
EBay Patents 10-Click Checkout - timruffles
http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2011/07/ebay-patents-10-click-checkout.html
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dpapathanasiou
" _The newly-patented buying system guides users through an intuitive, step-
by-step process of clicking 'Buy It Now', entering your password, logging in
because they signed your sorry ass out again, getting upsold shit you don’t
want, continuing to your original destination_ "

If that _were_ a real patent, GoDaddy would owe Ebay millions.

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InclinedPlane
And monster.com.

~~~
brianlash
and VistaPrint.

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corin_
What I find most depressing is that you hear such moronic examples of patents
that on reading this title a tiny part of me was thinking "well.. maybe..".

Not sure if that says more about the patents system or my awakeness, I hope
the former.

~~~
DNeb
I was hoping they really did it just to show how rediculous the patent
situation has gotten.

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locci
Yeah, but what if someone comes up with a 9-click checkout?

<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0129387/quotes?qt=qt0410938>

~~~
pluies
With an IMDB reference, this could go the other way.

"Our checkout process goes to eleven!"

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revorad
Oh he's so good. I hope he's back.

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InclinedPlane
Ebay is frustrating. They haven't changed the functionality or even the fit
and finish of their site substantially for about a decade. They're still the
de facto leader in online auctions but I feel as if they're slowly being bled
by a lot of more specialized sites (amazon, craigslist, etsy, etc.)

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frossie
Actually eBay have made changes through the years - it is just that all of
them are bad. The move to favour large corporate sellers, and to only give
feedback as a buyer completely broke the "swap meet" feel that eBay had.
Buying and selling on eBay is just not fun anymore.

The problem is that there is no real online replacement - the auction space is
hard to disrupt because in auctions the largest marketplace is, at face value,
the best marketplace.

I know I have gotten to the stage where I will Freecycle something before I
sell it on eBay, and from reading the forums out there, I am not the only one.

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craigmc
Fantastic! I used to do lot via the eBay platform as a "Power Seller", and I
always thought they were a most bizarre company: one part incredibly
innovative, one part money-grabbing corporate and one (big) part terrible
UI/UX designers. Glad to hear nothing has changed....

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cpeterso
> _one (big) part terrible UI/UX designers_

I had always assumed that eBay couldn't/wouldn't change their UI because their
users are not techies and would be more confused by change than the terrible
UI they've already learned. Users have learned _how_ to do what they want,
even if they don't understand _why_.

For example, my parents know that to watch DVDs, they need to press button X
on remote #1 and then button Y on remote #2. They just don't know _why_.

~~~
prawn
A bit like MYOB, for anyone who's been unfortunate enough to have used that
program.

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scottkduncan
I bid on something on Ebay for the first time in years this week and although
I didn't win and make it to the infuriating checkout process, I was still
amazed at how frequently I had resupply my user name and password. When you go
back to a site like Ebay you realize how far some other parts of the web have
come in promoting user-friendliness and how much some sites are being left
behind.

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saurik
It must be kept in mind that some parts of the web are subject to much more
fraud than other parts.

~~~
bittermang
But I actually think it's the volume by which eBay asks for your username and
password, that opens them up to fraud.

It should be a security gateway that prompts the user to get ready for some
secure transactions. But it is asked for so many times that it becomes an
afterthought, "Oh, eBay is asking for my password again." It asks when you
want to view My eBay. It asks when you want to save an item for later. It asks
when you place a bid. It asks again when you check out after winning.

Then you get a phishing email, you click a link, it asks for your password.
Users give it up without a second thought because they're so used to providing
it.

Conversely, Amazon, another site which is very good at separating you from
your money, only asks when money is on the line. I can add to Wish Lists
without logging in again. I can rate things without logging in again. I can
write reviews without logging in again. The only time Amazon asks for my
password is when I'm placing an order, or making changes under My Account. And
they even have an express lane setup for making orders with PayPhrase, that
doesn't ask for my login again, just a PIN.

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nitrogen
On eBay, a bid is considered a contract to purchase, so it's probably a good
idea to verify your identity before bidding.

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bittermang
As they should.

But not when I just want to watch an item, or see the items I'm watching.

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marknutter
Man, this space is ripe for disruption.

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travem
You can see this is happening through self-organizing communities on Facebook
and other social networks. Search for the "for sale or swap in ..." Facebook
groups and you'll see people engaging in a much more social and local based
bartering system. Extrapolating from the single data point of my wife's
experience, it's much quicker and easier than eBay to buy and sell stuff
locally.

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zengr
That's a craiglists disruption, not eBay.

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Produce
I honestly couldn't tell if this was satire or real for a while. It looks like
satire, smells like it, tastes like it but it really isn't. EDIT: It really is
satire. Some damn good satire, had me fooled.

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mrspandex
"..its collections and incarceration arm PayPal.." didn't give it away?

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noonespecial
I've had money both forcefully collected and incarcerated by paypal. Seems
reasonable to me.

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tlrobinson
Has anyone tried to patent the 1-touch checkout for touchscreen devices?

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d4nt
For a minute there I though this was going to be a real attempt at challenging
amazon's 1-click buying patent by patenting the non-1-click approach. This was
funnier though.

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Raphael
End patents.

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sfboy88
I'd much rather use Amazon's 1 click instead.

One click and the item is at my house the next day.

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astrange
This is one of the least interesting comments I have ever read. Please explain
your thought process for future generations.

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swah
When I saw this in my RSS feed, I thought it was spam, the text being so
strange.

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timruffles
His last three posts have been satire. I'm hoping he gets back to content as
good as [http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/10/universal-design-
pat...](http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/10/universal-design-
pattern.html).

~~~
jdh
Dead link

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rwtaylor
... ?

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melvinng
Didn't amazon did something similar? All of this patents are so closely linked
if someone sues, it will start a war..

Look at the Apple vs HTC case..

