Thursday, 30 December 2004

eBay to Drop Passport, .NET Support

Auction site eBay is dropping support for Microsoft's Passport and .NET Alerts by late January. Users were told that "once this takes place, the Microsoft Passport button that is currently displayed on Sign In pages will be replaced with links to a page with more information." However, if you still wish to receive alerts you can sign up for eBay's own mobile phone alerts or the eBay Toolbar, which will display .NET-like alerts when the user's auction is about to end, is outbid, or is the winner. In recent months, eBay has also made its service available to third-party developers through "Certified eBay Solutions." Microsoft was disappointed with eBay's decision, but vowed to continue to push its .NET framework as a better method for business-to-consumer interaction.