eBay enhances mobile web experience

Mobile web users get similar functionality to full browser experience

eBay recognises the importance of mobile web business

The world’s largest online marketplace, eBay, has launched its new mobile site for the iPhone in the US, and the company will roll out the service globally in 2011.

The service will also be extended to other mobile platforms next year.

Han-Shen Yuan, director of platform business solutions and mobile engineering for eBay, said there is still a need for developing mobile web, even with the rise of smartphone applications.

“It’s important to note that we’ve actively diverted millions of users from our mobile site to our apps – however, mobile web revenue growth is increasing at the same pace as our mobile app business.”

The new mobile site is going to be based on Netbiscuits technology, which is a software service for the development and management of mobile apps.

Netbiscuits has been working with eBay since 2003, and is looking to make use of both the touch-based user interface of smartphones, as well as optimise the usability for mass market feature phones.

The new mobile site will allow all users to browse categories, save and refine searches, sort results, and find similar items that might be being auctioned.

The improvements made to the smartphone interface will include auto-complete, expandable swiping galleries, and a floating menu bar that keeps the most used controls at the top of the screen when scrolling.