eBay Hires Chief Architect Who Helped Build Cassini

by: Whatever

AM I wrong? Wasn't Cassini a mess?

by: pace306

eBay going back AGAIN to the same playbook.

Not knowing how to grow its own platform - you go REhire some old dopes (the ones that know where the bodys are buried) and hope that THEY can fix the "ailing mothership".

Cassini is a joke - they should have licensed (if they really cared about Search) Googles engine - but eBay doesnt want organic results - no money there!

I never heard of "eBay's Chief Technology Officer Mazen Rawashdeh" - no one has ... or this other guy Randy Chicken Soup.

One failure after another from San Jose .....

by: pace306

"He spent seven years at eBay earlier in his career and rejoins us from WeWork, where he was VP of Engineering"

And what happened to WeWork? ...... its now WeDontWork isnt it ?

by: Geetar

O boy, I hope they go in the right direction, not wrong. If they do a whole new search engine, the change will most likely be drastic, just like cassini was. Hope it's positive, not negative like cassini was. If the focus is short term profit like the past few years, then ebay definitely is doomed. Then these big shareholders should just sell the company. It would probably be better off for everybody.

by: ebayout

Call the new system Casino.
Buyers who search have no idea where the ball will drop, and the house always wins.

by: toastedmutt

Cassini has been broken for years.  Best match delivers a mess of maybe related but mostly random returns hoping something catches a buyer's eye and gets them to spend a couple of bucks on the site.  eBay boards have numerous posts from sellers who can't find their own listings using Search and Best Match.

Maybe the dude who built it will give it a few swift kicks and get it working properly again.  Or dismantle it and start from scratch.

Welcome back Randy Shoup.  Will you be the salvation both buyers and sellers have been hoping for?  

by: Snapped

“ Call the new system Casino.... ”

Now THAT’s a LMAO Jackpot!

Instantly sobering though, considering this dude’s previous tenure occurred during the height of eBay’s trashed successful past and ended when the wheels fell off. Due in large part to his snake eye ‘inventiveness’.

What’r the odds of winning now? Place yer bets.

by: Marie

Well maybe he can fix the mess he left behind when he moved on, not that he was responsible for all of it at all.  But since he was there in the beginning working on Cassini he is likely to have a more intimate understanding of it.  Wouldn't that be a GREAT thing if he could guide some improvements to the search engine.  Time will tell.  Fingers crossed.

by: purpleiris

He'll need time to refamiliarize himself with his old buddy, the slot machine. Maybe he'll at least better the odds, if he has any humanity left in him.

by: NoMoreEbay

Generally speaking. If an employee didn't work out the first time, they aren't going to improve the second time. ebay's obsession with bringing back former failures or disloyal staff is one more example of their clueless leaders.

by: ebayout

GIGO applies to more than eBay's IT assemblage...  

by: notfunanymore

This reminds me of the car business. Keep RE-hiring the same people expecting different results. The company is a joke. Is and always has been.  

by: toolguy

@notfunanymore

The "joke" makes billions a year in profit and has done so since the beginning.

eBay provides a living for 100's of thousands of families if not millions!

eBay is no joke, failed sellers are!

by: I Must be Crazy

We are supposed to be excited about this?

Ebay brass must think the secret to success is bringing back people that were around when a monkey could run the place.

The only positive I can glean from this latest reprise performance is he may be the only person in the building that might know how Cassini is put together.

by: RKTOYS

@toolguy You really believe that, don't you?

Remember, this is the same eBay that sent threatening packages to a blog that's done nothing but report the truth about them.

by: toolguy

@RKTOYS

The "truth" can be objective

The site may have been truthful in it's reporting but it's members may have not been truthful on it's postings.

My guess is eBay was more pissed at this sites members then the Steiner's themselves.

And do I believe they enable a lot of people to make a living on the site? Yes, I'm living proof.

And do I believe eBay is profitable? They are very profitable on Wall Street's terms. . . .A P/E of 8 is fantastic

by: James-ST

I think the original best match worked fine when it was released for the first few moments at least. Until eBay executives got their fingers into it. Manipulating the results to try to make their misconceived initiatives right. Best match can never work whilst there is things like eBay plus, promoted listings and eBay deciding for the buyers what the buyers want. Best match should have been designed to let what the buyers want rise to the top so no need for executives to mess with it.  

by: BargainzBabylon

Ughhhhh....  Is he bringing his dartboard?  Decisions have to be made, you know.  

by: mindelec

so is he coming back with the view that "cassini is broken and needs to be fixed" or that "cassini is working well and needs to be improved"?

by: frustrated

deep technical expertise. Hmmm..   Will he use that to fix the horrible mess he created?? Or will he use it to screw up the site worse than he did the first time??

Used to be you could list stuff and people found it ten minutes later, and EVERYTHING sold within 7 days. (Voyager)  Now I have 650 stale items from 16 months ago that supposedly "no one wants".  Hmmpf. If I end them and relist, they sell right away. While they sit in "stale" they get almost NO page views.  You can't say no one wants something if you don't allow them to see it.  Can you??

Then this past week they played with the already JUNK best match. Sales went into the basement.

Good one!!