Ebay To Offer Blogs
Posted on June 2, 2006
eBay is entering the world of blogs and wikis. They already have one blog called the Chatter. But Ebay will become a blogging service as well according to a page on the help section of their website. Here is what eBay says you will be able to do with an eBay blog.
An eBay Blog (Web log) gives you an online publishing tool to share your opinions with the rest of the eBay Community. Blogs can be used for a variety of purposes: to enhance an eBay store, share personal experiences or talk about collectibles you like to win on eBay. What you write on your eBay Blog is up to you because it's all about you.eBay users will have blogs at this URL: http://blogs.ebay.com/userID. The help guide points people to blogs.ebay.com as the place to set-up a blog but it isn't loading as of this writing.
Blogs are a great tool for eBay sellers. Many eBay sellers should already have blogs but probably don't. But just because eBay sellers should be blogging does that mean eBay should become a blogging service? Steve Rubel thinks Six Apart could be the provider for eBay based on the fact that the Chatter blog uses TypePad. It sounds like Ebay blogs will launch at an eBay Live conference held in Las Vegas on June 13-15.
There may be more to eBay's decision than just wanting to offer a blogging option for their members. There have been suggestions that MySpace could take on eBay and Web 2.0 services like Edgeio are targeting the web auction powerhouse so perhaps this is just eBay's way of defending their turf. It could also mean that every ecommerce company will eventually become a blog provider.