eBay is offering German users a customised version of the Opera browser to make it easier for them to buy and sell things through eBay using their mobile phone.

eBay Germany (the second largest eBay community after the US), is offering its customers the Opera Mini eBay edition browser so that they can sell, bid on and buy products from eBay using their mobile phones in the same way they do on their computers. The browser start page will feature an eBay search field and eBay bookmarks and is free to download. The browser is compatible with most Java-capable phones.

German customers could previously bid on and buy products on their mobile phones but using text message and a stripped-down web page specially designed for mobile phones, said Alexander Witt, an eBay Germany spokesman. Using the Opera Mini browser, customers will see the same eBay pages they see on their computers and the browsing, bidding and buying experience will be the same, he said.

Opera Mini is a small application that receives pages from servers hosted either by Opera Software or an Opera customer that compress the sites to make them load faster and fit the small screens of mobile phones.

Posted: 06|9|06 at 8:09 am. Filed under: Auction News.