posted on January 28, 2001 11:02:53 AM new
Ok. Here is a question. WHY is Ebay more pupular than Yahoo? Yahoo offers more options for sellers (such as on-site image uploading, the ability to set the start time etc). Yahoo is easy to use and although the search is clumsy, it works. SO what exactly is keeping everyone at Ebay. Everyone online (ok MOST PEOPLE) know about Yahoo so it is not a question of not being seen. So if both sites opened fresh today, which one would you use and why?
msn and yahoo messenger IUCARDS
posted on January 28, 2001 11:12:41 AM new
Yahoo design is by far the best.
Except the search engine should be retired
on disability.
Browse by thumbnail is by all means the best
feature.
posted on January 28, 2001 11:24:17 AM new
A lot of people I talk to don't know that Yahoo has auctions. They only seem to know about Ebay. I think Yahoo's search sucks! Other than that, I like Yahoo much better!
"If man were to be crossed with a cat, it would greatly improve the man, but deteriorate the cat." Mark Twain
posted on January 28, 2001 11:30:43 AM new
Yahoo has been the leader from a design standpoint but Ebay is morphing into Yahoo.
When Ebay started up with the BIN - Yahoo lost 1/2 it's major edge.
It is only a matter of time before ebay offers "shop by thumbnails" (The other 1/2 of Yahoo's dedge) NOT per pay gallery since this is the way buyer's want to shop. In fact, I will not purchase on ebay UNTIL I can shop everything by picture because otherwise it just too tiresome.
Anyway, at this point it does not matter because within a month there will be nothing to shop on Yahoo anyway.
posted on January 28, 2001 11:43:54 AM new
Yahoo had the best format for auctions but eBay has had the most advertising. And the one draw back to Yahoo was the search engine which didn't have a clue. That really discouraged a lot of people. If they had fixed the search engine and advertised before they charged, not with a promise to after the fact they wouldn't have seen the sellers leaving like they have. I would have stayed and paid if they had gotten the traffic there first and made the site work - search engine and customer service. I am not one for paying to see if they can or will make it work. Maybe eBay will take some of those suggestions and make themselves even bigger and better. I will continue to post my $$$$$$ items there and Bidville seems happy to play the flea market so we can once again have the best of both worlds.
posted on January 28, 2001 03:33:34 PM newEveryone online (ok MOST PEOPLE) know about Yahoo so it is not a question of not being seen
Actually, I think that relatively few people realize that Yahoo even has auctions. And even among those who do, many don't consider it to be a service equivalent to Ebay. I think a majority of bidders think that Ebay is a unique environment, even when that might not necessarily be the case.
Ebay is biggest because Ebay was first. It's like Windows. There are MANY operating systems that almost everyone would agree are far superior to Windows in many ways. But Windows has the inertia, and sometimes, that's all that matters.
posted on January 28, 2001 04:17:26 PM new
Almagated2000:
>>But Windows has the inertia, and sometimes, that's all that matters.>>
Until inertia costs too much and causes sellers to look around...
Windows sellers, unlike Ebay auctions, holds its prices down in relation to value.
Ebay's fees will eventually cause home based businesses sellers to look around for some alternatives - places where they can pay for a quality site to display their wares (gallery, Take-It, features, etc.), not full of SPAM, that does not fee them to death for everything.
THEN...I'll bet they discover YAHOO ready and waiting for them. And I, and the other small businesses who are happily YAHOOing along will be there already making it a better place!
posted on January 28, 2001 05:47:21 PM new
And that is the sad thing...They were in a position where they were gaining momentum on Ebay. If funding was an issue, they should have gone with FVF - My guess is that with a FVF, even a higher one than Ebay, would have kept most people at Yahoo. The numbers in decline are starting to approach 75% in some categories, and it has yet to bottom out.
I think most people associate Yahoo with news, e-mail, chat, search engine, instant message, games, etc. Auctions is just one of their things, but for Ebay, that is all they do. Well, guess we will never know how good Yahoo could have been.
posted on January 28, 2001 06:44:27 PM new
Ebay leads mainly because of its early critical mass in the US. That's almost an insurmountable advantage and if Yahoo can't break it, FairMarket with Microsoft, Lycos, Excite, and NBCi can't dent it, Amazon ... ha ha, let's not even go there, and AOL and Disney won't even try, then no one can.
That cuts both ways because Ebay can't dent Yahoo's critical mass in Japan. An early lead can be broken if not challenged too late because Ebay was able to do that in the UK, though it had a huge advantage in being able to offer items from its US site. Also, its competitor there seemed inept.
Of course, you can't give all the credit to critical mass. Ebay is also a very well managed company. If that wasn't true it could have much less market share than it does now and could be much less profitable or could have adopted bad strategies, like expansion at any cost.
posted on January 28, 2001 08:13:11 PM new
John10101:
<<Ebay leads mainly because of its early critical mass in the US.<<
We go from Algamated2000's Windows with inertia to Ebay's critical mass to foretell YAHOO's future...(could not resist putting these thoughts together - it is late)
Critical mass is important, but critical mass of what is even more important. When I buy, I am only interested in my specific collectibles. I don't care how many other items appear in the auction house - if what I want is presented first in a neat picture gallery, I will look at my collectibles - If the price is right and I am convinced that the seller is legitimate and hopefully businesslike based on appearance of ads & their customer's comments - I will buy.
That is how YAHOO will make it. They have the advantage of the thumbnails now - and they thumbnail everything, not like ebay who requires a separate fee.
Back to the original question in this thread - if Ebay and YAHOO were starting up, which auction house do I think would make it - YAHOO of course because of thumbnails.
Ebay can and should create these thumbnails on every auction - without charging - but until they do, YAHOO has the advantage, and in the long run will rule.
posted on January 29, 2001 12:14:37 AM new
Besides that ebay had the early lead, the sellers must have decided to stay where the buyers are, the buyers have little or no advantage on Yahoo especially with the lousy Search.
This is what's unique about online auctions, the combination of buyers and sellers who make up the transactions, which keeps the site viable. The balance was off on Yahoo and the sellers knew it. They go where the most money is to be made.
posted on January 29, 2001 01:58:31 AM new
royrogers, you said, "Ebay can and should create these thumbnails on every auction - without charging - but until they do, YAHOO has the advantage, and in the long run will rule."
You CAN'T be serious.
Without a MAJOR change in Yahoo Auction's fee structure (either free relists OR fee reductions OR switch to a reasonable flat monthly fee OR FVFs), the ONLY thing Yahoo Auction will rule is a defunct kingdom.
To answer the question....from a design standpoint, Yahoo is superior to eBay in everything but the search engine and category structure---two major seller complaints they refused to do anything about. Had they fixed them AND pushed the Auction more (as they're doing now on their main page), we would all have had greater success selling there, and more sellers could now afford to stay. But they didn't listen to us before, and they're not listening now. It's a crying shame. IN THE RIGHT HANDS, Yahoo COULD eventually have equalled eBay.
Because eBay WAS first, they had a natural advantage. There have been opportunities to take major market share away from them, but no one seized the opportunity.
We have a family here who owned the most trusted, well-respected antiques auction in the city (they said, "if you're unhappy, bring it back for a refund"---the only auction I've ever known to offer that). They sold their auction in early 1997 and used the proceeds to start one online....but they never made it totally free. During the summer of '97, everyone was FURIOUS with eBay because of constant outages and their FAILURE TO EXTEND AFFECTED AUCTIONS. It was INEXCUSABLE of eBay to let auctions end while the Auction was down, and EVERYONE was mad---buyers who couldn't bid and sellers who lost bid money.
I wanted this family to drop their FVFs, take out a loan if necessary, and advertise the heck out of their auction. The time was RIPE for another online auction to GET A FOOTHOLD, and they needed to blanket the internet with emails, press releases and banner ads. Of course they didn't, eBay eventually solved SOME of their problems and began extending auctions (very belatedly, I might add), and the family gave up their web auction. They're doing live ones again.
Looking through the other auction sites now, I'm very discouraged. I haven't found ONE that has a gallery like Yahoo's (not even eBay has that because it carries a fee, making it little-selected by sellers), a feature I've come to feel is mandatory when I want to BUY something (whether category-browsing or using keyword search). And the more desirable stuff definitely ISN'T being listed on the small sites.
It's with great reluctance that I'll return to eBad to sell. What a BUMMER........
posted on January 29, 2001 02:05:07 AM new
I don't know if you guys noiced or not.
Ebay has a huge link network. They are members of all of them pretty much. All over cyberspace there were links to Ebay and ebay banners everywhere. Like amazon (the bookstore not their auctions tisk tisk amazon)
Have you EVER seen a banner link to Yahoo Auctions any other places then from within Yahoo???
Think long and hard about this..........have you EVER seen a banner add for Yahoo auctions outside of Yahoo.......me NEVER!
For Ebay EVERYWHERE and all the friggin time.
Everyone in the cyberworld has heard of Ebay
some of the funky crap sold on ebay is national news. Like that painting where the guy got busted for shill bidding, Rosie O'Donnel selling her old crap the Today Show guest book full of autographs the list goes on.
After a year of that Yahoo tried their charity auctions.......but can anyone tell me what Yahoo has up for charity auction bid??..........no you can't cheat and go look then come back lol
The secret to Ebay is marketing, partnerships and networking.
Name one Yahoo partnership.....
http://www.lovepotions.net
posted on January 29, 2001 02:21:23 AM new
Roy Rogers
One moment please! I have noticed by your past posts here on AW, that you seem to have insight on Yahoo's strategy in regards to their online auction buisness! However, I have not heard much about the "Buy Price" format. Which is directly responsible for the success that I have enjoyed with Yahoo. If their main objective is to streamline the auction experince. Promotion of that feature would only seem logical! Perhaps a listing discount for this feature or some incentive would suffice! I have routinely sold identical items for a higher price on Yahoo with the "Buy Price" feature, as opposed to the auction format on Ebay. It is my beleive that the convenience of this feature, is responsible for those results. I invite your opinion on this matter!
posted on January 29, 2001 05:35:34 AM new
A year and a half ago when I started using Yahoo a lot over Ebay, one thing stood out: Yahoo essentially didn't crash or slow down. It obviously had the advantage of pre-existing portal server power and memory that Ebay was lacking and only belatedly adding only as forced to do so.
Is it possible that the auctions area, with more and more sellers adding longer and longer ad lists of "buy now" formats including image storage, could be seen to be nearing the point of overwhelming key memory and/or processing power? That in addition to the stated rationalizations for why policies were needed to force much fewer "quality auctions," the REAL reason might've been they didn't want to keep shortening the allowed archived records time spans to save memory for snowballing usages for 50c and $1 listings? Yep, a feature like "show images only" is terrific, but consider the memory necessary as the user base increased.... but I don't have any REAL feel for just how much Yahoo has to work with, anybody able to do more than just guess there?
posted on January 29, 2001 06:04:06 AM newEbay can and should create these thumbnails on every auction - without charging - but until they do, YAHOO has the advantage, and in the long run will rule.
I guess I had it all wrong. I had been judging these sites on HOW MUCH MONEY I MAKE THERE. How foolish of me. I should have been judging them on whether the charge a quarter for thumbnails. That makes so much sense.
posted on January 29, 2001 06:10:47 AM new
pyth00n
You make some valid points, However, in my case I bulk load so loading images to Yahoo is a waste of time. I direct pics from outside Yahoo, then Bulk load CSV file. "Buy Price" format would speed the process up all the way around! As opposed to the auction that runs 10 days before closing! Many of my auctions close hours after listing them! I finally came to the conclusion that you can run a auction for 10 days or less. However, if you only get one bid it is not much of a auction! In addition, since you only get one bid why wait to start the transaction.
posted on January 29, 2001 07:44:51 AM new
Are the sellers here just comparing Yahoo and Ebay from a design standpoint from the point of view of the seller? Isn't it more important how the buyers view it?
As a buyer, I find Yahoo auctions and the rest of Yahoo supremely efficient, but I also find it a bit sterile and lifeless. We're talking aesthetics so of course all this is subjective but I find that it seems like Ebay's pages appear like someone who has some love for it poured some effort into designing their page. For example,
posted on January 29, 2001 08:11:57 AM new
Your right John, I dont buy clothes online but if I did, I would most certainly be attracted to ebay's page probably because the dress is so Unique. the yahoo page looks like something out of the late 70's early 80's, what the model is wearing isn't any different then what I can buy down the street.
I am not predgidous of who I buy from as long as I can find what I want, I still prefer selling in Yahoo.
posted on January 29, 2001 12:02:21 PM new
Also, from a visual design point of view, Yahoo is lacking because they limit the HTML that sellers can use in their ads. I understand not allowing javascript, but things like limiting fonts and not allowing image alignment can make professionally designed ads look very amatuerish.
