A Respectfully Asked Question

[sharingtheland]

I, as you all know, am not gifted in the tech areas.   (I can still recite Caesar's Gallic Wars in Latin, though, which has been so beneficial to me in my lifetime.  <---sarcasm/humor font)

Today, in chat, it was said that the reason "click to see description" appears is because it's the only way to test for a new security feature Google will be using later this year.  

Meeting Google's security requirement is attained by being ebay mobile friendly.

HUH?

Does that simply mean removing active content,  thus passing ebay's mobile test, is the answer that Google wants?   Google is simply concerned about listings that could contain links?  Am I somewhere near correct in this assumption?

This is sooooo over my head.  

::grumbles off to try to make green jumping things...again::

[phcd1]

Ebay should worry about their own domain, not others. Be a leader, not a follower. They were at one time.

[hollysfinds]

I'm not a computer person & I share your confusion.

I am so over trying to keep up with what's "in" at the moment here.

I just do my listings & what happens, happens & what doesn't, doesn't I guess.

I really don't know if I'd want someone purchasing something from me on mobile anyway.

Personally I always look at stuff on my desk top before making a decision.

[luckythewinner]

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@phcd1 wrote:

Ebay should worry about their own domain, not others. Be a leader, not a follower. They were at one time.

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Over several years, this board has been teeming with people criticizing eBay for NOT playing nice with Google. 

[megadestroyers]

I'm no tekkie either.  But, I like to think I pay attention........

With Google in the news the last few days for some things less than commonly held as being proper, shall we say, ebay might be wise to put some distance between them and Google.  

Mind you, neither will jump the line to sainthood anytime soon.  ebay does NOT need to do more to dull the luster further.  But, they most likely...............will!

[sharingtheland]

What I was really trying to not disrespectfully ask is:

That "mobile friendly to comply with google security is the reason click to see description exists" answer given <---- just hooey?

[chapeau-noir]

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@sharingtheland wrote:

What I was really trying to not disrespectfully ask is:

That "mobile friendly to comply with google security is the reason click to see description exists" answer given <---- just hooey?

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No, there's a reason behind that.  This is what I get:

Google will start to flag sites which have security risks, this includes active content such as Flash, javascript, certain forms, etc. this would impact eBay if sellers are still using risky content.

So instead of automatically having the description come up in listings (with possible insecure active content), there's a link or a sort of 'gateway' which is that tiny "see description" link - I assume that if the seller still has risky active content, the link would be disabled because it would not be compatible with the more secure HTTPS protocol, which eBay is moving to, but I don't know.

Apparently this is a transition (I hope, that description button is really tiny on my phone).

Also, Flash, etc., is not mobile friendly, Javascript has too long a loading time, etc.

Active content that is compatible with HTTPS (secure sites)mobile and eBay is the HTML5 and I'm pretty sure CSS, and HTTPS is the protocol the site is moving to.

So it's basically the dovetailing of 3 issues: Insecure active content, mobile friendliness, and Google's security changes.

Disclaimer - I'm a quality assurance manager, not a computer expert, but this is what I parsed from all of this.

[shipscript]

@sharingtheland

Let me try to clarify this for you. As a security measure, the Google Chrome Browser  now blocks or prevents pages that contain mixed content from displaying. "Mixed Content" refers to pages that are partly hosted on secure servers (https://) and partly hosted on non-secure servers (http://).

eBay will, over the next few months, move all of its pages to secure servers. That will also include sellers' item descriptions, so the text and HTML in a seller's description will ultimately be hosted on a secure server.

Now if a seller embeds other elements in their description that are not  hosted on a secure server, that means the description will contain "mixed content" and the browser may block the description from displaying. There are three types of embedded elements that will be of concern to sellers who add extra non-eBay-hosted goodies to their descriptions: 

1. Photos and graphics displayed down in the description.
2. HTML5 Videos embedded in the description.
3. Stylesheets linked in the description.  (This could also include third-party widgets like scrolling promo galleries that typically contain a stylesheet.)

Links that open in a new page are not considered mixed-content and will not create an issue.

When the google Chrome browser detects a page with mixed content, it will hide the page and the visitor will be required to click the badge icon at the top right of the toolbar to allow the page to load.

Chrome and SSL

The same results are also present in Firefox, where the padlock icon on the left would need to be clicked to allow the content to display.

Firefox and SSL

So, as eBay moves their site to a secure server, they are concerned that seller's pages that contain extra goodies may be blocked by the browser, and that will not be a happy situation for buyer or seller.

A temporary solution to that problem is to put item descriptions containing "mixed content" on a non-secure server and allow the page to open in a new window so that the browser will not block loading of that page.  Listings that are fully compliant, with no extra goodies, or with third-party content already hosted on a secure server, will not need to be clicked to open in a new window. Those descriptions will open within the listing.

So sellers who have embedded extra third-party elements in their listings will need to make sure that those elements are hosted on a secure server for a seamless display of content. 

eBay has asked the developer community to come up with interim solutions to help sellers.  If you need assistance removing those extra elements or want to revise all of your listings to replace your non-secure URLs with secure URLs, you are welcome to ask for guidance on the Active Content forum.

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Replacing-Active-Content/bd-p/activecontent

[pikabo-icu]

@shipscript-   You ROCK!!!!!

I can't count how many times you've been our (collectively) HERO!!!

        

[megadestroyers]

Not to be rude, but I was just about to type ^^^^^^.  Wink, wink.

Anything to do with enhanced security is the wave of the now!!  So, begrudgingly, I would lean toward this as a legit answer. 

Of course, care now needs to be taken such that EVERY answer given to any change doesn't become.................yesterdays "glitch" is todays "enhanced security".  

My two bytes................

[hollysfinds]

Thank you @shipscript

As usual you have explained things in a way that even I can get it.

[mr_lincoln]

@shipscript  Okay this makes sense and thanks for the comprehensive reply to the OP.  So for one example, I have an item with 74 die cast cars.  I cataloged them in an Excel spreadsheet.  When I created the listing I copied the block of cells ( 74 rows long and several comlumns wide) with grid lines into the listing form.  For this particular item and based on what you posted, that particular listing would wind up with the click for description link because of the non-text item I embedded in the description window correct?

[shipscript]

@mr_lincoln

No, grid lines and spreadsheet cells are HTML and HTML is not an issue because eBay hosts the text and HTML. The only issue would be elements hosted elsewhere (images, videos, stylesheets) — elements with URLs that start with "http://" that you could put into the address bar of your browser.

[mr_lincoln]

@shipscript

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@shipscript wrote:

@mr_lincoln

 No, grid lines and spreadsheet cells are HTML and HTML is not an issue because eBay hosts the text and HTML. The only issue would be elements hosted elsewhere (images, videos, stylesheets) — elements with URLs that start with "http://" that you could put into the address bar of your browser.

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Excellent, thank you.  The one thing I have noticed when I drop blocks of spreadsheet cells into eBay listings is the font changes as does some of the spacing with in the cells, but its not an issue, just something I noticed.

[sharingtheland]

shipscript, I think you with all of my heart and the 55%-70% of my brain that understands most of your words.

I just couldn't make the leap from "google security" to "ebay mobile friendly" and thought perhaps, maybe, possibly we were being given some corporate weasel line for the reason for this somewhat devastating "click to see descriptions" test.

Wouldn't it have been easier for ebay to explain this in the beginning?  As in, it really is a test we must do in this way and it is necessary and it will be of advantage to all in the long run?

I know ^^^ hallucinating ...