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San Dimas is Big in France, Apparently
Posted Jun-27-07 17:00:16 PDT
I've been very pleased by the positive reaction to San Dimas. We have beta testers from all over the world -- the US leads the way in terms of number of beta testers, no surprise there. However, I was surprised to find out that the number 2 country is... France! This is despite both Germany and the UK having bigger eBay usage. Also, there is no translated version of the interface yet, and we have done zero press about San Dimas in France up until now.
As if it weren't enough to be number 2 in beta testers, French bloggers and media have written up a storm about it. Here are some of the stories:
Nouvelle version d'eBay en préparation
This was the first French article, and was published back in April. After this was published we saw a big spike in beta user registrations from .fr email addresses.
Premiers pas dans le projet San Dimas - AccessOweb, le blog
What appears to be an in-depth review of the San Dimas features. I say "appears to be" because I can't actually be sure, since I was an abject failure in learning French, this despite my four years of French class in junior high and high school.
One of the commenters on the blog post says this:
"Pour en revenir au graphisme, moi je le trouve au contraire très bien foutu : plus classe que du html avec de légers dégradés, et surtout un écran pas surchargé du tout où l'on pourrait se perdre, comme sur la homepage d'ebay. On ne peut pas non plus le constater sur des screenshots mais la navigation est très agréable également. Bref joli test pour une jolie application !"
Which Google translates into this:
"To return from there to graphics, me I find it very well on the contrary foutu: more class that HTML with light ranges, and especially a screen not overloaded of the whole where one could lose oneself, as on the homepage of ebay. One cannot either note it on screenshots but navigation is very pleasant also. In short pretty test for a pretty application!"
Umm... thanks?
Application riche #13 : eBay San Dimas - Fabien Deshayes - Du client riche à un Internet riche
Another in-depth review, I think. My favorite quote is the following:
"La grande force de San Dimas est à mon avis cette navigation complètement nouvelle qui casse les codes d'une page web, ou même d'une application de bureau plus classique : fini les pop-up, les rechargement : ici tout se fait par onglets ou par panneaux, profitant à merveille des technologies Flex et Air pour donner un style à part entière à San Dimas."
Which translates as:
"The great force of San Dimas is in my opinion this navigation completely new which breaks the codes of a Web page, or even of an application of more traditional office: finished the popones, recharging: here all is done by mitres or panels, benefitting wonder from technologies Flex and Air to give a style to whole share in San Dimas."
I'm calling pop-ups "popones" from now on.
Que sont les applications riches (RIA) ? - Partie 3 - Quel futur pour l'Internet riche ?
There is a small San Dimas mention in this article, which is a three part magnum opus on Rich Internet Applications. (3 part blog post! Take that, Twitter!).
What I like about this one is that it refers to San Dimas as "projet San Dimas d'eBay".
Premiers regards Vidéo : Project San Dimas : Ebay en Apollo
I've saved the best for last. Somebody made a 17 minute (17!) video of a San Dimas walkthrough. In French. I have no idea what the narrator is saying. Can anyone help translate this?
Bravo, French San Dimasers, Bravo
Note: This is a cross-post from my personal blog.
-Alan
New Version: 0.5.013
What's new in this version? Lots of fixes, that's what. Including:
- Entire HTML description on item should be scrollable (so listings with long descriptions are no longer cut off)
- Fixed syncing issues with adding/removing on watch
- Fixed image error when loading search results. This was the most frequently reported bug.
- Currency symbols now show correctly for non US listings. International support is still very raw, so we appreciate feedback in this area in particular, especially with testing the whole buying process from an international site.
- Changed scrollbar skins
- Feedback confirmation window improved
One of the big issues that has been reported is excess CPU usage, even when idling. Thanks to everyone who has reported this, we are looking into some optimizations that should help with this.
-Alan
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Congratulations to Beta User Number 1
The charity auction for the first San Dimas beta invitation was a big success! Winning eBay user "selltouzed" from Denver, CO came by the offices of EffectiveUI, the development group that is working with eBay on the project, to pick up his T-Shirt and certificate. The winner (his name is Steve) got to try out the beta before anyone else, right there in the office, and he went home and promptly logged a bunch of feature requests and bugs. I got a chance to talk to Steve on the phone, and I was so glad that the logistics worked out such someone on the San Dimas team could meet him in person. Here is Steve with Rebecca from EffectiveUI, proudly wearing his "Preston/Logan '08" shirt, and displaying the inaugural Certificate of Betachievement.
The guinea pigs of Aurora, Colorado also say "thanks!" to Steve for winning the auction, in the process raising $216 for the Cavy Care Inc. guinea pig shelter. Actually, they said "wheek, wheek" and I translated for them.
-Alan
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Beta program for San Dimas starts today!
I got to show San Dimas in the keynote yesterday, which was a great experience.
If you haven't yet signed up for the beta, be sure to do so soon - if you do it is likely that you'll get an invite within a few weeks.
-Alan
http://blogs.ebay.com/projectsandimas/archive/2007/05
Archive - May 2007
Auction for the First San Dimas Beta Invitation
Auction Includes:
- First invitation to the San Dimas beta program
Will be sent out at least 6 hours before any other user gets an invitation. Exact timing of when the invitation gets sent out is not guaranteed, but we promise the winner won't have to wait too long. - Official looking certificate
Provides documented proof that you are in fact the first San Dimas user. Certificate will be signed by me, and by a real life eBay executive, if I'm successful in convincing one to do so. - "Preston/Logan '08" XL size T-ShirtSorry, no other size is available. I
bought this on eBay, of course, and if all you want it the shirt I'm sure you can use your eBay search skilz to find another one just like it. I will also sign the t-shirt (additional fee may apply for me to not sign the shirt).
-Alan
The Mystery Behind the Name "San Dimas"
One of the questions I often hear when speaking about Project San Dimas is: "Why is San Dimas called San Dimas?" Good question. So, I thought I'd let everyone into the answer.
At eBay, we like to use code names for products before they go live. At the time we started working on San Dimas, there was another product nicknamed "Baldwin Park".
If you don't live in Southern California, Baldwin Park is a suburb of Los Angeles. So, when trying to come up with a name for this project, Alan decided to look at neighboring LA towns -- and came across "San Dimas."
San Dimas, of course, is the hometown Bill S. Preston, Esq. and Ted Logan, best known for their work in the band "Wyld Stallyns."
That's right, it's a reference to "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure", that great work of late 80s cinema, and the first movie with Keanu Reeves that anybody ever saw.
Be excellent to each other and party on dudes.
-adam
Feature Highlight: Popular Searches In Search Box
I promised that I'd blog about features in San Dimas, and the first one up is very simple. In the search box, when you start typing a few characters, a drop-down menu appears showing popular searches that match.
This has a few benefits - one is that if you happen to be looking for something that is on the list, you can click directly on it and save time. But what I like it for best is for finding stuff to buy that I didn't even know that I needed. The other day I found "cushman" was one of the top "cu" keywords. If you are not familiar with Cushman utility vehicles, you may be surprised what you find when you search for it.
San Dimas is not the first application to have this kind of feature, but we are looking in a few areas to improve on the basic model of showing popular searches in this way. The first is integrating a user's own past searches in the same drop down as the general purpose popular searches. We are toying around with various ideas on how to do this. The main question is whether to have a single merged list or to have a single list that intermixes personal with popular search terms. This is the kind of thing that is hard to form an opinion on until you see it in action, and even I won't be sure which I prefer until it is actually implemented in the product. Leave a note in the comments with your thoughts.
-Alan
http://blogs.ebay.com/projectsandimas/archive/2007/04
Archive - April 2007
Started Writing a FAQ - What Do You Want to Know?
-Alan
Welcome email should be fixed
-Alan
Welcome emails might be flagged as spam
-Alan
San Dimas screenshot in the Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal has an article on the "Clash Course" between Adobe and Microsoft. San Dimas is built on the new Apollo platform from Adobe, and the article contains a nice screenshot of San Dimas. I'll post more about the Apollo platform later, but I wanted to mention the article because it contains a nice summary of the technology landscape. The journal is usually paid, but this article is free, at least for now.
-Alan
Welcome to Project San Dimas!
Please feel free to leave comments here, or blog about it on your own blog -- tell us what you think!
-Alan
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