eBay

dutchman48 · ‎09-08-2017

Any one else get this email and how long does it take for i-ways to run?

Starting in October 2017, Google Chrome—the browser used by almost half of all eBay buyers—will begin displaying the message "Not Secure" in the address bar when users visit standard HTTP pages or HTTPS pages that include non-secure HTTP content.

You have listings that contain non-secure HTTP content, and we encourage you to revise this content in your listings immediately. If you're not sure which of your listings contain HTTP content, you can use the i-ways tool to identify them. We have partnered with i-ways to implement an eBay sign-in that protects your full inventory from being available publicly.

What is eBay doing to help?
We believe that the "Not Secure" message may deter buyers from purchasing and impact your conversion rate. To prevent the "Not Secure" message from appearing, we're changing the desktop buying experience starting this October. Listings that contain or link to HTTP content after that time will have one-click item descriptions—a snippet of the description will be visible, and buyers will have to click to see the full description. The mobile experience will remain unchanged.

If you prefer for the full item description to display in your listings, we recommend that you update your HTTP content before October.

Updating listings with HTTP content
Please reference the HTTP page within Seller Center for detailed guidance on how to update your listings.

hlmacdon · ‎09-15-2017

@pjcdn2005 wrote:

hlmacdon or to anyone who knows... If someone just has a 200 listings or so wouldn't it be easiest to bulk edit all listings at one time whether or not they have http instead of https and use the description find function to find http and replace with https (In one step)? After that they could use the i tool to confirm that everything is compliant. I only edited my listings that weren't compliant but I prob could have done them all at once and it would have fixed just the ones that needed fixing. Does that make sense?

i believe the bulk editor has a maximum number of listings that can be done at once but is someone has more listings they could do them in groups.

@You can use turbolister to bulk edit all listings at once. The caveat there being that turbolister is not without its bugs so you may want to try a limited test with a listing or two first. In turbo lister you would do this via the edit --> search and replace function after selecting the listings you want to revise. There is a search for and replace with field, so fill those in as appropriate, then in search options click description and search in html as that is where the content is that needs to be changed. You can also use that function as a quick way to check all of your listings should they have any other offending content, like a specific offsite link to a template providers website, @ symbols, strings of numbers that might be interpreted as phone number, external links to manuals or spec sheets, etc which will trip the link checking algorithm.

hlmacdon · ‎09-15-2017

@rose-dee wrote:

If eBay can do a sweep of its site and remove all sorts of things automatically when it suits them to make sellers compliant with their policies, why couldn't this "clean-up" be done by eBay in the name of providing customer service (at least to its subscribers/store owners)? We sellers didn't make this problem. I'm really not impressed.

They could dynamically change all http links to https with minimal hits to page load times, but as others have noted, that won't help with the google padlock issue as https is only relevant if the external server linked to has an SSL certificate in place. The one good benefit of forcing the change on the community is that it forces all of the template guys to update their servers to be SSL enabled, something some of them have still not done till today.

hlmacdon · ‎09-15-2017

@rose-dee wrote:
I believe 'cumos' is correct about the link issue with Auctiva having exclusively to do with the links to their "supersized" image page. When I used to click on a photo within my Auctiva description frame in an eBay listing, the connection took me to an Auctiva-hosted page, i.e. not an eBay extension page.

So 'cumos' is probably right that eBay saw it -- at least partly -- as a security issue. Auctiva has now removed those "supersizing" links, and is presumably working on some other method of providing photo zooming within their hosted pictures.

It's related to the external link policy enforcement that is being rolled out to coincide with the https changes, which is tied into the active content removal. It is all part of one larger roll out to have a secured item page with eventually no external content. For now they want limited external content that is secure. By doing so they'll be improving their natural SEO ranking within google as well as avoiding padlock issues that may deter some shoppers using chrome. When you have insecure external links/content it drops tour SEO ranking. Now you can see why all of these issues are interrelated.

jt-libra · ‎09-15-2017

@simeovivia0 wrote:
Hi Everyone,

We’ve added a new page to the Seller Centre that specifically addresses the changes that Google Chrome is making in October 2017, how it will affect your listings, and what actions you can take to prepare.

You can visit that page here.

While Tyler is away for the next three weeks, we will do our best to answer any further questions you may have.

I had been wondering why the I-ways checker showed all my listings to be secure, when the link to my store is http:// and not https://

I'm not kicking a gift horse ..... lol .... and am glad that my listings weren't targeted.

But there was a paragraph in your link as follows:

The use of "http" in http://schema.org will not trigger a non-secure warning from browsers. This is because schema.org is a recognized vocabulary format that most browsers and search engines understand. Unlike resource references, a vocabulary reference simply conveys to the browser that the format being used is similar to the one at http://schema.org.

I know nothing about schema.org but I'm wondering if that would include my store name after http:// and that's why no correction is required.

cumos55 · ‎09-15-2017

Auctiva Gallery photos...

The gallery photos are separate from the Auctiva description and photos in the description.

Gallery photos refers to the photo or photos at the upper left corner of a listing, the same as all eBay listings

In order to find out if the gallery photo, specifically the first photo, has http or https... I do the following

(1) Start the revision of a listing.

(2) In the photos section... click on the add photos box..... The address of the first photo in gallery photo will show,

(3) and ......one can see if the address contains http or https.

My Auctiva listings did not have the Gallery view if there was more than one photo in a listing.

It was my decision to add the gallery view option to all listings, primarily in response to Auctiva's removal of the supersize option in the photos in the description.

In order to view Auctiva's photo in a listing on 3eBay , one has to click the photo. The photo gets bigger, and acts like a new page to be viewed.

My Auctiva listings were viewed for gallery photo address before the listings was ended.... The photos had http

My listings were revised on Auctiva... and then uploaded to eBay... Now the gallery photo showed https...

dutchman48 · ‎09-15-2017

From shipscript on the US boards

The images at the top of eBay listings that are stored on eBay servers will be whatever eBay wants them to be. You won't have to worry about them. They'll be non-secure today and secure when eBay flips the switch on pages in October. At that time, eBay servers will write the listing page to provide secure delivery of components and image URLs, as the page is delivered. You can see right now that when you go to one of your listings and change the URL at the top of the page to https instead of http, eBay will still deliver the page, but it redirects back to the non-secure version. In October, eBay will redirect all page requests to the secure version, and at that time, the embedded components that eBay controls will also be secure.

Since eBay does not edit user-descriptions during page loading, the sellers themselves must make the modifications to their content, and that is why you are dealing with the https protocol issues. If you ever include eBay hosted photos down in the description, then you can change those to eBay's secure delivery by changing http to https and they will work immediately.

cumos55 · ‎09-15-2017

Bulk Edit for Auctiva.... do the following.

(1) Start with LISTINGS at the top left of an Auctiva page and slide to Active, and then click on Active

(2) A page now shows active listings on eBay...... with a view from 25 to as high as 250 listings per page

(3) Click on the box next to listings that are to be revised..... click on the top box if all listings on the page are to be revised

(4) Click on the Bulk Revise box.at the top of the page

(5) Select the field to be revised......... Description .....as an example.

(6) Then it becomes a ...find... and ... replace ... option...

In our situation it becomes...

find ...http:... and replace with https:

DO NOT forget the colon.....

(7) proceed to the very end... make sure the change has been confirmed by going to the very end. of the revision procedure

I have done this and then went back to confirm the changes were made in the listing.... This was done by viewing the description in HTML as if the listing was to be revised on eBay

cumos55 · ‎09-15-2017

Auctiva listings and Gallery photos...

Auctiva listings on eBay re ended

The original listing is found on Auctiva.

All of the photos stored on Auctiva have https as a part of the address.... All of the original listings found on Auctiva have photos with https

Now when a listing is uploaded to eBay... all photos in Gallery View and in the description have https in the address.

There are still http addresses associated with the footers, Auctiva advertising components, at the bottom of an Auctiva listing.

This means a bulk edit of all listings is required... such that all http becomes https..

ALSO

Take a look at the old Turbolister listings....I DID..... and look for the description under HTML view..... and look at the eBay footer..... at the end of the description... look for http

jt-libra · ‎09-15-2017

For sellers, like myself, who don't use either Auctiva or Turbo, hopefully eBay's editor will provide the necessary tools to make revisions.

cumos55 · ‎09-15-2017

Not having many listings makes it easy to study each listing and edit as required.

If you have kept your listings simple... then they should be easily determined to be secure. or not

jt-libra · ‎09-16-2017

@cumos55 wrote:
Not having many listings makes it easy to study each listing and edit as required.

If you have kept your listings simple... then they should be easily determined to be secure. or not

Well, I have 250 listings on my media account which isn't a lot compared to many sellers, but I'd already spent days and days and days going through each one to revise my store link a while back.

My question though was not related to the amount of time involved. I just wondered why my store link has not been targeted since it is http:// I just don't want to be caught off-guard some time down the road. But, for now, I didn't get a message from eBay and all my listings cleared the I-ways checker, so I'm not worrying about it. I was just curious.

shipscript · ‎09-16-2017

@jt-libra wrote:
I had been wondering why the I-ways checker showed all my listings to be secure, when the link to my store is http:// and not https://

Links away from the page are not required to be secure. The browser only cares about content that is embedded directly in the page, like an image or video or stylesheet.

Because the browser does not care about the security of links away from a secure page, eBay is able to address the looming security issue by linking out to non-secure descriptions instead of embedding those descriptions within the listing. This is the one-click-away scenario that eBay describes. When the security issues are cleaned up within a description, then eBay can embed the description.

@jt-libra wrote:
The use of "http" in http://schema.org will not trigger a non-secure warning from browsers.

This particular URL is part of eBay's mobile summary tags, and that is the only reason it is mentioned here (and because the i-ways tool was originally flagging it erroneously for change). Sellers were wondering if the mobile summary tag needed to be changed to https://, and it does not. The mobile summary tags are what sellers can use to mark off the text they would like displayed to mobile visitors, and it is the same text that will be displayed on listings where the full description is one-click-away. Tag usage is described here:

http://pages.ebay.com/sell/itemdescription/customizeyoursummary.html

Are eBay photos secure?

Once photos are hosted on eBay servers, it does not matter what protocol is used to access them. The protocol (http vs https) just defines the delivery of the images, not where they are stored. So the images that you have already uploaded to eBay servers will still be hosted in the same place; but when the time comes, eBay will simply deliver them through a different door. If you are one of those sellers who has snagged eBay photos to display down in your description, then you'll need to change the protocol in your description to https://. eBay is currently allowing photos to be delivered through either the secure door or open door, so there are no issues changing the protocol.

Should I make my eBay links secure? As mentioned, links away from the page do not need to be secure. However, eBay has modified their site so that you can use either protocol for the most common destination pages and they should work. eBay will redirect to whichever delivery method is appropriate at the time. So, if you have non-secure links in your description today, they'll currently lead to a non-secure eBay page. But when eBay makes the switch in October, those links will automatically redirect on arrival to a secure page. And similarly, if you have secure links in your description today, they'll currently change on arrival from secure to non-secure to match the page eBay is delivering today. eBay will redirect those destination pages when the time is appropriate, so either protocol can be used in your listings today.

Remove external links. In the summer update, eBay reminded sellers that non-eBay external links are no longer allowed. The various tools are now flagging those links in seller descriptions. eBay will only allow links to other eBay pages or to approved shipping services, video hosts, or required legal pages. That means all credit links within listings, all offsite links, and all images that click to open outside of the listing will be banned. Not banned are links without "http://" that are destined to perform some function inside the listing (commonly used in photo galleries). These internal links are currently miscategorized by i-ways for removal, but they should be updating their tool soon to stop reporting those.

Need help? For those who need a better understanding of what is going on, feel free to post on the US Active Content forum and I will try to help.

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Replacing-Active-Content/bd-p/activecontent

Deep Scan. I have just updated one of my tools to help identify these latest compliance issues. The Sandbox tool examines only one listing at a time, but it does so with full color coding so there is no mistaking which elements are in need of attention. The bulk scan tools will follow in a few days.

http://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/ActiveContentSandbox.htm

rose-dee · ‎09-16-2017

All of this, and this whole issue, is exactly what I meant earlier when I said it was an unfair expectation. I'm a designer/writer and online seller, not a programmer.

What eBay is asking the average seller to do -- or else face repercussions -- is really too much. I'm just about ready to throw up my hands. I'm sick of spending hours and hours on these things, then finding out a few weeks later that I have to go through a similar exercise for something else.

jt-libra · ‎09-16-2017

Thanks so much for that very thorough explanation. You've managed to provide, in one post, a more understandable version of the changes we have been reading about here and there and in bits and pieces.

It was also your previous instructions with regard to removing active content in our listings which I found the most helpful.

Thanks again.

pocomocomputing · ‎09-16-2017

@jt-libra wrote:
Thanks so much for that very thorough explanation. You've managed to provide, in one post, a more understandable version of the changes we have been reading about here and there and in bits and pieces.

It was also your previous instructions with regard to removing active content in our listings which I found the most helpful.

Thanks again.

I asked shipscript yesterday in a Private Message on eBay.com to read this topic and clarify things that have been posted. shipscript did so within hours. Thank you shipscript.

I found so much conflicting information here on eBay.ca and eBay.com forums that I was being confused by all the information and misinformation I was reading. I usually can understand the changes but the past 3 months of changes I found confusing. It does not help that eBay is confusing sellers with messages that are just wrong or vague.

jt-libra · ‎09-16-2017

@pocomocomputing wrote:

I asked shipscript yesterday in a Private Message on eBay.com to read this topic and clarify things that have been posted. shipscript did so within hours. Thank you shipscript.

I found so much conflicting information here on eBay.ca and eBay.com forums that I was being confused by all the information and misinformation I was reading. I usually can understand the changes but the past 3 months of changes I found confusing. It does not help that eBay is confusing sellers with messages that are just wrong or vague.

I'm glad you did ..... I certainly appreciate it as I'm sure many sellers do.

sledsandatvs · ‎09-16-2017

I called up ebay today and spoke to a guy named Roy regarding this matter. He walked me through updating the first 400 of my listings and I was able to finish the rest on my own. It was fairly simple and quick. This evening I went back to the iway site and ran another check on my listings to see if everything is now OK, but according to them nothing has changed.....it still shows 579 items have issues with the http thing. It does show that all my 633 items are alright regarding the active content issue. Does it take awhile for iways to get things straight or did the updating I performed not change a thing?

cumos55 · ‎09-16-2017

Prepare a listing for a revision.

Look at the description in HTML format and then look for http

Look for it everywhere in the listings..... specifically photos and in the description.

pjcdn2005 · ‎09-17-2017

Mine changed right away.

I checked a couple of your listings using shipscripts tool (last link in post 92) and didn't see problems with the http issue but the links to your store etc will need to be modified...that's a separate issue. In order for links to work correctly, they must include target="_blank" to open a new window or tab.

What is one of the item numbers that is still showing as having an http issue?

sledsandatvs · ‎09-17-2017

I checked my items again through i-way this morning. The check seemed to take forever whereas the report was generated very quickly the last 3 times I checked it. This time it showed all but 2 of my items are OK At least that is what I think it means because there are green check marks on both columns ( the HTTPLS column and the active content column). The thing that chas me confused is the active content column. I am guessing a green check mark in that column means that everything is fine. But in my mind, I would think that a green check mark in the active content column would indicate that there is active content. It really isn't clear what it means?

Thanks for your assistance