EBay Eliminates Deep Links

Debate over linking practice calls into question the Internet's openness.

By Kathleen Ohlson

Computerworld, 09/30/99

Deep linking is under fire. You may not be familiar with the term, but the practice it describes-in which one site posts a link to a page several layers deep on another company's site, instead of linking to that company's home page-is one you probably take advantage of every time you surf the Web.

This week, auction giant eBay sought to bar other auction information sites from including links from their sites to items for sale on eBay. EBay charges these sites with "challenging the eBay user experience," but competitors argue that eBay's actions go against the purpose of the Internet-to be an open environment. The problem with trying to prevent deep linking, some legal experts say, is that very little law exists concerning it.

Congress is attempting to tackle the issue of intellectual property on the Web and is considering two bills to protect information databases. However, Congress still isn't sure how to handle this problem, says G. Gervaise Davis III, an intellectual property lawyer at Davis & Schroeder. In the end, he says, "it has to be fundamentally decided if the Internet is a free source of information."

Auction sites such as Ruby Lane, Auction Universe, and BiddersEdge were told in late August not to include any more eBay listings on their sites. Kevin Pursglove, an eBay spokesperson, says the company didn't want these sites to go through eBay's database because of privacy and user concerns. Any eBay information they took might not be timely or accurate, he says.

In addition, if aggregators are constantly retrieving information, this could slow down information going to the eBay users themselves, Pursglove says.

But BiddersEdge's George Reinhart didn't buy eBay's arguments. The whole point of the Internet is to build on the premise of what's good for users, and "that's far more important than anything," says Reinhart, vice president of marketing at BiddersEdge. EBay is cloaking its argument under the intellectual property banner because it's afraid it will lose revenue, Davis says. "It's all crap. ...eBay derives a lot of its revenue from banner ads, and if users skip them [through deep linking], then there's no opportunity to view the ads."

Pursglove, though, says the argument over revenue is "inconsequential," and notes that eBay gains the majority of its revenue from fees for listing or selling products.

Meanwhile, AuctionWatch.com isn't heeding eBay's new rule. The auction information site yesterday rolled out a new search service that scans listings on sites such as Amazon.com, Yahoo, and MSN, as well as eBay.

Rodrigo Salas, AuctionWatch.com's CEO, says, "We see ourselves as a representative of the user community's needs by including eBay listings in our search, and believe that we are complying with all applicable law in searching eBay." But Pursglove says eBay will tell AuctionWatch.com to stop its efforts.

However, eBay may only be hurting itself, Reinhart says. Companies that limit linking may "come to realize the Web is an open society and users expect that," he says. They "ultimately hurt themselves because it's not the traditional service model."