Just a little Cooqy

Moments ago, eBay finally contacted me after a week of waiting with information that has hopefully resolved the service disruption with the errant “No Items Listed” message reported by Cooqy’s widgets.

The issue was related to Cooqy’s API credentials that get passed to eBay’s data services.  It seems that I didn’t go about generating a security authentication token in the right manner.

It is too early to tell if the issue is really fixed or not, but I am hopeful.  I will monitor Cooqy’s server logs for the next couple of days to ensure everything is running smoothly again.  If for some reason the issue is not resolved, I will post information here on the blog and on the help forum.

Thanks to everyone for your patience while waiting for eBay to respond.

Cooqy has been experiencing a service outage that began a few days ago. The outage causes all of Cooqy’s widgets to display a “No items listed” message, even when sellers have items in inventory.

The initial cause of the outage was the expiration of security keys required to communicate with eBay’s data services.  These security keys expire 18 months from the time eBay issues them.  The trick is, that eBay doesn’t provide any sort of advanced warning before they expire.

The initial outage was fixed in a few hours from the point when the security keys expired a few days ago.  Alas, a new problem has surfaced that is related to the security keys.  eBay imposes a data service transaction limit on non-certified applications.  Even though Cooqy was certified in 2006, when the security keys were refreshed Cooqy is now being limited as if it were not certified.

This new problem went unnoticed, because eBay allows a certain number of transactions to be processed.  Once the rate limit is reached, then the transactions begin to fail.

I am in the process of trying to get help from eBay about this new issue.  I anticipate a resolution will take several days, depending on eBay’s response.

My apologies to all users of Cooqy being impacted by this issue.  Once this issue is resolved with eBay’s help, service should resume normally.  Thank you for your patience, as this is the longest outage since the service began in 2006.

Since the Master’s golf tournament just finished, I thought it would be nice to feature a golf-themed seller who is using Cooqy’s widgets on their website.

Here is a screenshot of myclubguru, an eBay store that specializes in golf equipment:

The Seller Storefront widget is placed into its own web page so visitors can access all their golf equipment for sale on eBay. The quality of their hi-rez photos really shine in the widget’s slideshow mode, making it easy to see the equipment. Unlike most sellers, they have added their logo to the widget, which really stands out with the large font. I feel more sellers should take the time to do this, as I think it helps to promote the seller’s brand.

Another intersting point about the widget is that they used a service called Widgetbox to create the widget, instead of using Cooqy’s own Widget Wizard.  The Widgetbox service is an alternative way to configure Cooqy’s widgets, one that some may find easier to use.  One of Widgetbox’s strengths is that they make embedding the widgets onto target web pages easier.

Thank you mycluguru for using Cooqy’s widgets!

If you are an eBay seller using Cooqy’s widgets on non-eBay pages and would like me to show off your design on my blog, drop me a line at ryeager@cooqy.com!

This next featured eBay seller is one of my personal favorites. I have played piano since the age of 5 and remember my grandma’s sheet music from the early 1900’s, all tattered and torn but with amazing artwork on the covers. The 1920’s were the Golden Age of the piano, so it makes sense that there is a lot of vintage sheet music to collect and sell on eBay.

Shelly’s Vintage Sheet Music is one such eBay store that specializes in vintage sheet music going back to the 1800’s:

This website strikes a chord (heh, heh) with me in many ways. The design is simple and effective, with search and categories listed on the left. Cooqy’s widget is perfectly color-matched to the website. By choosing to display the items in the Slideshow mode, the glorious photos of the vintage sheet music slowly scroll by, creating an eye-catching marquee of images that instantly transport the viewer to another era. By using the Storefront widget, Shelly’s 1,000-item inventory is searchable via the widget. Smartly, the widget is set to a width of 100% instead of a fixed width, so the widget stretches in width to fill the available space to allow the most photos to be displayed.

The cherry on top is that the widget is correctly configured to utilize eBay’s Store Referral Credit, such that 75% of the Final Value Fee is credited when shoppers purchase items through the widget on non-eBay web pages. All of Cooqy’s Storefront widgets placed on non-eBay pages should be configured in this manner, via the option in Cooqy’s Widget Wizard.

By using Cooqy’s widgets, Shelly’s has created an integrated widget design that highlights inventory in a very eye-catching manner. Thanks for using Cooqy’s widgets!

If you are an eBay seller using Cooqy’s widgets on non-eBay pages and would like me to show off your design on my blog, drop me a line at ryeager@cooqy.com!

I’m always finding people using Cooqy’s widgets in ways I never would have imagined. Take TCBid, which is a website I found that is actually aggregating multiple eBay sellers onto a single website for local auctions in the Twin Cities area. Their website consists entirely of a page full of Cooqy widgets. Here is a screen grab (that only shows 2 widgets; they have 6 total currently):

To keep a level playing field for each local seller, the web page shows identical versions of Cooqy’s Seller Storefront widget. The customized widget design is simple, to help draw attention to the eBay items.

By using Cooqy’s widgets, TCBid has created a unique way for multiple local eBay sellers in the Twin Cities area to advertise their items to local buyers. Thanks for using Cooqy’s widgets!

If you are an eBay seller using Cooqy’s widgets on non-eBay pages and would like me to show off your design on my blog, drop me a line at ryeager@cooqy.com!

Cooqy’s seller widgets provide extensive customization that enables sellers to integrate the widgets into their web page designs. This is unlike eBay’s To Go widgets and the widgets from other providers, who usually provide single designs or only a few customization options. Cooqy’s unique Widget Wizard makes it easy to create custom widgets that blend in seamlessly to web page designs.

I’ll be highlighting some of Cooqy’s sellers that have integrated widgets into their web pages. Several sellers have created widgets that I don’t recognize as being Cooqy’s, due to the available customizations possible with the Widget Wizard. That is always a nice surprise, when I don’t immediately recognize my own creation!

First up is Trump Wireless, who has used both the Seller Showcase and Seller Storefront widgets on their ChannelAdvisor store home page (I only captured half of their home page in this screen shot):

By placing the Showcase widget front and center, Trump Wireless has ensured that all visitors will be greeted with their cell phone inventory. You can also see on the left of the widget that they have used the Showcase widget’s categories so shoppers can quickly find cell phones for particular carriers. The square, blue design integrates nicely within their web page, as well as with the pictures of the cell phones themselves.

Underneath the Showcase widget, Trump has placed a Storefront widget that initially displays inventory in a grid format. The advantage of using the Storefront widget is that it allows the entire eBay inventory to be searched, whereas the Showcase widget displays a maximum of 50 items and does not have search capabilities.

By using Cooqy’s widgets, Trump Wireless has extended their eBay store to a ChannelAdvisor store page, such that visitors can shop their entire eBay inventory. Thank you Trump Wireless for choosing to use Cooqy’s widgets!

If you are an eBay seller using Cooqy’s widgets on non-eBay pages and would like me to show off your design on my blog, drop me a line at ryeager@cooqy.com!

Various 3rd-party reports are stating that the sellers’ boycott of eBay last week resulted in about 13% fewer listings. Cooqy’s numbers supports eBay’s claim that the boycott had little or no material impact for the week.

A high percentage of Cooqy’s traffic comes from widgets embedded on eBay item listings. Although a 10-15% drop in Cooqy’s widget traffic did occur, the decline started on Feb. 12 and reached its lowest point on Feb. 15, the week prior to the planned boycott. Cooqy’s widget traffic actually increased during the week of the boycott and surpassed the traffic before the initial decline by week’s end. As other reports have pointed out, eBay’s one-day promotion w/ reduced listing fees during the week of the boycott have apparently canceled any significant impact of the boycott.

Had this been a Buyers’ Boycott instead, the results may have been much different to eBay’s bottom line.

During the recent sellers’ boycott, if the marketplace of buyers remained the same then those shoppers would have simply bought items from the available sellers with active listings. eBay makes much more money when items are sold vs. when items are listed, so the bottom line is that eBay’s pocketbook was little changed from having fewer item listings.

On the flip side, had this been a Buyers’ Boycott it likely would have had a substantial material impact to eBay. Fewer shoppers would have resulted in fewer items sold, which would then have caused a major decrease in revenue to eBay.

This is why eBay’s TV commercials are geared towards increasing the amount of shoppers who go to eBay, as opposed to advertising to find new sellers to list their goods on eBay. Buyers rule eBay’s fate more than sellers. Sure, a marketplace requires both parties to function, but in eBay’s case a reduction of sellers just doesn’t harm the overall market…sellers are fungible. Fewer sellers just means that the remaining sellers sell more goods, everything else being equal.

My new widget mashup tool called Qrowd has entered private beta. Send an e-mail to sales@qrowd.com if you are interested in a test drive, but be aware that some Q&A (as in Questions and Answers) is involved, to help elicit feedback about the system.

In conjunction with the rollout, I’ve written a post describing my experiences with OpenLaszlo’s 4.x DHTML runtime. Will be of interest to any technical folks out there wondering about OpenLaszlo’s DHTML support in the creation of a fairly complex web application.

I recently received a heads up that Cooqy’s widgets weren’t redirecting to eBay listings from MySpace.  After some investigating, I dicovered that MySpace now converts all HTML links in profiles to a “www.mpslinks.com” URL, that serves to filter all outbound links from MySpace profiles.  Apparently this was changed by MySpace earlier this year, but because old profiles were not impacted I had not noticed.  Only new profiles or changes to existing profiles would cause the HTML links to be replaced by MySpace.

Cooqy’s Widget Wizard has been updated with a fix to make the widgets compatible with MySpace again.  Any users of Cooqy’s widgets on MySpace who notice that their widgets don’t link to their eBay items should re-run the Widget Wizard at http://www.cooqy.com/widgetWizard.htm.

In other news, Cooqy’s server settings have been tweaked today 9/18/2007 in an attempt to improve performance.  So far, the results seem positive.  Cooqy’s traffic recently doubled, necessitating the change.

So, even though I am still busy developing my new venture called Qrowd and consulting on multiple OpenLaszlo development projects for clients, Cooqy is still receiving my attention as required to keep the service running smoothly.

You can read about the ongoing development of my new venture Qrowd here.

Cooqy continues to chug along nicely, with no major hiccups or issues. As always, I’d like to say “Thank you!” to everyone who is using Cooqy for shopping and selling on eBay!