
So today eBay bought Skype and people are asking "How does this help eBay?"
Well, Skype is a company that lets you make free calls on the internet to anyone else that has Skype installed on their computer. Imagine now you are on eBay and you find a grilled cheese sandwich with the Virgin Mary's image burnt into it. You wonder to yourself "is that image burnt into whole wheat bread or white bread?" Then you notice the little button on the auction page that says "the seller of this item is online, would you like to ask them a live question?" you then Skype the seller and find out that the grilled cheese sandwich is "60% whole wheat". This fits your whole wheat policy and you place a bid on the grilled cheese sandwich.
The business model of eBay has now expanded to take over the classified ads in the newspaper. You can call the seller and ask questions about that nice 1989 Chevy blazer that they are selling. This is a great move on eBay's part.