By Ina Steiner
EcommerceBytes.com
December 15, 2013
eBay rolled out its new "next generation" search engine in the U.S. this summer. But despite the fact eBay is now holding off on launching the full functionality of the search technology until next year, the chief architect of Cassini has left the company.
Hugh Williams joined eBay in 2009 from Microsoft to become eBay's Vice President of Experience, Search, and Platforms and he left the company last month.
Daniel Fain, who also came to eBay from Microsoft, was promoted to Vice President of Search Technology.
Williams is best known among eBayers as the man responsible for its new search engine called Cassini. But only the Cassini backend launched in the U.S., eBay is still running the old "Voyager" search functionality.
For more: http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abu/y213/m12/abu0349/s02
I found it to be ridiculous. What does have eBay to gain by reducing sales and discouraging buying?
Any conspiracy theory can be wrapped with enough innuendo to make it sound plausible.
That whole letter was a nod and a wink and "I know the truth". Spare me.
Any conspiracy theory can be wrapped with enough innuendo to make it sound plausible.
That whole letter was a nod and a wink and "I know the truth". Spare me.
@westernstargifts wrote:Cassini must be operational to some degree as it is picking up keywords from Item Specifics and Descriptions.
I found this letter on ecommercebytes.com to be very interesting. What are your thoughts on it? It ties in with the Cassini search engine.
Throttling is the eBay conspiracy du jour. Actually it's been around for quite some time along with the other popular "rolling blackout" theory.
The difference between the two is that rolling blackouts affect sellers randomly while throttling is supposed to be intentional limiting of specific sellers.
Of course no one has come up with a plausible explanation of why eBay would do this. At least not plausible in my opinion.
Are there "rolling blackouts" well probably, with a back end as big and complex as eBay if your stuff is on a server that goes offline you could feel like you were blacked out.
For the throttling the theory goes that eBay intentionally limits specific sellers so that they can favour other sellers (usually claimed to be their Diamond seller friends), I don't buy any of it.
Most of the people who subscribe to these theories base it on the fact that they had a mysterious huge drop in sales for a short period and then went back to "normal" or that they reach a certain level of sales and can't seem to go any higher.
Ask any merchant from the last 100 years, they have all experienced the exact same thing.
I bet that retailers here in Southern Ontario are having a much poorer Sunday than they expected for the 15th of December, some might come up with some far fetched conspiracy theories and some would just say, first major snowfall of the season, people who might have gone out shopping today are staying home to shovel the snow. I'm low on groceries but I'll make something up rather than attempt to drive around today.
eBay declined to answer specific questions about Williams' departure and about Cassini, but spokesperson Ryan Moore provided us with the following statement Sunday evening:
"Hugh was tremendously instrumental in creating more personalized shopping experiences for our customers, which includes leading the successful build and rollout of eBay's search platform, Cassini. We truly appreciate Hugh's contributions to eBay Marketplaces and we wish him the best in his future endeavors.
"Heading into 2014, Cassini will continue to be instrumental in our strategy to create better experiences for both our buyers and sellers on the eBay platform."
No "one" person is bigger than the company. Always have people ready to step in for a seamless transition. Employees come and go, I fail to see any significance in that.
There is a quote that goes something like "The graveyards of the world are filled with important people the world could not live without".
There is a quote that goes something like "The graveyards of the world are filled with important people the world could not live without".
