For example, if you see some cookies that you are interested in trying to bake, you might be able to see the recipe. If someone posts an interesting movie-related pin, you might be able to see a review.

The company has partnered with a bunch of sites, which will provide this information. There are three types of pins, which will take advantage.

There are product pins for things like clothing and furniture, which include pricing, availability, and where to buy the item. This info is updated on a daily basis. The initial partners for this category include: Anthropologie, Asos, BHLDN, eBay, Etsy, Free People, Home Depot, Modcloth, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Overstock, REI, Sephora, Shopify shops, Shop Terrain, Sony, Target, Urban Outfitters, Walmart, Wayfair, and Zulily.

Next are recipe pins, which include cook times, ingredients and servings. Initial partners for these are: 101 Cookbooks, Better Homes and Gardens, Bon Appetit, Chobani, Country Living, Delish, Epicurious, Good Housekeeping, Leite’s Culinaria, Martha Stewart Living, MyRecipes, Naturally Ella, Nestlé Very Best Baking, Real Simple, Simply Recipes, Skinny Taste, The Girl Who Ate Everything, The Kitchn,What’s Gaby Cooking, Whole Foods Market and Woman’s Day.

Finally, there are movie pins, which include content ratings, cast members, etc. Info comes from Flixster, Netflix and Rotten Tomatoes.

The new pins are only available in the new Pinterest design.

If you think your site has something to contribute in the way that all of these sites do, you can learn more about rich pins and making your own site’s Pinterest experience better here.

In addition to the new types of pins, Pinterest has finally made the ‘Pin It’ button available to mobile apps. You can see it in action in apps from Behance, Brit+Co, Etsy, Fotopedia, Jetsetter, Modcloth, Snapguide, TED, The North Face and Zulily.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Let’s say you left a negative review on eBay. Maybe the seller wasn’t prompt in delivery, or maybe they weren’t completely honest about the product. Whatever. At what point would you feel like you needed to remove or edit that feedback? What if the buyer corrected their mistake – or made it up to you in some way. What then? Would you reconsider if the buyer sued you for damages?

An eBay seller is suing a buyer after she left a negative review on the site and refused to rescind it – and the buyer isn’t backing down. The negative feedback was over an unexpected $1.44 postage charge.

According to the complaint, Amy Nicholls purchased a microscope part from Med Express in February. As a result of that purchase, Nicholls incurred shipping costs ($12 on top of the $175 purchasing price).

Med Express took her payment via PayPal, and shipped out the device. When it arrived to Nicholls, there was an extra $1.44 postage due.

Who’s in the right? Is there any reason for a seller (or business) to sue over a negative review? Should a buyer ever be instructed to remove a review? Is it all about what can be proven libelous? Where do you draw the line? Let us know in the comments.

Nicholls, operating under the eBay moniker chimera_studios, posted on February 26th that the “Order arrived with postage due with no communication from seller beforehand. It was logged as a negative feedback on eBay.

Med Express quickly responded, saying that “Sorry – no idea there was postage due. This has happened alot (sp) from USPS lately.”

Over the past year, Med Express has 298 ratings, only 2 of which are considered negative. Their positive feedback percentage stands at 99.3%.

“When notified of the problem, Med Express immediately offered to reimburse Nicholls for the postage due amount. Despite this offer, and before giving Med Express a chance to reimburse her, Nicholls on February 26, 2013, apparently as a result of the $1.44 postage due, posted negative feedback and comments for the transaction on eBay’s website and gave Med Express low ratings in the Detailed Seller Ratings section of eBay’s Feedback Forum, resulting in an unfavorable feedback profile for Med Express. In so doing, Nicholls falsely and deliberately slandered the good name and reputation of Med Express.”

Med Express goes on to say that Nicholls caused them irreparable harm and caused them to lose customers and income.

They seek not only an injunction to remove the negative feedback, but also damages (both punitive and reparative).

The facts of the case do not seem to be in dispute. And in a letter to Med Express, Paul Levy of the Public Citizen Litigation Group (on behalf of Nicholls) makes it clear that the feedback about them is true, and that Med Express admitted to that in communications with him. That, and the lawsuit itself is the definition of frivolous.

“In a sense, what you and your client seem to be contending is that your client’s offer to pay the $1.40 is a sufficient display of contrition that Nicholls ought to be forgiving. But the point that she made in her message to you was that the problem wasn’t the money but the hassle. she indicated that she would have been willing to pay $1.40 more in shipping up front, but that she was posting feedback because a company that ships products ought to be able to do a better job.

That opinion might be right, or it might be wrong, but harboring it and expressing it is not a tort. And it is certainly no reason to seek damages, attorney fees, and an injunction. Consumers might well take this sort of bullying into account when they are thinking about whether to do business with Med Express,” says Levy.

“Moreover, the relief you are seeking would be injurious to consumers. Your other potential buys have an interest in knowing the history – that, for a period of time, you were repeatedly using a shipper knowing of problems that could result in user having to pay postage due.”

Remember the response Med Express had for Nicholls? “This has happened alot (sp) from USPS lately?”

Of course, Levy argues that’s not really the most important part. Summarily, Ohio law and the First Amendment prevents Med Express from suing over this type of negative review.

eBay isn’t the only place online where reviews have been an issue for the courts. A few months ago, a judge ruled that a women must edit part of her review of a contractor on Yelp and Angie’s List, after she accused the company of stealing jewelry from her home. A later decision overturned that one, ruling that her postings were free speech until proven defamatory.

There are a lot of far-reaching implications in cases like this, and the aforementioned eBay case. On one hand, courts can’t universally protect anything a reviewer ever says under the umbrella of free speech. That would open the doors to false reviews and flat-out lies directed at businesses in the attempt to smear. We know that this isn’t legal.

On the other hand, it’s dangerous to set a precedent that says businesses can successfully win suits like this. At that point, it’s a slippery slope to open season on internet users and their legitimate complaints. Do we really want the courts clogged up with lawsuits over a one-sentence blip of text like “God, worst burgers ever”?

What do you think? Where’s the line? Do you think that the eBay case we’ve discussed is pretty cut and dry? Can you foresee circumstances where this sort of thing gets more complicated, and the right decision becomes harder to discern? Let us know in the comments.

[via Ars Technica]

Med Express offered to correct the mistake, reimbursing Nicholls for the undue charges. But Nicholls had already posted the “negative” feedback on eBay. Med Express claimed that that feedback (which knocked their favorability rating down to 99.3%) caused them irreparable harm. They sued for an injunction to get the feedback removed and for damages from the resulting loss of business.

Nicholls, with the help of Public Citizen’s Paul Levy, lawyered up and fought back – saying that her feedback was accurate and that expressing it is not a tort, and especially no reason to seek damages. To Levy, the lawsuit was the epitome of a frivolous mess. The case saw widespread coverage across tech sites. You can read our longer breakdown of the initial lawsuit here.

Now, we have a couple of new wrinkles in the case. Med Express President Richard Radey took to Public Citizen’s site to issue an “apology” for the lawsuit in the comments.

“I hope all of you will accept this as an open letter of apology from Med Express,” he said.

He went on to explain that the lawsuit was never meant to be targeted at Nicholls, and that he had instructed his lawyer to seek $1 in damages.

“Her feedback was also never an issue. We fully support her right and all of our customers right to leave any feedback they desire – true or otherwise!” he said.

Apparently, the issue involved eBay’s “Detailed Seller Ratings.” He said the low rating caused Med Express to love their coveted “Top Rated Seller Plus” standings. He then linked this to a possible loss of tens of thousands of dollars in the future.

Also, he claims to have not read the suit:

The only way DSR’s are removed is by court order, and I was told that such court orders were not uncommon. I do deeply regret the wording of the lawsuit. I had not read it and only learned of the wording on the blogs. I too would have been outraged and for that I also sincerely apologize. It is the addendum attached ordering Ebay to remove the DSR’s that was our only goal.

The only person to blame here is me. You have spoken and I have listened. A terrible wrong needs to be righted. I am instructing our attorneys to drop the lawsuit. I want to assure everyone that you may feel free to leave any feedback on our company without fear of reprisal. I have learned my lesson.

Public Citizen’s Levy has now published a response, basically saying “I don’t believe you.”

“When I criticize somebody on this blog, I generally send a courtesy notice with an invitation to respond omnt he blog. When the target of criticism owns up to a mistake, it is also my practice to be gracious. Ordinarily, then, a profuse apology like Radey’s would be cause for admiration. Problem is, I don’t believe a word of what he says…” Levy writes.

Expect that he does believe Radey is sorry about the criticism Med Express has received through all the media coverage of the suit. But the rest, he says, is a smoke screen.

In fact, he claims that the lawsuit against Nicholls is simply one of many, and it’s not even the most ridiculous. He points to a long list of past and pending claims against eBay and eBay buyers.

“From my review of many of the cases, Med Express typically files a complaint based on extremely vague assertions of falsity, against defendants who may be too far from Medina too respond effectively, seeks a temporary restraining order without giving any notice, and hopes to get relief before the defendant knows what hit him, her or it,” says Levy.

Levy also claims that Radey’s assertion that it’s the lawyer’s fault, and that he hadn’t seen the lawsuits before they were filed is nonsense. Levy says that Radey signed a verification for the suit and signed an affidavit complaining about the negative feedback.

“Even if I were inclined to believe Radey’s assertion that all he really wanted was an injunction taking down the criticism, I would not be assuaged; in some ways, such injunctions, and the procedures for getting them, are even more of an affront to the public interest,” says Levy.

“[T]he public at large is injured by these fixes, because consumers have an interest in learning what the criticism was, and what the response. Not all rating systems are perfect; maybe there are reasons to doubt the accuracy of the “DSRs.” But they are one data point that eBay consumers can use to decide where to buy goods online. We should not forgive Radey and Med Express even if it were true that distorting his own DSR’s was the only objective of this frivolous litigation.”

Nicholls’ lawyers have filed a counterclaim, one that seeks sanctions and punitive damages from Radey and his attorneys. This will move forward, according to Levy.

What the company considered to be a strong quarter wasn’t enough to please investors, as the forecast wasn’t quite as positive.

eBay stock is down -2.90‎ (-5.17%‎) in morning trading.

Here’s the release in its entirety:

SAN JOSE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Global commerce platform and payments leader eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY) today reported that revenue for the first quarter ended March 31, 2013, increased 14% to $3.7 billion, compared to the same period of 2012. The company reported first quarter net income on a GAAP basis of $677 million, or $0.51 per diluted share, and non-GAAP net income of $829 million, or $0.63 per diluted share. The year-over-year increase in first quarter GAAP and non-GAAP earnings per diluted share was driven primarily by strong top-line growth.

The company said in an announcement:

Consumers’ shopping habits have drastically changed since 1997, when Shopping.com first launched. Originally, buyers had fewer online options to research and ultimately buy their products. Today, consumers can access many more options, with the average shopper visiting 10.4 websites during their purchasing process.

To keep pace with the changing nature of buying and shopping, the eBay Commerce Network has evolved into an active commerce ad network capable of connecting retailers with buyers at any stage of the shopping experience – from awareness to purchase.

Kristy Troup, GM of the U.S. Business at the newly branded eBay Commerce Network, says, “We are committed to enhancing and scaling our network so that we can deliver new customers and drive meaningful sales by offering our merchants the broadest reach across the web at the right ROI. As an eBay company, we are focused on connecting buyers and sellers through relevant digital advertising.”

There are already 4,000 merchants working with the eBay Commerce Network. Merchants who partner with the network get placements on eBay, Bing and CNET, according to the announcement.

So far, the shopping.com homepage doesn’t have much in the way of new branding.

In a meeting with investors, eBay announced that it plans to continue growing through 2015 thanks to a “commerce revolution.” This revolution will be spearheaded by the transition to mobile as more and more people take to the Web to buy and sell.

“Led by mobile, a commerce revolution is under way,” said eBay Inc. President and CEO John Donahoe. “Technology is creating a new web-enabled retail interface, a new seamless, multiscreen commerce experience that connects consumers anytime, anywhere. This will expand shopping beyond conventional store environments and e-commerce sites. How we shop is being transformed, and eBay Inc. intends to be a leader in this new commerce world.”

This outlook is not only good for investors, but for the millions of people who sell on eBay. In fact, the company thinks it will enable $300 billion of global commerce in 2015, compared to $175 billion in 2012. It also hopes to grow its revenue from by over 50 percent to $21.5 billion in 2015.

So, how is eBay going to do this? The company has a three pronged approach:

As for other eBay properties, the company expects its Marketplaces business to reach revenues of $11.5 billion in 2015, or a 14 percent compound annual growth rate. PayPal is also expected to reach revenue growth of $10.5 billion, or a 22 percent compound annual growth rate.

eBay has not commented on the story, but it appears astrobuzz was forced to change the listing to comply with eBay’s terms. As The Hollywood Reporter reports:

As of late Wednesday, the description for the Carrey photo being sold by astrobuzz read: “I’m selling this Jim Carrey autographed B&W photo (mint condition) for purposes I cannot explain because it might be against eBay’s Terms & Conditions.”

The listing appears to have changed again. The description currently says:

I’m trying to sell this 8X10 Autograph reprint photo of Jim Carrey for personal reasons. >;)Happy Bidding!P.S. I have followed all the ebay policy conditions this time and the auction should make it to the end.

It has no mention of guns.

Other sellers have started to imitate the listing. Here’s one from member paradisecarwash:

The listing’s description is as follows:

I am selling this Jim Carrey photo

I am also willing to donate some of the proceeds

Meanwhile, Jim Carrey has been quite active on Twitter:

The company, formerly Bonanzle, says it has seen steady growth in membership, traffic and revenue since launching in 2008. It attributes this mainly to its fee structure.

“We’re happy to let Amazon and eBay argue over whose pricing scheme is ‘best for sellers,’” said CEO Bill Harding. “Meanwhile, our fees average 70% lower than theirs. We aim to make selling online simple enough for my grandma to do it, and yes,
that ‘one million’ number includes Grandma Harding.”

eBay announced last week that it is launching free listings for all sellers.

In 2010, Bonanzle acquired artisan merchandise site 1000 Markets and changed its name to Bonanza. The combined company would take aim more at Etsy than eBay, specializing in “unique and non-mass-produced items”.

Etsy had 1,025,124 new members join in February alone. The site saw 1.49 billion page views during the month.

“As an eBay seller, you’re in prime position to reach the growing millions of global buyers coming now to the world’s largest marketplace—looking for just what you’re selling,” says Michael Jones, Vice President, Merchant Development at eBay. “Updates coming this spring can help you cash in, starting with new everyday fee plans that virtually eliminate the basic upfront cost of selling for all sellers.”

Sellers will no longer have to pay insertion fees for their allotted free listings per calendar month. Optional fees, including advanced listing upgrades and supplemental service fees will still apply. Some big ticket stuff like cars, real estate, heavy equipment, concession trailers and carts, imaging and aesthetics equipment and commercial printing presses are excluded.

Starting on May 1, sellers get up to 2,500 free listings per month with an eBay Stores subscription, and starting April 16, 50 free listings per month can be listed auction-style or fixed price, with one flat 10% value fee when items are sold.

This is all part of the first of two sell updates for 2013.

eBay’s move comes on the heels of a Reuters report indicating Amazon sellers are looking for alternatives as the company has implemented fee hikes over the past year. eBay has even gone so far as to post a comparison chart between the two companies’ offerings (via TechCrunch):

Along withe new fee structure, eBay is offering new seller protections by reducing the impact of unpaid items and removing buyer feedback when the case is found in the seller’s favor.

Other updates from eBay include: sellers will be automatically opted into a new way to define shipping, return and payment policies; listing pictures will be optimized for mobile; sellers will be able to specify same business day handling to highlight to buyers; and categories are getting updated.

An overview of eBay’s spring seller update can be found here.

“We’re delivering a cleaner, contemporary look and feel; a more intuitive, convenient way to browse, decide and buy – both globally and locally; and a new personal way to curate your own shopping experience and discover items perfect for you,” said eBay President Devin Wenig.

The new eBay Feed is a Pinterest-like design that features personalized and self-curated products. It’s a “collection of items selected for you, based on your shopping history or your own personal interests,” says eBay.

The new eBay lets users “follow” certain types of products like “movie posters,” “speakers,” “clothing,” etc. Users can also import their Facebook interests to the new feed.

Clicking on any product pops it up in a lightbox. From there, users can see basic product information like price, similar items, additional photos, and more.

“eBay will simplify its site design to offer more streamlined navigation along with larger images and key product information, enabling customers to find what they want more quickly and easily. And, because today’s consumers want a more personalized shopping experience, we’ll provide a curated collection of items tailored to our customers’ unique interests right on the eBay homepage,” says the company.