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What does eBay stand for? - Computer Security Answerer

Best Answer: Founded in San Jose, California on September 4, 1995 by Pierre Omidyar and Jeff Skoll as Auctionweb, part of a larger personal site that included, among other things, Omidyar's own tongue-in-cheek tribute to the Ebola virus. The first item sold was Omidyar's broken laser pointer for $14.83. Astonished, he contacted the winning bidder and asked, "did he not understand the laser pointer was broken?" Omidyar received the following email in reply: "I'm a collector of broken laser pointers." (The frequently repeated story that eBay was founded to help Omidyar's fiancee trade PEZ Candy dispensers was fabricated by a public relations manager in 1997 to interest the media. This was revealed in Adam Cohen's 2002 book and confirmed by eBay.) It officially changed its name to eBay in September 1997. Originally, the site belonged to Echo Bay Technology Group, Omidyar's consulting firm. Omidyar had tried to register the domain name EchoBay.com but found it already taken by the Echo Bay Mines, a gold mining company, so he shortened it to his second choice, eBay.com. Margaret (Meg) Whitman joined the company in March 1998. She joined eBay when the company had 30 employees and operated solely in the United States; eBay is now a global organization with over 9,000 employees. Meg is credited with building the company to what it is today. - Yahoo! Answers Team

eBay stands for "Buy other peoples unwanted stuff" - sw_mn_techguy

eBay - Pierre Omidyar, who had created the Auction Web trading website, had formed a web consulting concern called Echo Bay Technology Group. "Echo Bay" didn't refer to the town in Nevada, the nature area close to Lake Mead, or any real place. "It just sounded cool," Omidyar reportedly said. When he tried to register EchoBay.com, though, he found that Echo Bay Mines, a gold mining company, had gotten it first. So, Omidyar registered what (at the time) he thought was the second best name: eBay.com. --NOTE: This information courtesy of Wikipedia.com Sorry I cheated by using google. I know that eBay is located in Silicon valley in CA, and that is known as the "Bay area." But I guess that had nothing to do with it. We gotta trust wiki i guess. HEHEHEH :) - DellXPSBuyer

Pierre Omidyar, who created eBay, had formed a web consulting concern called Echo Bay Technology Group. "Echo Bay" wasn't a real place that he lived/worked in. "It just sounded cool," Omidyar reportedly said. However, when he tried to register EchoBay.com, he realized that there was an Echo Bay Mines and they had gotten the domain name first. So, Omidyar registered what (at the time) he thought was the second best name: eBay.com. - KT

it is probably just a name - apersonwholikescheese

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