eBay Wiki was up and running as of Wednesday in beta mode. SkypeMe, a pilot program, will allow a Skype button to be added to listings, so that buyers and sellers can communicate via voice or text.

"eBay has always been about community from the beginning, whether it be sellers' forums or the users conference, they make investments in the community," said Joe Kraus, co-founder and chief executive officer of JotSpot, the company that designed and implemented eBay Wiki. "They have a lot of Web 2.0 tools for their community and I think they just want to offer the next generation of tools to help enhance that community."

eBay Wiki is what Kraus called "a Wikipedia for eBay," allowing buyers and sellers to share user-generated information. The eBay Wiki will augment the user forums in a cleaner, more concise manner, he said.

Rather than reading back-and-forth communication about a particular topic, inquisitive eBayers can go to the wiki and read an aggregate definition. Although JotSpot will host the page, it will have the same look and feel of any other eBay page with the familiar logo and search functions, Kraus said.

"It's a place to generate user content to enhance the site so that you get the most of the eBay functions," Kraus said. "The thought was that we shouldn't restrain the millions of experts we already have using eBay."

Skype Me is eBay's first pilot with the voice/text chat technology since eBay purchased Skype in October for $2.6 million. The program offers sellers the option to add a Skype Me button to their listings. Buyers who would like more information on a given product can click the button to be connected in real-time with the seller via Skype's voice and/or text chat.

Tying together buyers and sellers via Skype was a move that was widely expected; both eBay's Whitman and Skype's head of developer relations, Lenn Pryor, said that adding Skype to eBay's auctions would be a likely outcome. Showing the online presence of either the buyer or seller is also a natural extension, Pryor said.

"Skype represents a tremendous opportunity for our sellers to connect even more closely with their buyers," said Bill Cobb, president of eBay North America, in a statement. "We believe that Skype will enhance the way that people communicate and trade on eBay, especially in high-involvement and high-price categories. It will be exciting to watch Skype become a part of our marketplace."

eBay is testing the Skype Me function in 14 categories beginning on Monday: automotive GPS devices, camera and photo lenses and filters, wired networking routers, Skype devices, VOIP/Internet telephony, diamond solitaire rings, real estate (residential and commercial), manufacturing and metalworking, beds, NBA basketball cards, silver coins, lost in space collectibles, radio control toys, and cars and trucks. These categories were chosen because of their local component, such as items requiring local delivery or pick up, and those with a highly enthusiastic community, such as collectibles, the company said. eBay solicited user feedback before launching the program. More categories are expected to have the Skype Me function in coming months, although the company could not say when.

"What we wanted to do was select a broad variety of categories that for different reasons we feel, and our users feel, could benefit from adding an easy way to communicate about the transaction process," said Hani Durzy, an eBay spokesperson. "These are categories that are as broad as cars and trucks and as narrow as the lost in space memorabilia."

Durzy said that the reaction to the announcement at the conference was positive.

"Some users are already using Skype but they just couldn't integrate it into their eBay services yet," Durzy said. "But as always, our community will look at it and ask themselves, 'How will it impact me?' and 'How will it work for my items?' and rightfully so."

Skype Me is free to both buyers and sellers, although Durzy said that eBay is exploring how to integrate Skype into their ecommerce offerings, such as the pay-per-call model that was discussed in the Yahoo! partnership announced in May. "That is another idea that is completely separate, and who knows how we will ultimately implement this?" Durzy said.

Shares of eBay were up 4 cents in after hours trading Tuesday at $30.55.

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