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eBay bids for recommendation site

Might win StumbleUpon

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eBay is close to buying recommendation website StumbleUpon.com.

The site recommends websites, or rather its users do. You can browse by category or see other sites given the thumbs up by individuals.

The deal is still some weeks away from completion, but a price of $75m is likely, according to Reuters.

The site has plenty of Web 2.0 magic dust and claims 2.3 million users. How it fits in with eBay's primary business remains to be seen, but StumbleUpon could improve community aspects of the auction site and make interesting auctions easier to find.

The company's latest offering is StumbleThru which lets you limit your search to one domain - so you can find recommended pages on Flickr or MySpace.

In other news, eBay announced changes to its buyer protection scheme in Australia and the UK. Anyone using PayPal on the UK site will now get £150 or €200 of cover even if they don't pay the transaction fee of £15. If items either don't turn up or are not as described, winning bidders will be entitled to the refund.

The Reuters story is here. StumbleUpon is here. ®

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