stonej <sto...@mail.lib.msu.edu> assumed: "... done to inflate numbers"
The evidence is consistent with that conclusion, but is not yet proof of that. This could yet be hacking, or API/server malfunction. It could also be an unannounced "test" that accidentally had the "unintended" side effect of inflating traffic, right, sure.
In any event, there clearly are "fake Ebay listings", and in large numbers. Large enough to materially affect traffic count? I suspect we'll know in a few days.
The interesting thing to watch here is whether or not this phenomenon continues, and if it stops, what happens to the traffic reports.
The YT vid also indirectly makes another point: Why do people use eBay forums to complain about eBay or ask about suspicious eBay issues? Such threads frequently get pulled, as we see happen during the vid.
That censorship is why I use AMOE. The only use for eBay forums is to ask a harmless question you think might just get an official answer from eBay.
-- Regards, Bob Niland mailto:n...@ispname.tld http://www.access-one.com/rjn email4rjn AT yahoo DOT com NOT speaking for any employer, client or Internet Service Provider.
> Aparently it looks like they were listings that should have been put on > Shopping.com (owned by Ebay) and somehow were accidentally uploaded to Ebay.
"It's known that at least 212,000 listings appeared across a dozen eBay User IDs, in comparison to the 12 - 13 million listings on eBay.com at any one time the influx of Shopping.com listings represent just over 1.6% of the total listings on the site."
Not much. Probably in the same ballpark as the boycott numbers. Just a coincidence, I'm sure :-)
On the downside of the downside, if this is a test, what eBay is testing may be diluting eBay search results with shopping.com junk.
-- Regards, Bob Niland mailto:n...@ispname.tld http://www.access-one.com/rjn email4rjn AT yahoo DOT com NOT speaking for any employer, client or Internet Service Provider.
> > Aparently it looks like they were listings that should have been put on > > Shopping.com (owned by Ebay) and somehow were accidentally uploaded to Ebay.
> "It's known that at least 212,000 listings appeared across a > dozen eBay User IDs, in comparison to the 12 - 13 million > listings on eBay.com at any one time the influx of > Shopping.com listings represent just over 1.6% of the > total listings on the site."
> Not much. > Probably in the same ballpark as the boycott numbers. > Just a coincidence, I'm sure :-)
> On the downside of the downside, if this is a test, > what eBay is testing may be diluting eBay search > results with shopping.com junk.
> -- > Regards, Bob Niland mailto:n...@ispname.tldhttp://www.access-one.com/rjn email4rjn AT yahoo DOT com > NOT speaking for any employer, client or Internet Service Provider.
If eBay is manipulating their traffic, this could affect their stock price. Which would probably be of interest to the FTC.
"Flatch U. Lance" <Flatch_U_La...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> If eBay is manipulating their traffic, > this could affect their stock price.
Which is one reason why I doubt it was deliberate inflation ordered by management. Another reason is that the artifacts of the inflating method were visible, and eBay could hardly expect no one to notice, what with the counts being watched so closely at the moment, and actual seller IDs being tied to the artifacts.
If they wanted to inflate the numbers, they would have done so invisibly.
> Which would probably be of interest to the FTC.
And the SEC, and the herds of class-action vultures, which is why any statements about it are going to be carefully worded, and only after the problem is understood.
-- Regards, Bob Niland mailto:n...@ispname.tld http://www.access-one.com/rjn email4rjn AT yahoo DOT com NOT speaking for any employer, client or Internet Service Provider.
> > If they wanted to inflate the numbers, they would have > > done so invisibly. > How?
Name a way of tallying listing counts, and I suspect those who run the servers could spoof them.
Deep search on a word found in every listing, for example.
3282584 items found for: description which presumably is any listing.
No way can I verify that all in that count is listings.
Curiously, that is supposed to be something over 65K pages of results, but the last dozen or so had no listings in them.
eBay could easily pad the numbers with a churning flood of "real" listings that are counted in search, but are coded to fail to display, as if taken down.
I don't suspect any such gaming (although if eBay does pull in SDC listings, it will bump the numbers).
-- Regards, Bob Niland mailto:n...@ispname.tld http://www.access-one.com/rjn email4rjn AT yahoo DOT com NOT speaking for any employer, client or Internet Service Provider.
On Mar 2, 4:26 pm, "Flatch U. Lance" <Flatch_U_La...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> If eBay is manipulating their traffic, this could affect their stock > price. Which would probably be of interest to the FTC
Most of the spectacular business failures (Enron, Worldcom) involved phantom income, sales and customer counts to hide the fact that a business is in decline and to prop up the stock prices until the big shots have a chance to bail out. The same pattern is being played out here.
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