Most pointless software ever....after AOL, of course

I was just checking on my Hannah Montana auction and noticed a post about eBay's new "public Beta" of their eBay Desktop software.

First of all, the concept of a Public Beta is somewhat ridiculous anyway...when did a Beta test become a public event? The whole idea of a Beta release of software is to have a small-ish group of testers evaluate the software BEFORE opening the final release to the public.

But the real reason that I wanted to comment on this new eBay Desktop is that eBay is a WEBSITE! A website that now wants users to download special software to view the same information that you can get already...on their website!

While most companies are trying to move desktop applications ONTO websites, eBay is apparently going in the opposite direction. Can anyone give me any reason at all that a desktop version of eBay would provide any value????

Apparently eBay is subscribing to the AOL school of thought...which apparently is something like "Let's give our users a bloated piece of software that allows them access to the exact same information that they can get already using their web browser." (and yes...the software is indeed bloated: a 15 MB download AND it requires the installation of Adobe AIR as part of the installation)

OK...that's enough ranting for now. Go download the eBay Desktop application so that you can bid up my Hannah Montana tickets even higher!

Hannah Who?

After reading about Billy Ray Cirus' daughter who performs as Hannah Montana and her national tour that is selling out arenas in minutes, I was able to snag a couple tickets to her upcoming performance in Cleveland.

So now I'm hoping that these tickets are as hot as the media makes them out to be!

If you know a parent that would like to take their teenage daughter out to a concert, please send them to my eBay listing...because I sure don't want to get stuck with these tickets.

People will buy anything

GMail invites used to be hard to acquire. I remember people selling GMail invites for $100+ on eBay and people were happily buying.

Well now GMail is a public service, no invitation necessary. So now what are people buying?

Pre-registered GMail addresses!

Yep. People are paying for "hot" "rare" "supercool" GMail addresses on eBay.

Check this one out. $50+ for a free GMail address?

That one is for wii.will.wii.will.rock.ya@gmail.com. GMail ignores periods in addresses, so somebody went and registered wiiwillwiiwillrockya as a GMail address and someone actually wants to buy it from them!

That's just weird.