what exactly is an EBAY?

[AtariKen64]

ok if i didnt knwo what ebay was or did why would i be herem but what IS AN EBAY? i know alot of onlne things get E tagged, Email Ebuisness... but what ia an E BAY what does BAY mean?? besides a big thing of water

[bjybjy]

The original name of eBay way back when, was something along the lines of "marketfinder" or something like that. I don't think thats right but you get the point. It was about 5 years ago (when I signed up) that they were like this, and when things started to pick up they changed their name to eBay, which was shorter, easier to remember, and more catchy. I believe eBay auctions stands for Electronic Bay auctions, as they are from the San Fransisco Bay area. I think thats all true, but if I were you I wouldn't quote me :wink:

 

Tad

[Mayhem]

That's my history lesson too, so I guess it's mostly correct

[Room 34]

I was of the impression that "bay" was a term used in "real" auctions for the room/area where individual auctions take place. So the area where an auction for a particular item is held is called an "auction bay."

 

The "e" of course comes from "e"-everything that hit big before the ".com" collapse. Hence, an online equivalent to an auction bay would be an "eBay."

[Adrian M]

The REAL answer is ELECTRONICS BAY. The bay refers to the Bay Area in California.

 

The book "EBOYS" (published in 2000) explains this in detail since the venture capital firm, Benchmark Capital, was one of the lead investors in eBay. Paul Omiydar, the founder of eBay, was interviewed and he explained the reasoning for the name. I believe they wanted to call it ECHO BAY, but the URL name was already taken and they settled on eBAY in the end.

 

It's a good book and I suggest everyone read it. You can find it here at www.amazon.com:

 

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/081...9841754-1060007

[Callipygous]

eBay

e - electronic bay A deep, prolonged bark, such as the sound made by hounds. (from the dictionary)

In other words, its a website that turns everyone into an animal

 

Seriously, I know the SF bay thing is in the book, but the reason "eBay" works linguistically is another definition. Bay can mean a partition or section of house or building. Think of the term "bay window", for instance. The implication is that you are going into a part of the structure (in this case, the internet) where goods are bought and sold.