Bido releases new features on auction platform today.
Social auction platform Bido released several new features today. I logged in this morning to check them out, and I think these changes will help take Bido to the next level in domain name sales. Here are a few of the changes.
1. Comments – Previously, you could only give a ‘thumbs up’ to an expert commentary about a domain name. Now you can leave a full comment, either reaffirming or disagreeing with the expert’s analysis. This will make the comments more fluid, and many of these experts will learn what it’s like to be a blogger 🙂
2. Vote on auction submissions – this is the most powerful of Bido’s new features. Experts can vote on submitted domain names to help pick which ones will be auctioned. The crowd will select the domains, and people can no longer complain to Bido when their “premium” domains aren’t selected. It doesn’t look like the submitted domains are populating right now, but I suspect this feature will begin working shortly.
3. More than one auction a day – auctions will still run from 1-2PM ET, but more than one auction can run concurrently. This feature will be enabled soon. Sellers will be able to pick the day their auctions run, too. I like this idea, but worry that the introduction of multiple concurrent chats per day could be confusing.
Other changes include submitting up to 100 domains at a time and adult domains. Adult domain auctions will only be seen by those that opt-in.
Hi Andrew, and thanks for the coverage. Some of the submitted domains are in the system now and we’re putting the final pieces to broadcast them directly as they come. We’re still not 100% sure what will work so we’re observing and will learn from it.
All the best,
Sahar
Thanks Sahar, I see that now. You might want to message to people on the site that once they submit a domain, it goes through an internal approval and then a verification process before appearing. I like your verification process (adding a code to registrant information), smart idea.
By the way, we’ve just listed the first multiple auction listings on the site, going to be July 20th, Monday.
1PM est. Cruiseline.info
1:15PM est. Jeopardy.com
Wish us luck!
Sahar
Sahar, so will Jeopardy.info also run for an hour, ending at 2:15?
Jeopardy.info that is..
Sahar
Thanks for the coverage Andrew, I see Sahar got to you first. We’re really happy with this new release of Bido. A lot (hundreds) of new things are in place as you mentioned; we’re doing a paperless contract process now (going green, you know), tags in whois to validate ownership (thanks for the kind words about this), we allow experts to vote on names they want to see go to auction, and the biggest apparent change is multiple auctions per day. We’re putting finishing touches on some of the text in the notices to make it really easy to understand the process from submission to getting paid. Bido will just continue to unfold before your very eyes over the next few days, weeks, and beyond. We’re excited. Thanks for your support.
That’s correct, barring extensions by the bidders, of course.
We have the ability to adjust the duration but that specific auction is a 1 hour auction.
I’m just really not digging what they are doing. The site is beginning to feel overwhelming and confusing. And 1 hour auctions just don’t make sense to me. A simple listing page would be much simpler than that huge flash banner that makes me feel like I’m being pitched to by a site that is trying to sell stuff to me. Any good information is 1 or several clicks away.
Thanks for the feedback Jacob, we value your opinion. The flash that’s there was designed to make it easier and less confusing, help people find what they need. We have a lot of information to present and needed to split the homepage into a fork in the road for the different types of people that visit Bido, and show them where they need to go for the information they want. While we may not have the format perfect yet we are aware that the UI still needs improvements. Best regards.