First I read on Jeremy Zawodny's blog that he was leaving for Google. Then I read a couple lines of Scoble's blog and saw he was also leaving for Google. I emailed Adam and Alan to give them a heads up.

OK...this can't be just a coincidence. I continued to read Scoble's blog and was thinking, wow, this guy is really not holding anything back.  OK...what the hell is going on here?  Then I remembered today is April Fools.  Serves me right for getting online at 630am on Saturday.

The Developers Program team has been busy this week at Mix06 speaking on panels/ breakout sessions and getting the Developers Program mentioned by Bill Gates in his keynote. You can read more about it here. Big Kudos to Alan for building a very slick Live gadget.

Bonfire Media, an eBay developer that powers eBay Wireless, was mentioned in a NYTimes article regarding mobile commerce.

John Battelle came by eBay last week to kick off a speaker series the eBay Developers Program is sponsoring on innovation.  I'm reading his book now and suggest it to anyone who wants to delve more deeply into the world of search.

You can get the code/more info here:

Shop eBay Now: Powered by terapeak

Check them out:

http://www.markovic.com/markovic.com/ebay/search.php
http://www.auctionmapper.com/
www.2RealEstateAuctions.com

http://www.whatis-it.com/

One of the great things about running eBay's Developers Program is I get to see some really cool products in action.  Two particularly innovative products in the wireless arena are Receller and Unwired Buyer.

Receller allows a cell phone user with a built-in camera  to take a picture of an item and have it quickly listed on eBay by one of Receller's trained representatives.  Unwired Buyer will notify you via a phone call to your cell, landline or even SkypeIn number when an item is about to close on eBay.  You can use a phone keypad or Skype's dialpad to bid or buy the item. 

Now you can buy and sell on eBay without ever visiting the browser. Check them out!

I learned a couple useful "tricks" as an investment banker.  First, when you are going to a company to make a pitch, ALWAYS check the sign-in book to see who has been there before you.  Second, NEVER really sign in as yourself. Finally, NEVER (and I mean NEVER) talk about a deal in a taxi cab, limo or town car. 

I have no idea if this actually happened, but it is definitely possible. A directly quote from the Skype blog: "Something wacko — the news was apparently known to some New York taxi drivers way before the announcement. I kid you not — the week before the announcement, we received a comment in our Customer Support from some NYC taxi driver about eBay acquiring Skype, and we downplayed this as a rumor, which is what it still was for us at that time. The taxi driver replied “look gentlemen, you may disregard it all you want, but I know the facts since I just gave a ride to some eBay execs who discussed exactly what would be happening”. Can’t validate if the story is really true, but looking back, it turned out to be true and funny nevertheless."

The concept of the Web as the next platform and all the great applications that can be built has gotten a lot of attention recently. CNET just wrote this article on the topic.

For any of you Java developers out there, IBM wrote a great article on how to build a simple eBay search application using our SDK for Java.  Check it out!

My wife, bless her heart, is always trying to get me to bring my lunch.  The reason I don't is ...   more »

BIAP, a member of the eBay Developers Program, just launched eBay on TV in Austin with Time Warner.  ...   more »

For all you Plone fans out there, the eBay Developers Website
just relaunched using Plone. Check it out.
   more »

I've heard a lot of great things about Amazon's Associate (i.e. Affiliate Program).  I thought I'd give it a shot ...   more »

I know I wrote that Tivo is in trouble, but I still love their product and want them to ...   more »

For all you PHP developers out there, Adam wrote a good article on using PHP to integrate with eBay.  Check ...   more »