Social Shopping at eBay

Now that eBay is ginormous (yes, it’s a word now, Mr. Spellcheck), it can be difficult to find things, especially for new or infrequent eBay users. Now, with the newly launched “eBay Neighborhoods” feature, eBay hopes to improve upon your eBay shopping experience. The neighborhoods themselves are groups made up of people sharing a similar interest. For example, there are neighborhoods for Star Wars fans, coffee lovers, dog owners, iPhone users, and more. Within the neighborhoods, you can connect with others who share the same passion for products & topics that you do while you write and share product reviews, make comments, add photos, and click through tag clouds. The end result, eBay hopes, is to foster a sense of community that makes the eBay website seem more like a friendly and safe environment and less like a community of scammers. At launch, there were 600 pre-created neighborhoods and no method for users to create their own, something that some see as a big mistake. However, for an initial offering, I think the eBay neighborhoods are a great feature, and one that has been long overdue. Next time I’m buying or selling on eBay, I’ll be sure to check them out.