vidpro2
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posted on October 25, 2003 07:46:16 AM new
Here are two interesting reads. It appears that this eBay affiliate used existing auction desciptions to get nearly half a million of his web pages indexed by Google. Clicking on his links would then redirect users to eBay search results and he would earn .05 cents/bid. The interesting part is that evidently he did this with eBay's proxy - and API. Also within eBay's user agreement, eBay has the right to use your auction descriptions in marketing efforts such as this.
Google however, saw differently and began pulling all of these links yesterday.
Battle for Eyeballs Drives Google Traffic to eBay
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y03/m10/i24/s01
follow-up story
Google Shuts Off Participant in eBay Affiliate Pilot Program
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y03/m10/i24/s00
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Roadsmith
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posted on October 25, 2003 08:47:30 AM new
Good Lord! And there's been talk of Ebay buying Google. . . .
___________________________________
"Practically speaking, a life that is vowed to simplicity, appropriate boldness, good humour, gratitude, unstinting work and play, and lots of walking, brings us close to the actually existing world and its wholeness." --Gary Snyder
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replaymedia
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posted on October 25, 2003 09:04:16 AM new
It drives more people to my auctions.
This is a bad thing now?
-------------------
Replay Media
Games of all kinds!
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fenix03
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posted on October 25, 2003 10:10:22 AM new
It's a bad thing for Google. There is abbsolutely nothing more annoying that searching for an item on the web and instead finding page after page that is nothing more than rehashed ebay listings. I'd love to see the indexing of those pages eliminated completely. Especially annoying when they are indexing closed auctionsw.
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
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pandorasbox
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posted on October 25, 2003 04:15:17 PM new
Interesting...I was just reading about this in a book titled "eBay Hacks" from O'Reilly, in which the author provides the code for working referrals through the API.
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people and I require the same from them."- John Wayne/The Shootist"(from the novel by Glendon Swarthout)
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neroter12
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posted on October 25, 2003 04:56:23 PM new
I was searching last night on google and I must have clicked back on this link two or three times before I figured out something was up here because the link said www.enterprises.com (or something to that effect), but I kept getting flipped into somebody's ebay page from it. I wouldnt have cared so much had it listed the product I was looking for, but it didnt. Apparently supposed to search this guy's store after I get there??? I dont think so.
Agree with Fenix, very annoying.
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AuctionAce
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posted on October 25, 2003 05:05:18 PM new
It is very annoying to get ebay search results over and over from Google search results.
I can also see replaymedia's view on it too that it does draw people to ebay.
I think ebay sellers doing research might be much more annoyed that a casual searcher.
-------------- sig file ----------- *There is no conclusive evidence that life is serious*
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ladyjewels2000
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posted on October 25, 2003 05:38:50 PM new
Boy I thought it was just me - most annoying Google experience I ever had, Big fat waste of time as I had already searched ebay.
But maybe replay is right - if it get attention for our auctions we should be glad.
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horsey88
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posted on October 26, 2003 06:49:28 AM new
Let's see Ebay doesn't want anyone to use their databases without getting paid but they pay AFFILIATES to use GOOGLE to reroute folks to their site free of charge.
Don't worry though some of the Ebay VERO members already have GOOGLE before the courts for rerouting searches of their copyrighted brand names to sites that sell counterfeit versions of their products. I wonder which site that would be.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/biztech/10/24/france.google.ap/
Ever do a search for "broken stick" on Ask Jeeves. Answer:Search Local Yellow Page Listings for broken stick sponsored by SMARTpages.com
Ever do a search for "broken stick" on Google it says you can find all types of them for sale on Ebay.
He who pays the piper gets to choose the songs.
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jwpc
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posted on October 26, 2003 08:53:12 AM new
PANDORASBOX - I LOVE your close of:
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people and I require the same from them."- John Wayne/The Shootist"(from the novel by Glendon Swarthout)
Pure John, Pure Class!
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AuctionAce
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posted on October 27, 2003 08:22:33 AM new
Looks like Google is fixing/fixed the problem
From the latest AB newsletter
Google Shuts Off Participant in eBay Affiliate Pilot Program
By Ina & David Steiner
AuctionBytes.com
October 27, 2003
Ryle Goodrich is part of a new eBay pilot program in which the auction site
works with affiliate participants and explores how to make them more effective.
AuctionBytes previously reported
(http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y03/m10/i24/s01) that Goodrich is using
eBay auction content to boost his rankings with Google searches, then uses a
cloaking technique to steer Google searchers over to eBay.
Google has already removed a number of Goodrich's sites from its index, and said
they should all be out of their system by Monday. According to a post in
AuctionBytes forums by a Google representative, "these sites are definitely
outside our quality guidelines at
http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html#quality."
Those guidelines include avoiding hidden text or hidden links and avoiding
"doorway" pages created just for search engines. Goodrich employed both
techniques in driving Google traffic to eBay. Goodrich's participation in eBay's
affiliate program meant he received revenue when someone bid, bought or
registered on the site when delivered to eBay by him.
As part of Goodrich's participation in eBay's new pilot program, he may use the
eBay Application Programming Interface (API), a set of functions for querying
the eBay platform. eBay spokesperson Kristin Seuell said the program was
designed to encourage eBay affiliate participants to create innovative programs
that help people find the items they are looking for on eBay.
"We did not provide guidance as to what kinds of applications the affiliates
should build. We are taking steps to evaluate test member projects. We weren't
necessarily aware of the specifics of the projects, but are taking a look at
them now."
Seuell said the pilot program launched in mid-September, at which time the
affiliates were given access to eBay's API. She said eBay takes active steps to
educate affiliates on natural-search best practices. eBay sends out newsletters
to its affiliates in which it shares the "dos and don'ts for improving
rankings."
It's not certain if this is the first time an eBay API licensee has populated
his site with content from auction descriptions in order for him to profit
through affiliate links. In the past, the API has typically been used by
companies who develop services to help eBay users buy and sell more efficiently
on its site, and by individuals and companies who want to interface more
efficiently with the auction site.
Seuell did say that eBay has the right to sublicense sellers' auction content as
outlined in section 6.3 of the eBay user agreement.
(http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-user.html) She said that while sellers
own the content, they license it to eBay under the terms of the agreement.
***
-------------- sig file ----------- *There is no conclusive evidence that life is serious*
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OPRMOND2000
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posted on October 30, 2003 10:46:00 PM new
The guy Goodrich is an @$$hole. Why do people think they can do crap like that?
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AuctionAce
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posted on October 31, 2003 02:01:53 AM new
I was searching on Google today and twice was redirected to ebay search results. One was on an clickable item buried deep in a webpage. Google may have nailed the Goodrich guy but there are still many others redirecting stuff to ebay.
-------------- sig file ----------- *There is no conclusive evidence that life is serious*
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vidpro2
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posted on October 31, 2003 03:56:41 AM new
If you find these types of redirects, you can report them to Google at
http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html
Google is becoming much more serious about taking these types of cloaked URLs off of their search engine.
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AuctionAce
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posted on October 31, 2003 11:02:20 AM new
As long as the redirects are not as numerous as the Goodrich ones they may actually help get buyers to ebay that haven't been there. It was bad with every other search result redirecting to ebay but one here or there isn't too bad.
-------------- sig file ----------- *There is no conclusive evidence that life is serious*
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Japerton
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posted on October 31, 2003 11:22:10 AM new
I am so glad, nothing is worse than searching google and getting some bogus affiliate's links to ebay searches.
J
~~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~~~~~~~~
All the monkeys aren't in the zoo,
Every day you meet quite a few,
So you see it's all up to you.
You can be better than you are,
You could be swingin' on a star
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