Google considering NFC mobile payment system originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 04 Jan 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Essential iPhone apps: Guide to the best iOS gifts for the holidays

Essential iPhone apps: Guide to the best iOS gifts for the holidays originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 22 Dec 2010 13:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

eBay Mobile 2.0 for iPhone adds RedLaser barcode scanning originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 19 Nov 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

While eBay's built-in search is certainly handy, it's not very visual. StoreSlider provides a thumbnail-laden alternative. You select a category, enter a couple of keywords, choose a sorting order, and bam! tons of auctions pop up, each with a large, pretty image.

You can also select the sorting order (Best match, Ending soonest, etc. - same options as on eBay), and filter by "Buy it Now" items or items with free delivery only. The "free delivery" is a tad sketchy; the site won't let you specify where you're located, so I suspect it's free delivery in the US only.

It's basically very similar to eBay's own search, but it's more visual and perhaps a tad faster. Another bonus is that you never have to click Next to load up more results. You just keep scrolling down, and more results are automatically loaded.

All in all, it's nothing revolutionary, but if you need to quickly review what eBay has to offer in a certain category, this is one viable search option -- and it does look nice.

StoreSlider lets you quickly search through eBay originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 12 Nov 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Gallery: A gallery of high-res Windows Phone 7 app screenshots

A gallery of high-res Windows Phone 7 app screenshots originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 12 Oct 2010 06:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading eBay launches an app for Google Android

eBay launches an app for Google Android originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Deleting your account from a social networking site can be as hard as canceling a gym membership or convincing a telemarketer that you're not interested in their product. Social networking sites and other online services don't want you to delete your account. There's value for them in being able to quote huge and growing user numbers, regardless of whether those users are happy to be there (though of course they hope that they are).

If you're trying to cancel your Facebook, Digg, or LinkedIn account and you're having a tough time figuring out just how to do it, head on over to Delete Your Account. Delete Your Account is an online resource that helps you delete accounts from an ever-growing number of online services. It currently lists Amazon, AIM, Digg, eBay, Facebook, Flickr, FriendFeed, Google, Hotmail, iTunes, Last.fm, LinkedIn, Meebo, Monster, MySpace, PayPal, reddit, The PirateBay, Twitter, Wikipedia, WordPress, Yahoo, and YouTube, with others on the way.

When possible Delete Your Account gives you a quick link to the page that allows you to delete your account, and instructions on how to verify that it is gone. If there are any details that you need to know like whether a site actually holds onto deleted data, that's listed as well.

Happy account deleting!

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Delete Your Account helps you delete accounts from online services originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

How do you determine what something is worth? Generally speaking, the answer is that something is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it. This comes up when trying to evaluate the value of companies, but it can also come up when trying to evaluate the value of something that is conceptually new. For example, years ago companies popped up that created an economy around the hyperlink. Today some people are trying commoditize Twitter followers.

As Techcrunch points out, a year ago Jason Calacanis offered $250,000 to Twitter to include him on their suggested user list, which at the time would likely have netted him about a million followers. That offer placed the value of a Twitter follower at about 25 cents.

Today, you can purchase Twitter followers on eBay Buy-It-Now listings for less than half a cent. That puts Jason's valuation last year at 50 times the current value.

Of course, the problem is that just like hyperlinks, no two twitter followers have the same value. The followers you can get from eBay listings are likely either automated bots, or followers created by follower farms driven by cheap laborers in China. And Jason's desire to acquire followers from the suggested user list would have resulted in similar low-value followers.

Of course what makes a Twitter follower valuable is engagement. If you have something to say, then you want your followers to actually be listening. On the other hand, if you just want to seem impressive with a big number of followers beside your name, I guess it's not that expensive to do these days.

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Twitter followers are worthless, or worth a lot less than you might think originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 01 Feb 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

eBay to sell Skype in a deal that values it at $2.75 billion originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 01 Sep 2009 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Will a lawsuit spell the end of Skype? originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 01 Aug 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

eBay to eliminate listing fees for casual sellers originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 12 May 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

eBay buys into South Korean auction market originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 16 Apr 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

eBay to spin off Skype with IPO in 2010 originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

eBay sells StumbleUpon back to... StumbleUpon originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 13 Apr 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Skype creators looking to buy it back from eBay originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 11 Apr 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

PicClick: Visual browser for ebay and Amazon originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 02 Jan 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Tweebay: What if eBay was powered by Twitter? originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 26 Dec 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

eBay lays off 1000 workers, buys Bill Me Later originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 06 Oct 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Online auction site eBay has launched a a new tool that makes it easy to find out how much an item is selling for on eBay even when you're visiting another site. It's called Browser Highlighter, and here's how it works. You download and install the tool, and then when you're searching for items on selected sites, a "compare on eBay" button will appear. Click the button and a window will pop up over the web page you're currently reading with a list of eBay items matching the term you were searching for.

Browser Highlighter doesn't work with every site on the web. But it does work with Google and Yahoo! search pages, Google and Yahoo! shopping pages, Amazon, and Nextag. Say for example, you're searching for an iPod. You can search Amazon for iPods, and see a list of items matching your query on Amazon. Then you can click the compare on eBay button to see if you can find a better deal on ebay before making your purchase from Amazon.

The plugin also comes bundled with the Skype browser extension that lets you click any phone number on a web page in order to initiate a call with Skype. This plugin's been available as a separate download for a while. While you can uninstall the Skype plugin once it's installed, there does not appear to be a way to opt out of installing it in the first place if all you want is the Borwser Highlighter.

Browser Highlighter works with Firefox and Internet Explorer and is available for Windows only. eBay plans to release a Mac version that works with Safari soon.

eBay launches browser-based price comparison tool originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 30 Sep 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

eBay to ban checks and money orders in late October originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 24 Sep 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TypoBuddy, like previously reviewed TypoTracker, helps you find deals by searching for misspelled variations of the items you search for. Why?

Because most people that search for a particular item will try to spell it right - meaning that listings with typos might go unnoticed, and you'll wind up getting a sweet deal just because some seller was careless enough to not check his or her typing.

It's a great concept, but does it work?

I tried submitting a few queries to both sites, first looking for "thinkpad." Although TypoBuddy told me it had found 100 misspelled matches, clicking through to the eBay results netted only 76 - still very respectable. The search automatically homes in on your locale, so you may need to change locations to get more results.

Continue reading TypoBuddy Finds Misspelled eBay, Craigslist (?) Deals

TypoBuddy Finds Misspelled eBay, Craigslist (?) Deals originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

1. Make it easier for customers to simply place an order for an item at a specified price instead of waiting a week to find out if they won an auction
2. Help eBay compete with the thousands of other web stores offering items for fixed prices
3. Kill off one of the things that really made eBay special

eBay to de-emphasize auctions, lose all distinctiveness originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

If you happen to buy or sell on eBay frequently, the Lauge custom browser is an interesting tool you'll want to check out.

Lauge sports a ton of functionality that makes using eBay less bothersome. The search tab provides a handy tree view of all eBay categories and makes navigation around the site a snap; favorite your go-to categories to access them quickly later. It also includes a simple keyword search and seller search with results filtering options.

Once you've selected a category to browse, Lauge activates the gallery view which provides a thumbnailed view of all eBay gallery items. It's a great visual tool for separating the wheat from the chaff in a hurry. Item listings can be sorted in the same ways as on eBay's site, and you can fully customize which columns you'd like displayed in the results pane. Some options, like item condition (which would be truly useful) don't yet display, though that may have more to do with sellers not specifying it in the first place.

Lauge also handles tabbed browsing, making it easy to switch back and forth between items or categories. On the downside, the panes aren't resizable which can make the item view a bit cramped. Clicking the orange "eject" button will open a full screen view that remedies the situation and lets you view the item in detail as you would on eBay.

Lauge supports English and German, and requires the MSXML 4 download.

Lauge - A Browser For eBay Junkies! originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 07 Aug 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Is Buy.com partnership transforming eBay from a marketplace to a store? originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

When you buy a piece of software, you may or may not actually own it. In many instances, software makers insist that what you're actually paying for isn't ownership of the application, but a license to use the application. And if that's all you paid for, then you don't have the right to resell the software.

But what happens when you buy a software CD secondhand? Can you sell it then? That's what Tim Vernor, an eBay dealer did. He bought several copies of AutoCAD. But when he went to sell that software on eBay, Autodesk, the makers of the software contacted eBay and requested that the auctions be suspended. Vernor issued a response, and Autodesk never responded, so his sales were reinstated.

After doing this a few times, eBay apparently received one takedown notice too many, because the auction site canceled Vernor's account. So he took Autodesk to court, claiming that he has every right to sell the software. While formal arguments have yet to be presented, Vernor has already won the first round. A federal judge denied Autodesk's motion to dismiss the case, which means that it can go forward.

The ins and outs of the case are pretty complex, but the judge has ruled that Autodesk has not yet managed to show that Vernor was bound by the company's license and prohibited from reselling the software. If Vernor is successful, this case could pave the way for an increase in used software sales on sites like eBay, although it's likely that the case would only set a precedent in cases that are extraordinarily similar to Vernor's.

[via Techdirt]

Court considers whether its legal to resell software originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 23 May 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

As expected, eBay has banned sellers from leaving negative or neutral feedback. Earlier this ear the auction site announced plans to change its feedback policy in order to discourage sellers from leaving negative feedback in retribution for negative comments from buyers.

On the one hand, this seems like a reasonable measure to prevent sellers from abusing the feedback system. On the other hand, there really are bad buyers out there. Some people bid on auctions and then back out either because they misread the item descriptions or never had any intention of paying in the first place. And while sellers can request a refund for transaction fees from eBay, they then have to either offer the item to another bidder for a lower price or re-list the item.

It would probably make a lot more sense for eBay to allow sellers to leave negative feedback -- but only before buyers leave feedback. That way there's no way to leave a nasty comment in response to negative feedback. Or perhaps eBay could allow negative feedback only after a reasonable period of time has passed, like 14 days or a month. That way buyers and sellers should have plenty of time to resolve their differences before leaving feedback.

[via Wired]

eBay eliminates negative feedback from sellers originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 19 May 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This is a story we've kind of been expecting to bring you since the day eBay bought PayPal. The company is thinking of requiring members to use PayPal to complete transactions -- in Australia anyway.

Right now you can arrange payments by check, money order, PayPal, or other methods. But next month eBay will change that policy and require Australian shoppers to pay via PayPal. And that's prompted antitrust complaints from Australian banks, which arrange money transfers for eBay auctions. Some sellers also complain that PayPal fees are higher than bank transfer fees, which means the new rule could cost them money.

Honestly, we don't know many people who use eBay and don't use PayPal. It's easy and convenient. And eBay claims it does a better job of preventing fraud than other payment services. But let's not forget that eBay gets a cut every time you pay with PayPal. And that's on top of the commission eBay already takes for items sold on the site. The company claims any additional income will be offset by increased investment in buyer protection measures.

There are currently no plans to go PayPal-only in the US and other markets. But eBay could be using Australia as a test case before expanding the policy. Australian regulators haven't yet issued a final ruling on the antitrust implications of the policy.

eBay considers PayPal requirement, invites Australians antitrust scrutiny originally appeared on Download Squad on Sun, 11 May 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

While eBay is busy annoying its power sellers by raising fees and changing its policy on digital goods, a bunch of new companies are popping up and hoping to grab a little piece of the online sales pie that eBay has been hogging. Fididel is a new site that aims to differentiate itself from other auction/retail sites by letting buyers and sellers negotiate prices in real-time.

At first glance, Fididel looks pretty much like every other online store you've ever seen. You can search for items by keyword or you can browse through a list of categories. but when you click the "fididel!" button, things get a bit funky. Instead of a bid or checkout page, you get taken to a chat window. And we're using the word chat loosely here, because there's actually only a predefined list of comments that you can leave. While this probably prevents buyers from swearing or making inappropriate comments to sellers, it also constrains the terms of your haggling session a bit.

But the important thing is that you can find an item listed for $100, offer $50, and meet somewhere in the middle. The whole process can be much quicker than waiting for an eBay auction to end. of course, the seller needs to be online in order for you to have a real-time negotiation session. But if you don't sit in front of your computer all day, you can hire another Fididel member to do your negotiating for you for a commission fee.

[via TechCrunch]

Fididel launches online marketplace: Why bid when you can haggle? originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 07 May 2008 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In case you hadn't noticed, there's been a bit of a revolt among eBay power sellers. Basically, eBay increased some fees, which led some buyers to hold a boycott. But the truth of the matter is eBay is a giant, and if you make a decent portion of your income buying and selling goods on eBay, there aren't a ton of good alternatives. Wigix wants to change that, and the site is willing to waive fees on all items sold for less than $25 to do it. For pricier items, WIgix has significantly lower transaction fees than you'll find on eBay.

Wigix isn't exactly an auction like eBay. Rather, it's an "exchange," which lets buyers and sellers connect with one another. Sellers don't have to fill out product descriptions manually. Instead they choose from a database of products which already have product descriptions. This database also makes the search process easy for buyers. When you start to enter a term in the search box, Wigix will provide a list of items to chose from before you even hit enter. When you find the item you're looking for, you can see how many buyers and sellers there are, and you can set a price at which you're wiling to buy an item. As soon as the item is available for that price, Wigix will hook you up with a seller.

Wigix wants to be the next eBay, offers no-fee auctions to do it originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 29 Apr 2008 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Chirpscreen adds Twitter, Mac support originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

eBay bans auctions of digital downloads originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 02 Apr 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Avoid pesky shipping costs with Free Shipping On originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

• Scaling Web Applications
• Google's Kevin Marks and the future of APIs
• Bringing a Web App to the masses
• Adding new features to existing applications
• Leah Culver of Pownce on the future of web services
• Launch an app in 40 minutes
• How to grow a community in the future

Continue reading Download Squad Week in Review

Download Squad Week in Review originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 01 Mar 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Sellers boycott of eBay extended into March originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 28 Feb 2008 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

eBay Desktop 1.0 released originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 26 Feb 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

eBay sellers launch boycott, nobody notices originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 20 Feb 2008 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

eBay announces (another) fee structure change originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 11 Feb 2008 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Download Squad Week in Review

Download Squad Week in Review originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 09 Feb 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

eBay to eliminate negative feedback from sellers originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 05 Feb 2008 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Selling on eBay without an auctioneer's license? originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 05 Feb 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.