eBay Institutes New Pinterest-like "Feed"

Courtesy of Ad Age

eBay has introduced a new user interface: a streaming feed of products. eBay will let users create profile-like pages by "following" categories. It will also include normal recommended items from the user's history and previous searches. It becomes social media in the sense that users can look at friends' profiles an get inspiration for their own pages.

Now is it too much like Pinterest? This streaming feed looks more like pins to any Pinterest user. Will people think eBay is copying the streaming feed giant? Probably not. Pinterest is set up so that streaming images take up the entire screen and go on for many pages. eBay is designed to do this once a profile has been created and categories have been selected.

From a PR standpoint, this is awesome! eBay is an online shopping giant, that is top of mind for most online consumers. The aesthetic that the Pinterest design offers is that ease of use factor. Everything is easy to see, it is easily manageable. Noticing the great feedback from Pinterest and the ease of use there, it was only a matter of time before other websites began these feeds. eBay may have struck gold.

To make this new feature work its best, eBay has introduced larger product images and better product-description pages. eBay has also made checking out easier. What used to be a four-step process is now streamlined into one.

Courtesy of facebook.com

Other than adding this new feature to their website, eBay has also announced eBay Now: a same-day delivery service available in San Francisco. This was in the pilot stage for a while and is now official. More cities are planned for this delivery feature and will be announced in upcoming weeks.

Facebook has introduced "Collections" as well. This is feature that allows Facebook users to click a "want" or "Collect" button on their news feed and can save them to a wish list. This is not yet running, and was only introduced last week. With only 8 like (myself included) the idea needs a bigger push. Facebook explains: "Major push forthcoming."

Read the article.