eBay Update Influenced by Pinterest Design?

October 16th, 2012Curious Stuff No Comments

 

Pinterest has been the runaway social media success of 2011/2012. Here are just a few statistics from Pinterest’s own business section to highlight why other web companies and social media developers could be taking many, many leaves out of the Pinterest scrapbook!

  • Pinterest users’ time on the site almost matches that of YouTube users.
  • Pinterest users are 80% women, 20% men, with much of that 80% being young, new mothers (which has led to the site being exceptionally popular with religions that promote young motherhood and the stay-at-home wife, e.g. Mormonism.
  • Around 27% of Pinterest traffic is derived from other social media networks.
  • Each month Pinterest enjoys one billion unique page views.
  • Pinterest drives more sales than Facebook.
  •  9% of UK Pinterest users are considered to be in a high earning bracket.

Whilst these stats don’t relate to every website, it seems a little nod in the Pinterest direction is still seemingly attractive to many. eBay recently revamped it’s entire website, issuing the statement,

“The way people shop is changing, so eBay is evolving to meet changing customer needs. The new features we’re rolling out are designed to make the shopping experience on eBay easier, more enjoyable and personal.”

The new design is sleek, modern and hailed as “discovery-driven” (like Pinterest). eBay has always been about fairly specific shopping – looking for a secondhand iPod, a size 12 red dress, a Volvo 340, etc – but the new user interface is about discovery. It’s about stumbling upon products via “see similar items” style tabs and recommendations. A huge part of the new UI will exploit social media.

eBay users – whether they want to buy an old car, open a boutique clothing store, offload their old Playstation 3 or sell cameras from Manchester – will be gradually treated to the new interface over the coming months.

Even if eBay have drawn more than a little design inspiration from Pinterest, it’s clear their improvements are more than skin deep, revitalising search tools, checkout options and various features to improve user experience.

How Moore’s Law Affects Your Buying Habits

February 4th, 2012Curious Stuff No Comments

What’s this Moore’s Law we speak of? Moore’s Law affects every part of your life (unless you’ve shunned all technology and sent your old Kindle to us already!) in the modern world. It’s not part of legislative law, but one of those laws you spent eons trying to memorise in senior school science or maths class – conservation of momentum, the constant speed of light, and every mathematical equation ever etc.
Based on observations made in 1965 by Intel-founder, Gordon Moore, the developed Moore’s Law predicted exponential growth in the electronics industry in terms of data density and component performance. Moore noticed that the number of transistors (semiconductors that amplify, open or close a circuit) per square inch doubled roughly annually on the integrated circuit boards he was working on over at the fledgling Intel.
The Law essentially means that, in theory, the first iPad was only half as powerful as technologically possible within eighteen months of its release date. If course, it’s one of those laws that’s subjective to interpretation and external interference like market collapses, new sectors of scientific development etc. But Moore’s Law can’t go on forever… can it? The big man himself, Gordon Moore, has voiced the opinion that the law will likely only be relevant for another two decades or so, but for now it’s time to sit back and enjoy the gratuitous market influx of devices that fuels our tech lab here at Money4Machines!
If you’re feeling inspired to recycle your iPad or sell a Kindle, head over to our homepage and start typing!