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After a week of negative headlines regarding its overpayment for Skype, today eBay launched Neighborhoods, its own social network of sorts meant to get passionate collectors talking about their crap. My initial reaction was a groan—a*nother *social network? And as Kevin Kelleher pointed out on GigaOm, eBay's certainly late to the party. Will Neighborhoods give eBay a boost? I don't think so. But it's other new features will.
The fuss over Neighborhoods caused me to spend a little time on the site, which I hadn't done in a while. What I found startled me: Neighborhoods is the least appealing among eBay's panoply of changes. The user interface is much improved in functionality and has a more modern feel. The site now has one-click bidding and a streamlined checkout. Ebay also says that its search methods have been tweaked to deliver more accurate results. It's hard to tell the difference, but if the results are truly better, that stands to have a direct impact on revenue.
The "Playground" version, a test site where eBay tries out new features, is even better. Being able to view items in more visual ways (screen shot above) feels upscale, dare I say fun. I can do without the, "HOT! HOT! HOT! NO RESERVE SO CUTE!!!!!" descriptions.
Coming soon, the site says, will be the ability to post items all on one page. If you've ever sold anything on eBay—I have offloaded some life detrius there on occasion—you know how many damn pages you have to click through to get it done. It's a project. Ebay nerds already use third party software to post items, but for non-professional sellers like me, it's a barrier lifted.
I'm sure Debbie in Omaha will enjoy discussing her Hummel figurines with other Hummelheads on Neighborhoods, but if eBay sales go up, I'd give credit to the user interface team.
