About Steve Stroh

Why I Don't Play At eBay Much Anymore

From my perspective, eBay is rapidly losing its relevance.

I just lost an auction - in the last minute, of the last hour, of the last day of the auction. By $1.00. Until that last minute I was winning.

Boo Hoo... yeah, I know... so what?

I'm pretty sure I lost the auction to a "sniping bot" (my term, I think). There weren't any new bids on the item for several days. If I understand the concept correctly, someone who really wants to be assured of winning a particular auction uses a "sniping bot service" and directs it at a particular eBay auction. The "bot" then passively monitors that auction. In the (literally!) last minute of the auction, the bot swings into action, bidding (within the pre-assigned price range) whatever it takes to win the auction by $1.00.

I won't argue that it's not fair - apparently eBay has no problems with this "sniping bots" or whatever they're really called.

But it's a sucker's game that I'm increasingly reluctant to play. There's literally no way you can win auctions against a "bot" (unless you bid a ridiculous amount to similarly be assured of winnings that eBay can bid up on your behalf)... unless you too use a "bot".

And that's a point I'm not willing to concede. I think it's ultimately destructive to eBay's (and the sellers using eBay) business in the long term that eBay tolerates the activity of external "sniping bots".

Ordinary people, like me, that just want to buy something occasionally, lose confidence in the overall fairness... and the utility in general... of online auctions. The result of that is fewer bidders, and overall lower bids, as the "bot" users increasingly have eBay to themselves.

For eBay to get rid of the "sniping bots" is going to have to be driven by the eBay sellers.

By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2008 by Steve Stroh except for specifically-marked excerpts. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged).

This article was written and posted via Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA); Sprint Mobile Broadband service using a Sierra Wireless 595U USB modem - 1xEV-DO Rev. A.

Microsoft Acquiring Yahoo! - My Thoughts

Microsoft plus Yahoo! does not even come close to equaling Google. That's the situation in a nutshell.

I've used Microsoft products since the early days of DOS. I've used their online products such as Hotmail and MSN Search (which I think is laughably inferior to Google's). Those, and the few other Microsoft online products that I've tried just underwhelm me. I think that's because Microsoft is loathe to endanger their monopoly position in PC software, especially operating systems and applications by making online products that are truly competitive to their monopoly position in PC operating systems and applications software.

Yahoo!'s products irritate me because of their insistence on my surrendering (way too much, in my opinion) personal information. Yahoo!'s search capability is also inferior to Google's.

Google, on the other hand, offers very solid, good, online products, as full featured as possible, for free, with an absolute minimum of hassle and intrusive surrender of personal information. (That's not to say that they haven't gathered an astonishing and disappointingly large amount of personal information, but they gleaned that - they didn't require me to surrender it proactively like Yahoo! does.)

I don't think either Microsoft or Yahoo! really understands what the draw for ordinary Internet users to prefer Google. Google gives you a lot, Google doesn't get in your way, Google doesn't treat you like a resource to be strip-mined, Google doesn't proactively irritate you... etc.

If Microsoft does succeed in acquiring Yahoo!, that will just make things worse. At least Yahoo! is a founding member of the Internet culture and has some sense of cooperation; Microsoft is a convicted monopolist and seems intent on extending their monopoly practices to the Internet. But it's a level playing field on the Internet, and with choices as stark as Google's and Microsoft's respective approaches to customers, Microsoft loses.

By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2008 by Steve Stroh. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged).

My Thoughts On The Usefulness (Or Not) Of Facebook

I've been using Facebook for, oh, about a month now. I've got, at this moment, something like just under 40 friends listed, with perhaps another 10 or so requests outstanding that I haven't heard back about.

While Facebook is a cut above what I've seen other social networking systems do... it's hardly the world-changer I expected. It's been useful to reconnect with some folks, and it's nice for one thing, that once you establish friends, you have a reliable way to reach them. But... I've gotafewgripes.

1) There's no way to give a capsule description of yourself, which is really useful for those that are trying to search for the "right" you. You can only see affiliations, hometown, etc. - CANNED queries and answers that may or may not be germane.

2) Once you've sent a Add A Friend Request, you can't see the status of it - who you've sent one to, or whether they've declined it or ignored it. The only result you see is if they add you as a Friend.

3) You can't create your own networks, and the ones that exist are, at times, pretty lame.

4) You should be able to narrow a search down in relation to your friends - do a search, and the first results should those names that have something, say, within three degrees of your current Friends. I can't see that kind of functionality at all.

5) You don't seem to be able to discriminate in "degrees" of friendship - close personal friends, personal acquaintances, work colleagues, etc. and the corresponding degree of information that you share.

There's a long way to go in the evolution of social networks, and there's still ample room for improvement, so keep innovating out there. I saw mention of Ning, and the ability to create your own social network makes a hell of a lot of sense - your bowling team, your PTA, your extended family, etc.

By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2007 by Steve Stroh. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged).

Google Gmail Slowdowns

I really, really love Google's Gmail web-based email client. The vast majority of the time it works wonderfully.

But there are also times when it just runs slow, or not at all. I'm going to try documenting those times. (All stated times and dates are Pacific timezone.)

• Friday August 3, 2007 - 14:40 - Gmail taking a long time to load from a click. Update - seems to be a problem with Firefox - using Gmail from Safari works normally. Update 2 - shut down all windows in Firefox, quit it, restarted it, and then loaded Gmail and it's working normally now. Empirical observation - this seems to happen consistently after a Firefox update and/or Firefox restarting and automagically restoring previous windows and tabs. All good now - until the next time, but Gmail having occasional downtime is still a LOT better than the synchronization hassles of using a local email client.

By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2007 by Steve Stroh. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged).