eBay made another flurry of announcements this week, this time about four APIs announced during the eBay Developers Conference. The APIs follow the current mashup meme, allowing webmasters and developers to incorporate eBay listings and collect referral fees.
The eBay Developers Conference meets annually to highlight affiliate opportunities in commerce, communications and Web integration, covering topics like blogs and wikis, AJAX, XUL, and tagging. This year’s conference offered ways to create widgets for more targeted eBay Web presence, including soon to be launched eBay Express, a website still in preview mode, an online store that works more like a traditional retail store than an auction (no bidding).
eBay Express Search API: Greg Isaacs, director of eBay Developers Program, points to Verizon’s Superpages.com to illustrate how this API can be utilized. Do a search for [iPod] in the shopping section of the site, and a tab will appear presenting eBay listings for that item. Verizon receives a share (40-70%) of transactions completed at eBay that originate with clicks from the site.
eBay Express Shopping Cart API: This API allows developers that list eBay items on websites to add a shopping cart that users can fill directly from eBay.com, without having to go to the eBay listing directly.
eBay Product Info API: This one allows developers to create a clarification mechanism first and then incorporate product reviews and descriptions websites. A search for [Harry Potter] for example will prompt the user to specify whether they mean the book or movie. Clicking on one of the choices brings up information about the movie and a link to where it can be bought.
Contextual Keywords API beta: Allows affiliates to add HTML to a website or blog that will scan content and display listings based on it. If eBay scans the word “cars,” for example, cars available to eBay users will be listed on the site.
The APIs are open and customizable to make them unique to a developer’s needs.
“The eBay portfolio of businesses offers a powerful combination of commerce, payments, and communication tools for the new generation of developers and entrepreneurs,” said Isaacs.
eBay is also expected to announce today the details about how it plans to incorporate Skype into its auction site for a click-to-call service. Newsweek reported Sunday that Skype links will be added in a few categories that includes cars, real estate and diamond rings.
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