How long until we find this in the crumpled pile of ebaY's forgotten failures along with Kijuju etc? Price rumoured to be $75 million Check out the emphasized part. Sounds a wee bit grandiose, yes?
SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones)--EBay Inc. (EBAY) said Thursday it bought local shopping search engine Milo, a move that will help the struggling e-commerce giant bridge the gap between online and in-store shopping.
Milo has developed software that can plug into a merchant's inventory management system, enabling the start up to instantly keep tabs on all of the retailer's products.
The startup's website says its mission is to track every product on every shelf of every U.S. store in real-time so it can help brick-and-mortar retailers convert online browsers into in-store ...
By VERNE G. KOPYTOFF Just some of the comical highlights: (emphasis mine)
"...To help last minute holiday shoppers, EBay is sending them to bricks and mortar stores.
Yes, you read that right. The company has adopted a counter-intuitive strategy intended to make its Web site more of a resource - even if it means sending shoppers elsewhere.
...GiftsNearby, which is to be shuttered in early January, is an experiment for eBay, according to Mr. Payne. The findings will help the company determine how to incorporate Milo.com elsewhere on eBay. Valentines Day is one possibility, Mr. Payne said. ...
Although eBay currently makes no money from GiftsNearby, it may in the future by becoming a source of paying customers for retailers like Best Buy...."
My my... making the 2010 ebaY year in review video is going to be a challenge. I can't locate near enough public domain monkey-brain experiment footage.