Hmmm, deja vu? Perhaps the person making the announcement hasn't been with eBay very long. eBay use to have some very useful and powerful marketing programs for the sellers: co-op advertising and a program curiously similar to this one, the eBay AdMarketplace (Keywords on eBay).

Not only curiously similar. It seemed exactly the same. It was the eBay version of Google's ad words. The new one is positioned as "a pay-per-click advertising solution that will allow eBay sellers to advertise their listings and eBay Stores via a text ad on eBay search result pages."

They also say that the program will “allow eBay sellers to promote their stores and listings via enhanced text integrations on eBay search result pages. The ads can be targeted by keyword or category, and eBay buyers who click on these ads will be taken directly to sellers’ listings or stores on eBay.”

This is basically the exact program eBay abandoned in 2006. Savvy sellers could used this program (as do millions of site on the web use Google pay-per-click) to promote their listings and businesses businesses right on the ebay site - where they are selling.

As a seller, I used the program very successfully from 2003 and couldn't understand why ebay dropped the program. At the time, eBay said that “The eBay Keywords program has been used by a very small percentage of eBay members since its launch in 2003.” It was a small percentage (guess) of successful sellers.

Why they're touting it as something new is a puzzle, except we all know about the popularity of repackaging an old idea as a new one. It is the lipstick on a pig syndrome? Whatever, it's a valuable program. Successful sellers will stay on top of the launch, click here for eBay's official info.