On Oktober 9th eBay (US) announced the launch of “neighborhoods”.

As I posted on Social shopping last week, I thought this might be eBay’s step into that arena.

Previously I described social shopping as users having products they like in their profiles and can discuss, review, share and buy them. The eBay model is different.

It’s not based on the individual but on the product or theme. It’s more a beefed up category with extra features added to it. It has a section that shows relevant items on sale in thumbnails, related blogs, an overview of the members, a list of relevant guides, reviews, and a forum. All in all it looks nice, but besides the section that shows products on sale, it seems to be an environment where I would go when I’ve already made the purchase. If you take the iPhone neighborhood as an example; it mostly has info that’s useful if I already own an iPhone.

I would find it very interesting to see products endorsed by people in this neighborhood. This could either be on a neighborhood level or by clicking on member profiles. Other sites like Stylehive.com, Kaboodle.com and ThisNext.com let users keep shopping lists or tip others on products they find hot. I would imagine that if your with kindred spirits in your neighborhood, such features would be useful (What are other iPhone users putting on their shopping list, buying or endorsing?). And, such features should increase sales for eBay! I think eBay should put such features in their neighborhoods and in their MyWorld (their personal space).

Neighborhoods is only available in the US. On inquiry about availability for the Netherlands, eBay Netherlands indicate that they will be looking at the initiative with great interest. No decision has been made about the introduction, nor its timing.