Now all US eBay sellers can subscribe to any of the nearly 40 applications in the Apps Center. From sourcing product to accounting tools to shipping help, these applications offer solutions for the most critical seller business needs.

Developers start coding!

Take advantage of the newly redesigned Apps Center to promote and showcase your app to millions of active eBay sellers looking for tools to grow their business.

Use the Open eBay gadget technology to build a new app from scratch or integrate your existing app into the eBay site experience. Find out more on how to get started building for

Richard Brewer Hay, Chief Blogger at eBay
Michael Brito, VP of Social Media at Edelman Digital
Michelle Broderick, Marketing Director at Yelp

According to a survey by Edelman, just 25% of consumers say they trust their friends to give them good information about a company, compared with 45% in 2008. Social marketing is built on the idea that people trust their friends more than they trust official voices so what does it mean for the future of social media? Our discussion was aimed at providing insights on how we’re using and trusting social media today and what the future holds for this space.

We tackled the following questions:
** Is trust in social media dying?
** Do social media platforms need to change in order to adapt to peoples’ behavioral evolution on the web? How so?
** Is there a difference in the community’s trust when we compare transactional and non-transactional social networks?
** Is the future of trust likely to be the migration towards official voices or your friend’s recommendations?

Here is an archive of our conversation. Apologies for the poor sound quality at the beginning… I’ll be getting a cleaner version shortly. For now…

Is Trust in Social Media Dying?

It’s
time! Registration has opened (www.ebaydevcon.com) for the 9th
annual Developers Conference, which will be held on Jun 8-10 in the
heart of Silicon Valley, San Jose, CA. We’re planning a great lineup of
networking events like our annual Beer Bash, hands on sessions to get
you working deep within our code, keynotes and one-on-one opportunities
with some of the leading thought leaders in eCommerce.

Starting
today, you can register for only $99. And if you want to make the most
of your time at DevCon, take advantage of PreConference sessions (http://www.ebaydevcon.com/about.html)

“We are delighted that eBay continues to demonstrate their strong support for the environment by becoming a member of Team Earth,” said Julie Blackwell, Senior Director of Team Earth at Conservation International. “eBay’s passionate community has changed the way we shop and we have no doubt that they can change the way we consume. They are a perfect partner to rally collective action around some of the most pressing environmental issues of our day.”

eBay also introduced its new green shopping hub – green.ebay.com – designed to help consumers access the millions of green products available on the marketplace. The hub encourages consumers to follow three simple guidelines: first, choose items that are pre-owned, vintage or refurbished; second, check whether an item is made from sustainable materials, such as those featured on WorldofGood.com by eBay; and third, choose energy and other resource saving products.

I became an eBay Green Team member shortly after I joined eBay back in 2008 and it now boasts over 150,000 members!

Throughout March and April, eBay will additionally leverage its powerful eBay Giving Works program to generate funds for a variety of environmental organizations in an effort to extend the impact of the campaign further. A series of high-profile charity auctions will offer consumers the opportunity to bid on a variety of one-of-a-kind items and experiences that will benefit green nonprofits and causes, including The Nature Conservancy, Make it Right, and The Uniform Project’s beneficiary organization, the Akanksha Fund.

Related Reads:
NY Times: EBay Highlights Conservation as a Benefit of Buying Used

Cheers,
RBH

Introducing the eBay Green Team Challenge

Heather MacPhie is an Olympic freestyle skier, who competed in the Ladies’ Moguls in Vancouver this year. I invited her to write about her experience of the Olympics and of Skype. Watch out for the second post about her competition day in the coming weeks.

One of my favorite things about the Olympics is the sense of connection. Athletes, staff, family, fans, and Olympic enthusiasts from all over the world coming together to watch the dreams and dedication of the worlds top athletes. When I say coming together I do not mean solely the people who travel to the Olympics; I mean everyone who watches, thinks about, and becomes involved in the Olympics and what it represents. In my opinion it does not matter which athletes or what country you are cheering for or representing, it matters that you are part of it. It matters that the world is coming together to celebrate something positive.

My world has exponentially expanded from becoming an Olympian. The amount of people I have gotten to meet, who have sent me encouraging words and been a part of my journey so far have made me feel more a part of the whole than ever. Made me feel closer to my hometown, my family and friends, my country and the world.

What an amazing gift to be able to connect people. Skype does that for me almost every day, and especially when I am on the road, away from many of my family and friends. To be able to see my sister and my nephew the morning of my event at the Olympics meant the world to me. I got a cyber hug from my sister, and got to listen to my nephew babble and laugh and play. To listen to my friend Susan talk about her Heather McPhie Olympic party in Park City and getting to Skype with people during the event brought tears to my eyes. It is an amazing sense of support and comfort to me, and I think of all the ways it has positively affected my life and I can not imagine how many other people feel the same way.

Pursuing my dreams in freestyle mogul skiing has taught me so much about myself, and taken me all over the world. It has been a wonderful journey, but also one that has felt lonely at times. My trip to Olympics and the coming World Cups has me away from home for two months. That is a long time for me to not see my family and friends. Skype has shortened the distance, made it easier for me to feel a part of things at home, while being on the road.

Skype and the Olympics

Please remember to use a test environment when updating applications to use a new schema version.

To find out when a version of the API will be available, see the table at the
top of the Release Notes for that API.

You can find the latest API documentation at the eBay
Developer Documentation Center.

Trading

Trading Release Notes

Release Highlights

• Store Inventory Items and Fixed Price Items to be Merged at the end of March
• New Recoupment Agreement for Cross-Border Sellers is Now Live

See the
Trading API System Announcements
for bug fixes included in this release.

Shopping

See the
Shopping API System Announcements
for bug fixes included in this release.

Client Alerts

See the
Client Alerts API System Announcements
for bug fixes included in this release.

Merchant Data

Release Highlights

• Variations in ActiveInventoryReport and SoldReport
• Type Change for Report Currency Fields
• Active Inventory Report Output Field Updates
• Sold Report Schema Element Order Fixed

See the
Large Merchant Services API System Announcements
for bug fixes included in this release.

John Darrow
API Tech Docs and Tools

659 Trading, Shopping, Client Alerts, Merchant Data API Docs Now Available

Please remember to use a test environment when updating applications to use a new schema version.

To find out when a version of the API will be available, see the table at the
top of the Release Notes for that API.

You can find the latest API documentation at the eBay
Developer Documentation Center.

Trading

Trading Release Notes

Release Highlights

• Store Inventory Items and Fixed Price Items to be Merged at the end of March
• New Recoupment Agreement for Cross-Border Sellers is Now Live

See the
Trading API System Announcements
for bug fixes included in this release.

Shopping

See the
Shopping API System Announcements
for bug fixes included in this release.

Client Alerts

See the
Client Alerts API System Announcements
for bug fixes included in this release.

Merchant Data

Release Highlights

• Variations in ActiveInventoryReport and SoldReport
• Type Change for Report Currency Fields
• Active Inventory Report Output Field Updates
• Sold Report Schema Element Order Fixed

See the
Large Merchant Services API System Announcements
for bug fixes included in this release.

John Darrow
API Tech Docs and Tools

659 Trading, Shopping, Client Alerts, Merchant Data API Docs Now Available

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