SearchEngineUpdate with Vanessa Zamora - 06-16-2008 Part II
Abstract: 1. eBay Announces Project Echo For Developers, 2. Pew Study: Americans Shift To Web For Political Activity
Vanessa Zamora
Video Content Producer, SearchEngineWorld
9:46 pm on June 16, 2008 (utc 0)
Transcript
Monday June 16, 2008
eBay Announces Project Echo For Developers
E-commerce Web site eBay, at its annual developers conference, announced Project Echo, a plan to give developers the ability to build software that runs on eBay’s selling manager, a tool which functions as a central sales management dashboard for 700,000 eBay sellers. EBay, which previously only supported applications built in-house, would now promote software built by outsiders for purchase by its many auction sellers, and take a cut of resulting sales. For sellers, Project Echo could help improve the efficiency of conducting business through eBay, along with operations outside the e-commerce site, such as accounting and customer service. eBay consumers may eventually stand to benefit by gaining access to a richer range of tools for buying on its auction and online store sites. eBay joins a growing number of companies across the Web, including Apple and Facebook, which are opening up their software platforms to act as distribution hubs for outsider developers. Project Echo is set to launch in alpha version later this year, and will launch publicly in early 2009.
Pew Study: Americans Shift To Web For Political Activity
According to a Pew Internet and American Life Project study, Americans are shifting from traditional political media coverage and turning to the Internet. The Pew survey revealed that 46 percent of all Americans have used the Internet, e-mail or cell phone text messaging for political activity, with young voters amongst the most active and intense online users. Even the presidential candidates have jumped on board, embracing online social media, including Barack Obama who started twittering and John McCaim who created a MySpace page. Activities on the rise include viewing online video, on popular web site YouTube and accessing social networking sites for discussion or to voice support. The telephone study of 2,251 adults, included 1,553 Internet users.
