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I've produced an item description for test listing 141018516788 on eBay USA that I hope will be (almost) mobile friendly. It is a two column layout including images with cross-promotional content in the right column. I suspect on smaller mobile device screens it will need to be viewed landscape. I also suspect that the image links (Sundresses & Coverups, Tops, etc.) in the right column will be too small for pressing when viewed on smaller mobile devices. Please confirm and post back any other issues/problems encountered.
I've turned on the "Listing Frame" feature for my eBay Store for this test. When an item listing is viewed directly at eBay.com instead of through an eBay Mobile App the listing frame displays a navigation bar to the left of the item description. I'm curious to learn if the eBay Apps display anything similar to the listing frame we see when accessing eBay directly.
Related: There has been some discussion on the web and in discussion groups arguing to avoid the display of photos within item descriptions and avoid use of HTML in general. First of all, I'd like to point out that any formatting done using eBay's "Standard" editor adds HTML to the item description even if only new lines and blank lines are incorporated within the text (HTML p and/or br tags). Much more HTML is added by the Standard editor when text is bolded, colored, indented, etc. -- formatting that organizes the content and/or makes it easier to read. I doubt anyone would advise we enter textual description without any formatting whatsoever, so based solely on the presence of HTML, using our own HTML* instead, such as the test example 141018516788, to further enhance the organization, readability, attractiveness, and to facilitate display of cross promotional content just makes the presentation better.
What about search engines? Part of the argument against using HTML and displaying images within item descriptions is based on speculation of what search engines see, including eBay's. Using eBay's dumb phone site http://wap.ebay.com/ we get an insight to how HTML formatting and photos are most likely stripped from item descriptions by eBay's search engine. Go ahead and take a look at the item description for 141018516788 at that dumb phone site to see how it all disappears leaving only the text. We can't be sure how search engines measure relevance but the presence of HTML and images is certainly not a handicap.
* I refer above to "our own HTML" but most sellers, without assistance, would not be able to produce a sophisticated presentation such as the example which automatically adapts to the screen size of the device being used to view it. I'm currently working on adding options within my FreeForm2 eBay Template Builder to enable such "responsive design". By testing the example with eBay Apps you are helping me finalize those options and hopefully soon to make them available to everyone (FreeForm2 is free to use).
Thanks in advance for your help!
Rob
PS: This is a copy of what I've posted on eBay USA discussion group Photos and HTML. eBay Canada groups don't have such a group so I'm hoping you will help me here in Seller Central.
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