashing until we went to the Applications folder and opened the program manually.

When you first start the program, you'll be met with a nifty little video introduction to the eBay desktop. The eBay desktop home page allows you to track all your bidding and watching activity, and there are separate tabs for finding items, tracking and paying for your winning bids, and a feeds tab.

eBay has put a lot of work into this desktop application, and it shows. The interface is clean and very intuitive. The one major drawback is the lack of features for sellers. You can't track the items you're selling or your past sales. At this time, eBay desktop is definitely a buyer's tool.

Tags: Adobe, AIR, eBay, eBay desktop, EbayDesktop, freeware