Ebay opens toolbox for developers

OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE has taken another giant leap into the mainstream with the announcement that Ebay will open a tool used by 700,000 regular sellers to developers.

Selling Manager, which is used by Ebay shop owners to list and manage auctions has, until now, been entirely coded and controlled by Ebay employees. But Ebay has recognised that it doesn't have the resources or will to continue to develop the software to suit the needs of every merchant.

Ebay's exec in charge of Selling Manager, Max Mancini has told Computerworld, "We're taking our open [application development] platform to the next level."

The online auction giant is hoping that turning over the source code to the OPen Source community will lead to the creation of a library of software and plugins which users can browse and use when needed.

Ebay's money moving partner Paypal is also jumping on the Open Source bandwagon by creating its new Developer Central portal which will become a free source of new APIs and tools to help Paypal extract cash from its users. µ