[Sigia-l] is bad design a choice?

[Alexander Rudloff]

David Heller: "Ok, eBay is a mall that is very scary to walk into. How
about that?"

You mean... like.. a flea market? ;)

Eric Reiss: "Why on earth would bidders help competing bidders find stuff?"

Your right, they probably wouldn't. But what if eBay found a selfish
enough way to spin it?

I bet if it were implemented in such a way where a user could see
direct search improvement or ease of use, it could potentially fly.

Basically, you give the user a labeling system that ties itself to the
items keywords that were defined by the seller. When a user searches
the label, they're really searching all the various keywords they've
associated with that label. As far as the average user knows, that's
the end of it.

The user sees it as a convenient way to conduct repeated searches.
They might not know exactly what key words the seller has defined, but
they do know they want more of that type of result, so they tag it for
easier search.  A large enough sample, and things would, theoretically
I guess, sort themselves out.

I think it could be a pretty interesting application of it all...

Best,

Alex Rudloff


On 10/19/05, Eric Reiss <elr at e-reiss.com> wrote:
> The "perfect place for a folksonomy"?
>
> Clearly, you never buy at auction. Why on earth would bidders help
> competing bidders find stuff?
>
> Unlike most websites, where things strive to be intuitive, eBay is an
> application that millions have learned to use. They don't mind
> relying on the back button. They've learned how to hack the search
> engine. And they know what to click and when.
>
> Is the site aesthetically pleasing? Who cares as long as folks can
> bid on something they want.
>
> Best,
> Eric
>
> e-reiss & associates
> copenhagen, denmark
> www.e-reiss.com
>
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