BUSINESSWEEK - Technology August 19, 2008, 10:45PM EST

The online auction giant, hoping to boost inventory and revive growth, will imitate Amazon and court users who sell at fixed prices

by Catherine Holahan

The Amazon effect is getting deeper at eBay. The e-commerce giant that built its business around online auctions is stepping up an overhaul aimed at getting more users to sell items at fixed costs. On Aug. 20, eBay (EBAY) will announce plans to slash the upfront fees it charges to list sale items by as much as 75%, while increasing its final sales commission.

The goal is to make it easier to list items for a set, “buy-it-now” price on eBay. That, in turn, would increase the inventory of items for sale and—eBay hopes—attract more buyers seeking the Web’s limitless selection and the convenience of one-click shopping. “We think that this is the biggest, most fundamental change we have made,” says Lorrie Norrington, president of eBay’s global marketplaces business.
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Sillicon Alley Insider - Michael Learmonth | August 19, 2008 5:50 PM

Tough to be anyone but Google (GOOG) in search. Google gained a share point from June to July, moving from 59% to 60% of all search queries, according to Nielsen Online.

It came at the expense of MSN, which lost more than two percentage points of market share from month to month, going from 14.1% of searches to 11.9%. So if Microsoft’s “Cashback” search engine shopping gimmick actually helped boost search share in May and June, its impact seems to be dropping.

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Silicon Alley Insider - Fred Wilson | August 17, 2008 10:07 AM

I believe web services benefit from doing less, not more. I believe that allowing the users to stitch web apps together to get increased functionality is better than a web service trying to do everything for everyone. The Facebook app ecosystem is one proof point of this approach.

Evan Williams and Jack Dorsey, founders of Twitter, have talked often of the “constraints” that are built into the Twitter app. You can only post 140 characters in a single message, for example. And because Twitter didn’t have desktop client when it launched, a number of them were created and they are probably better than anything Twitter would have created. Same with the iPhone apps like Twinkle and Twitterific.

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Silicon Alley Insider - Michael Learmonth | August 16, 2008 8:21 AM

Michael Phelps will try to make history today by winning a record 8th gold medal. Thanks to NBC’s clout with the International Olympic Committee, the 4×100 meter medley relay will be held at 10:59 am Sunday in Beijing so it can be shown live, as it happens at 10:59 pm tonight on the East Coast.

But on the West Coast, NBC will show the Phelps race on tape, three hours later. We know NBC’s Olympic TV ratings have been great, and we know that most people on the West Coast don’t seem to mind watching canned sports. But we assume that some of you would like to see this historic event as it happens. And for those people, we have some options.

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Silicon Alley Insider -  Michael Learmonth | August 15, 2008 11:22 AM

ComScore (SCOR) is making a case against Google (GOOG) that will no doubt get traction among cash-starved Web publishers: the search giant’s new AdPlanner measurement tool consistently undercounts Web traffic. In other words: Google is going to take your precious advertising dollars from you. Don’t work with them!

Google introduced AdPlanner, a free analytics tool for agencies and media planners aimed squarely at comScore’s costly “Plan Metrix” service in June. Since then, comScore has been on a mission to discredit the service using two arguments:
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FORTUNE - August 12, 2008, 8:27 pm

By Michael V. Copeland

SAN FRANCISCO - Given all the drama surrounding Yahoo’s corporate activities, it’s easy to forget that there is a business still to be run and new products to launch. On Tuesday at Yahoo’s San Francisco-based skunk works - known as the Brickhouse - the embattled Internet company unveiled a new location services platform dubbed Fire Eagle. (Yes, it’s a silly name but say it 10 times fast and think of Firefox and it begins to sound OK.)

Location is one of those things that has huge potential for adding a layer of context to all kinds of services on the Web.  Geo-tagging - the practice of adding geographic information to Web sites, photos and videos - is gathering steam across all sorts of Internet-based properties, from restaurant review sites to social networks and house hunting services. What has been missing, however, is an easy way to insert yourself into that growing stream of geographic information.

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