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eBay and Microsoft today invited third-party developers to tap into the Web services capabilities of both the eBay platform and the Microsoft Office System to enhance trading on eBay. With the combined power of the two platforms, developers now have the opportunity to build solutions that can benefit buyers and sellers on eBay.

Developers can use Web Services capabilities in Microsoft Office to link to eBay and create solutions to help users increase their productivity on eBay. For example, solutions could enable eBay users to utilize Excel to manage dynamic listing data on eBay - such as pricing and bids - and update the data automatically as changes occur. Solutions also could enable users to list multiple items on eBay simultaneously or create a Web site that displays their eBay item listings.

"We're giving developers the tools they need to enhance the trading experience for eBay users," said Gytis Barzdukas, director of Office System Product Management at Microsoft. "With the combination of Excel 2003 and FrontPage 2003, developers can provide users with powerful tools to analyze their sales and inventory in real time and build sophisticated and dynamic Web sites."

Developers and eBay's buyers and sellers can use the powerful and familiar tools in FrontPage 2003 with the Extensible Markup Language (XML)-based application programming interfaces (APIs) provided by the eBay Developers Program to easily create professional-looking Web sites that display customized information on items for sale on eBay. The FrontPage 2003 Web package includes Web design and maintenance tools; a data view built to display multiple item listings from eBay; rich sorting, filtering and grouping features to present only desired data; a "New" icon for specific items listed on the last day (24 hours) of the auction

Using Excel 2003, developers can seamlessly integrate with the eBay API via XML, allowing them to take advantage of the latest capabilities in Office 2003 to customize list views, graphs and charts; catalog bulk items online or offline; and submit item listings on eBay. The Excel-based solution now allows eBay buyers and sellers to create an offline historical record of their transactions, analyze their buying or selling history, and use Excel's automated bulk uploading processes to submit item listings, instead of having to manually enter the same items each time.

For more information about the eBay Developers Program, visit http://www.developer.ebay.com .

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About the author:

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com.

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