Do People Want To Do eBay Bids On Their TV?
from the where's-the-demand? dept
eBay likes to get involved in non-internet mediums, even though it often looks a bit lost doing so. For a brief period of time they had "eBay: the magazine," and for years they've been messing around with a TV show based on eBay. It's not entirely clear what happened to that effort (a quick Google search doesn't turn up much other than the same old plans about it). However, eBay is still interested in being a part of the TV space in a more interactive manner. Earlier this year, the company was messing around with a TiVo plugin for eBay that would let you surf the auction site via your TiVo. They've now taken that one step further and have done a deal with Time Warner to let people bid on eBay items from their TVs. Of course, you might wonder where the demand for this is. Were people really having trouble walking from their TV to their computer to surf eBay? While the feature may look nice, it is a reminder that most people use their TV as a "sit back" device, where they don't have to do very much or be involved. They just consumer (watch) what's given to them. The computer is a "sit forward" device where users are expected to actively do things (like bid on online auctions). It certainly seems like eBay is targeting the crowd least likely to care.
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.... Oh, I guess that's a little redundant, isn't it ....
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Well, no. I certainly don't. The idea of pratting around with an annoyingly fiddly UI in order to use my 28" telly as an irksomely low-resolution bogo-monitor just in order that I can waste money yet further, yeah right.
But what I really liked was some voice-over bit of programme the other night: "to interact, press the red button on your TV remote now".
I did; I veritably interacted. The screen went blank and I went back to coding... ;)
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Game show
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Re: Game show
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