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eBay Reruns 'That '70s Show'

The Networking Pipeline is reporting today that eBay is negotiating to by Skype, the hot VoIP company for $2 to $3 billion. So let me think. Auctions. Telephone service. Is this a real business synergy? Or is the same faulty thinking that was behind the "conglomerate" disasters of decades past? Or does eBay just need to unload a few truckloads of cash?

eBay is in need of an injection of buzz, that's for sure. And it knows the e-mail addresses of several million people who are known to (a) use the internet and (b) spend their money for things of dubious usefulness. But how does buying Skype help boost eBay's business?

If I were eBay I'd be much more concerned about improving the service I provide to my customers -- those millions of buyers. I think over the last few years the auction service has lost its focus. It's forgotten that its real customers are not the dealers who sell stuff, they're the people who buy stuff. eBay has worked to improve services for sellers, but the eBay interface for buyers has, if anything, deteriorated.

Screens that once focused on the item for sale are now a visual chaos of cross-promotion for "eBay Stores" and "Seller's Other Great Items."

Search hasn't been functionally improved in years, and there is still no permanent way to keep track of what you've bought, who you bought it from, and how much you paid for it.

Google's Gmail has shown that effective, efficient search can be an interface to data all by itself -- and that it's possible to manage a LOT of customer data economically -- 2573MB per customer, to be precise.

That's where eBay should spend a few bucks. Not on becoming a business for the 1970s, but on reinventing its business -- its core business, its value to customers -- for the 2010s.

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