Have you checked out the eBay Neighborhoods?

eBay has also officially entered into the social networking / social commerce bandwagon, with the official announcement of the launch of eBay Neighborhoods [http://neighborhoods.ebay.com]. These “neighborhoods” will be communities/ networks built around specific products/ items; reportedly, there are plans to build around 600 such networks. See the official announcement here.

The number of items listed on eBay has fallen the past quarter and also on a year-on-year basis. While eBay does not admit it, there are reports that this may be due to suppliers being unhappy with the contextual advertising [as a result of a partnership with Google] that is offered on the site, which suppliers feel lead buyers away from the site.

Considering the social networks are being monetized primarily by advertising, and viewing it together with the contextual advertising partnership, are we seeing the possibility of eBay increasingly monetizing via advertising and reducing its dependence on transactional revenues? May seem far-fetched, but then who knows…