eBay is #1 Most Trusted Company for Privacy on the Web

Developers building eBay and PayPal applications using our Web services platforms will be interested to know that privacy and information management research firm Ponemon Institute along with Internet privacy leader TRUSTe, have announced the results of their fifth annual survey of Most Trusted Companies for Privacy. eBay is ranked second overall, behind only American Express (#1 for the fourth year in a row) and ranked first among Internet companies.

Read the press release and the eBay Ink blog for additional detail. Developers who rely on the scalability, stability and monetization opportunity of the eBay platform will be interested to know who are the Web companies that make the list -- and who doesn't.

- Delyn

Happy Holidays from the eBay Developers Program

From all of us here at the eBay Developers Program, we wish you happy holidays and a healthy and prosperous new year!

Please make sure to check the holiday schedule for our Developer Technical Support team during the holidays from December 24, 2008 - January 5, 2009.

Also, as we wind up our year, we also wanted to take a look back at 2008 and some of the highlights:

• June 2008: Sweet Home, Chicago! Our annual eBay Developers Conference, where eBay announces Project Echo pilot & opening up eBay Selling Manager tool to outside developer applications
• June 2008: Client Alerts API and Merchandising API launch
• July 2008: eBay Desktop surpasses 1 Million downloads
• September 2008: eBay Developers Program descends on The Big Apple to showcase some of our developers at Web 2.0 Expo New York
• November 2008: Large Merchant Services beta launches
• November 2008: eBay API platform turns 8 years old, surpasses 80,000 developers in the eBay Developers Program

Thanks for a great year, developers. Get ready for a great 2009!

- Delyn

Reminder: Grace Period Ends Jan 15 for Removing Paper Payment Methods from Item Description

As mentioned in Developer Impact: Paperless payments, in late October the Accepted Payments policy was updated to remove paper payment methods like checks and money orders. This was enforced immediately in the structured item data, but a grace period was granted to remove those payment methods from the Item Description. That grace period ends Jan 15.

Soon after Jan 15, Item Descriptions will be automatically reviewed at listing time to make sure no paper payment methods are included. If paper payment methods are present, the listing will fail with an error.

Developers should remind their sellers that the grace period is ending soon, and that sellers should update their Item Descriptions. For convenience, sellers may wish to make these updates to their Item Descriptions at the same time:

• Remove any shipping values that are above the maximum for their category (enforced now)
• Make template updates to ensure they won't get unexpected results with the new View Item page
• Move Return Policy info into the structured data
• Move Handling Time info into the structured data

There are some exclusions to this policy. To review these exclusions, see the Payments FAQ.

Reminder: USPS Rate Change Jan 18

The US Postal Service has announced rate changes effective Jan 18 on the following services:

• Express Mail
• Priority Mail
• Parcel Select
• Parcel Return Service
• Global Express Guaranteed
• Express Mail International
• Priority Mail International
• M-Bags

You can view the new prices on the US Postal Service website. Note that these rate changes are only for shipping services. Look for another announcement from the US Postal Service in Feb 2009 about May 2009 changes for mailing services.

They are also introducing "a new, smaller Priority Mail flat-rate box...priced the same as the flat-rate envelope".

API support for the new shipping services will follow the Jan 18 rate change. Details are coming soon.

Reminder: Retiring Live Auctions Dec 31

As originally announced in April, eBay is retiring the Live Auction format on Dec 31, 2008. This move will allow us to focus on our most important priorities: improving the buying and selling experience.

We have been working since April with our Live Auction partners and sellers to ensure a smooth and seamless termination of this aspect of our business. Those sellers who list with the Live Auction format are encouraged to move to the regular auction format.

After Dec 31, AddLiveAuctionItem and ReviseLiveAuctionItem calls will fail with an error. Other API changes will be made soon to remove support for the Live Auction format. Look for more details soon.