Following the lawsuit eBay filed against Craigslist two weeks ago, Craigslist is punching back today. In a countersuit (complaint embedded below), Craigslist wants back the 28.4 percent of its shares that eBay bought in 2004. It also wants the court to award Craiglsit eBay’s related profits, and punitive damages on top of it all. Craigslist is accusing eBay of:

unlawful and unfair competition, misappropriation of proprietary information, deceptive passing-off, business interference, false advertising, phishing attacks, free-riding, trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and breaches of fiduciary duty.

The complaint details how former eBay CEO Meg Whitman sweet talked Craig Newmark into the deal after it nearly fell apart, and then goes on to allege that eBay used its position as a large minority shareholder to try to learn competitive secrets from Craigslist, while launching competitor Kijiji in Europe. Now that Kijiji has entered the U.S. and is going straight for Craigslist, the gloves are off.

eBay filed first, though. So it has the legal advantage. But Craigslist has the reputation and publicity advantage. Everyone loves to root for an underdog. This legal brawl could lead to a customer backlash for eBay if customers decide to take sides.

In the complaint, Craigslist details eBay’s strong-arm tactics both during the negotiations for its equity stake and afterwards. One of the reasons Craigslist agreed to teh deal was because eBay founder Pierre Omidyar was named to Craigslist’s board. But he only served a year, and was replaced by Joshua Silverman, an the executive in charge of eBay Europe (who oversaw Kijiji). Silvreman was quickly replaced, speculates the complaint, because of “antitrust” concerns.

The complaint also describes how eBay tried to undermine Craigslist by buying Google ads for keywords such as “Craigslist.org” and “Craigslits.com,” which then redirected to Kijiji. Oh boy, this is going to get ugly.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Following the lawsuit eBay filed against Craigslist two weeks ago, Craigslist is punching back today. In a countersuit (complaint embedded below), Craigslist wants back the 28.4 percent of its shares that eBay bought in 2004. It also wants the court to award Craiglsit eBay’s related profits, and punitive damages on top of it all. Craigslist is accusing eBay of:

unlawful and unfair competition, misappropriation of proprietary information, deceptive passing-off, business interference, false advertising, phishing attacks, free-riding, trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and breaches of fiduciary duty.

The complaint details how former eBay CEO Meg Whitman sweet talked Craig Newmark into the deal after it nearly fell apart, and then goes on to allege that eBay used its position as a large minority shareholder to try to learn competitive secrets from Craigslist, while launching competitor Kijiji in Europe. Now that Kijiji has entered the U.S. and is going straight for Craigslist, the gloves are off.

eBay filed first, though. So it has the legal advantage. But Craigslist has the reputation and publicity advantage. Everyone loves to root for an underdog. This legal brawl could lead to a customer backlash for eBay if customers decide to take sides.

In the complaint, Craigslist details eBay’s strong-arm tactics both during the negotiations for its equity stake and afterwards. One of the reasons Craigslist agreed to teh deal was because eBay founder Pierre Omidyar was named to Craigslist’s board. But he only served a year, and was replaced by Joshua Silverman, an the executive in charge of eBay Europe (who oversaw Kijiji). Silvreman was quickly replaced, speculates the complaint, because of “antitrust” concerns.

The complaint also describes how eBay tried to undermine Craigslist by buying Google ads for keywords such as “Craigslist.org” and “Craigslits.com,” which then redirected to Kijiji. Oh boy, this is going to get ugly.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

MySpace is announcing a broad ranging embrace of data portability standards today, along with data sharing partnerships with Yahoo, Ebay, Twitter and their own Photobucket subsidiary. The new project is being called MySpace “Data Availability” and is an example, MySpace says, of their dedication to playing nice with the rest of the Internet.

A mockup of how the data sharing will look in action with Twitter is shown above. MySpace is essentially making key user data, including (1) Publicly available basic profile information, (2) MySpace photos, (3) MySpaceTV videos, and (4) friend networks, available to partners via their (previousy internal) RESTful API, along with user authentication via OAuth.

The key goal is to allow users to maintain key personal data at sites like MySpace and not have it be locked up in an island. Previously users could turn much of this data into widgets and add them to third party sites. But that doesn’t bridge the gap between independent, autonomous websites, MySpace says. Every site remains an island.

But with Data Availability, partners will be able to access MySpace user data, combine it with their own, and present it on their sites outside of the normal widget framework. Friends lists can be syncronized, for example. Or Twitter may use the data to recommend other Twitter users who are your MySpace friends.

The data sharing is dynamic, meaning it is updated constantly. And that also means user permission is not a one time thing. At any time a user can change or revoke the rights of a third party to access the data. Those third parties are “being held to strict terms of service,” says MySpace, which prohibits them from storing the data or using it once permissions are revoked.

For now, just the four launch partners will have access to Data Availability, and the features should go live in the next couple of weeks. More partners will be added over time, and MySpace says they eventually want to give even “mom and pop” websites ways to be involved.

What About Open Social?

MySpace is a partner in Google’s OpenSocial project, but this is being done outside of that framework. MySpace says they’ll adopt the Open Social APIs that evolve around data sharing once they are developed and announced.

The Center Of All User Data

Historically MySpace has lagged Facebook in terms of innovation. But they definitely “get it” this time. Sharing user data so openly (with user permission) is a terrific way to incentivize users to store all their core data at MySpace to begin with. Users eventually need one place on the Internet to store their data, or lots of places to store different types of data. But what they don’t want is today’s world where they are recreating and storing the same data over a plethora of social networks just because all those sites refuse to share. We’re starting to see the floodgates open and the idea of data sharing become a reality (thanks largely to the efforts of Data Portability and other activists in this space).

By acting first, MySpace takes the lead and has a shot at being the long term winner - meaning lots of people use MySpace as the place to store data, and share it out to other applications from there. Look for Google to make their move next.

See my post on “The Centralized Me” for more of my thinking on this.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

MySpace is announcing a broad ranging embrace of data portability standards today, along with data sharing partnerships with Yahoo, Ebay, Twitter and their own Photobucket subsidiary. The new project is being called MySpace “Data Availability” and is an example, MySpace says, of their dedication to playing nice with the rest of the Internet.

A mockup of how the data sharing will look in action with Twitter is shown above. MySpace is essentially making key user data, including (1) Publicly available basic profile information, (2) MySpace photos, (3) MySpaceTV videos, and (4) friend networks, available to partners via their (previousy internal) RESTful API, along with user authentication via OAuth.

The key goal is to allow users to maintain key personal data at sites like MySpace and not have it be locked up in an island. Previously users could turn much of this data into widgets and add them to third party sites. But that doesn’t bridge the gap between independent, autonomous websites, MySpace says. Every site remains an island.

But with Data Availability, partners will be able to access MySpace user data, combine it with their own, and present it on their sites outside of the normal widget framework. Friends lists can be syncronized, for example. Or Twitter may use the data to recommend other Twitter users who are your MySpace friends.

The data sharing is dynamic, meaning it is updated constantly. And that also means user permission is not a one time thing. At any time a user can change or revoke the rights of a third party to access the data. Those third parties are “being held to strict terms of service,” says MySpace, which prohibits them from storing the data or using it once permissions are revoked.

For now, just the four launch partners will have access to Data Availability, and the features should go live in the next couple of weeks. More partners will be added over time, and MySpace says they eventually want to give even “mom and pop” websites ways to be involved.

What About Open Social?

MySpace is a partner in Google’s OpenSocial project, but this is being done outside of that framework. MySpace says they’ll adopt the Open Social APIs that evolve around data sharing once they are developed and announced.

The Center Of All User Data

Historically MySpace has lagged Facebook in terms of innovation. But they definitely “get it” this time. Sharing user data so openly (with user permission) is a terrific way to incentivize users to store all their core data at MySpace to begin with. Users eventually need one place on the Internet to store their data, or lots of places to store different types of data. But what they don’t want is today’s world where they are recreating and storing the same data over a plethora of social networks just because all those sites refuse to share. We’re starting to see the floodgates open and the idea of data sharing become a reality (thanks largely to the efforts of DataPortability and other activists in this space).

By acting first, MySpace takes the lead and has a shot at being the long term winner - meaning lots of people use MySpace as the place to store data, and share it out to other applications from there. Look for Google to make their move next.

See my post on “The Centralized Me” for more of my thinking on this.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

eBay has released a copy of its complaint against Craigslist (document above). eBay lodged the lawsuit last week in the Delaware Court of Chancery claiming that Craigslist executives took actions that unfairly diluted eBay’s economic interest.

From the document itself, the tipping point would appear to be eBay’s move to offer Kijiji, its classifieds service in the United States. Craigslist viewed Kijiji as a competitive activity that canceled some shareholder rights held by eBay since it became a Criagslist shareholder in 2004. The short story is that eBay believes Craigslist went to far when enacting the competitive activity clause.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Shopping on eBay is more like navigating a street marketplace than visiting a retail store. Disparate vendors sell their wares without any real coordination. As a result, buyers must visit each and everyone of them to ensure that they’re getting the best deal. And with each visit, they must cope and make sense of new advertising spins and types of service.

Wigix launches in public beta today with the intent to standardize online marketplace listings, and consequently make it easier for consumers to find the products they desire. Its SKU-based system (SKU, as in the fact sheets used to describe inventoried items) forces sellers to group their goods with others who are selling essentially the same product. This allows buyers to get a more complete overview of their options, and it allows for many other opportunities as well.

For example, with the SKU system, buyers and sellers can search for item listings using more intelligent search. Type “ipod” into Wigix’s search, and it will automatically suggest all the possible iPod models that one can sell and buy through the site. The search results don’t show actual items for sale, but types of items (”Apple iPod photo 160GB” or “Apple iPod mini 4GB”). It’s only once you click on one of these results that you can see who’s selling it.

Each SKU page shows not only the current sellers but general overview information for the product as well. This includes the current market value, the recent changes in that value, reviews, specs, and more. Users who own the product but haven’t officially put it on sale can list themselves as owners just in case someone wants to come along and make them an offer they can’t refuse. This Zillow-make-me-move-like feature should change the way many people view their possessions (not just dead items but stores of exchangeable value).

Wigix can also track how prices for goods change over time, which in addition to the bid/ask aspect of the site, makes it operate very much like a stock exchange.

The service’s biggest hurdle, of course, will be to draw enough vendors and shoppers away from eBay. It’s hoping its pricing structure will produce the right incentives to do that. There is no cost to list items under $25. Between $25-100, the site takes one dollar from the buyer and one from the seller. And for more expensive items, it claims an additional 2% of the sale price.

Wigix also supports its operations by running targeted advertisements on SKU pages, such as ones for items on Amazon. Since Wigix is a place only for identifiable goods (no collectibles here, at least yet), it’s easy to serve up ads for the same products found elsewhere on the net.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Sometime today, StumbleUpon will register its five millionth user. (At the time of this writing, it is at 4,994,826 registered users). That number is kind of meaningless, though, because it counts anyone who has ever registered for the Website-rating and discovery service, and who may no longer use it. StumbleUpon, which is part of eBay, does not disclose how many active users it has.

But it did provide me with the nifty little graph above which shows how many times users actually “stumble” something on the Web. (When you like a site or a video you can stumble it by giving it a thumbs up—the more stumbles a page gets, the higher it ranks when others are looking for similar pages). The service is about to collect its five billionth stumble within the next 30 days. Users have already stumbled more than one billion times so far this year. Stumbling activity was up 160 percent during the first quarter of 2008, compared to the same period in 2007 (with 974 million stumbles versus 375 million).

Meanwhile, traffic to the site has been steadily climbing back since taking a huge dive last fall. According to comScore, unique visitors worldwide dropped from 4.8 million last October to 1.8 million in December, but came back up to 3.2 million in March. Many active users never go to the site, and just stumble from their browser toolbar. But as the quality of StumbleUpon’s user-selected index improves, it should attract more casual visitors to its site.

Most people think of StumbleUpon as a socially-powered discovery engine rather than a search engine, but personal discovery and search may be colliding. During a recent speech at the Next Web conference, StumbleUpon founder Garrett Camp noted:

Personalized search is just getting started. I think personalized crawling will start too. Crawlers now are trying to create the biggest map of the web, but implicit filtering and intelligent agents—that is where search and discovery will meet. My query log isn’t actually representative of what I want on the Web.

I like that idea of a personalized Web crawler that indexes only the part of the Web deemed to be most relevant to you and people you know or who share the same interests. Stumbleupon already identifies other users related to you who are drawn to similar Websites, and is building a general index of high-quality sites. The more stumbles it collects, the better its index, and the easier it will be to personalize that down the road. With the number of stumbles rapidly accelerating, the next five billion should take only about another year to gather.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

eBay has gone on the record saying that they will sell Skype if they fail to find ways of using Skype to support its core ecommerce business.

Richard Waters at the Financial Times got the scoop directly from eBay’s CEO John Donahoe:

“What we’re testing this year are the synergies,” Mr Donahoe told the Financial Times this week after Ebay reported its latest earnings. “If the synergies are strong, we’ll keep it in our portfolio. If not, we’ll reassess it.” That could lead to the disposal of the business, he indicated.

eBay purchased Skype 3 years ago and has failed to find ways of using Skype across its other products in this time, so it is unlikely that miracles will start happening for Skype in the next 8 months. A sale is likely late this year or in the first half of next year.

The news comes despite strong Q1 figures for Skype and others reports suggesting a Google buyout or alliance may be in the works.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

eBay reported its first quarter results today with revenues of $2.19B, up $424M from the same quarter last year. Its GAAP net income was $460M, or $0.34 per diluted share.

Skype revenues were $126M with 61% year-over-year growth (although revenue is decelerating rapidly). During the first part of this year, Skype added 33M registered users, bringing its total to 309M users. This makes the Skype user base the largest within eBay’s collection of services.

The report signifies that Skype is hanging in there despite the setbacks of last fall that involved CEO Niklas Zennstrom stepping down and earning only 1/3 earnout.

We’ve heard nothing new regarding the possible Google partnership or acquisition with/of Skype, although a partnership looks more likely.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Rocketboom producer Andrew Baron has created possibly a first by putting his Twitter account up for sale on eBay.

Barons explanation for the sale:

I really love my Twitter account but I feel like I haven’t been using it the way I want to. Quite honestly, I feel sorry for all of my followers because they wind up with my tweets in their timelines and I haven’t been able to utilize the medium the way I want to. I also participate in another Twitter account over on Rocketboom so I’m thinking I’ll post more over there and start up a new account to do what I want to do next.

It would be silly to just delete this account I have here, especially if there is someone out there that had like interests and had something to say or wanted to get involved in some relevant conversations. In terms of monetary value, I have no expectations or needs at all so I decided not to put a minimum bid on this. Whatever will be, will be.

At the time of writing the current bid for the account, complete with 1400 followers is $26. You can follow the auction here.

(via ChristineLu on Twitter)

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0