Some big boy is going wait until the last minute and swipe it up.

Without full information (or something close to it), can you really have a market for technology on ebay?

Why couldn’t you?

Because price is based off value. It’s easy to determine value for goods that are sold in stores (such as a webcam). It’s a little tougher when you’re selling a technology of which you have no idea what the inner workings are. Markets operate when buyers and sellers have roughly similar information when trading. Here, it isn’t the case. There is huge information assymetry between the seller and buyer.

from $0.01 to $7,101.00 in 2 hours!

Hello Saul,

I completely agree with your assessment. I really comes down to potential. A prospective buyer has to have a vision for the property…in terms of its market potential and business prospects. The value will vary from person to person depending on how they imagine operating the property. A suggested retail value doesn´t exist because this isn´t a real good like an Ipod. Also, because this is not a business with long term operating profits, it isn´t possible to give a value based on earnings. It essentially comes down to this in terms of what a buyer is probably thinking when they see an auction like this:….do you like the technology? would you like to operate this property? and do you believe in the paid search market and its potential growth?

“It’s a little tougher when you’re selling a technology of which you have no idea what the inner workings are. Markets operate when buyers and sellers have roughly similar information when trading.”

However, I think the “inner workers” are pretty transparent being that I explained it on the auction and there is a page on the site that explains how this engine operates. http://www.digforit.com/about.html

How on earth does selling a meta search engine fit into the whole Web 2.0 profilling ethos of techcrunch ?

I never understand how meta search engines in general can be ‘legal’ unless they’ve paid(?) (hefty?) license fees to the SE’s they scrape results from; if G/Y/MSN do all the big tech work to collate the results, then a meta SE displays them complete with advertising - seems a bit of an odd deal for the SEs and outside the realm of ‘non-commercial’ in their T&Cs.

Doesn’t that make for one awfully thin piece of ice in the business plan?

Is it me or does their website barely even work?

It is crazy to pay huge amounts of $$ for something like this especially when you can buy some off the shelf PHP scripts to do very much the same thing for about $69. For example, check out K-Search at http://turn-k.net/k-search.

I’m not endorsing the site or advocating anyone buy it, but even a cursory look at off-the-shelf solutions such as those linked above and this shows that the dev that’s gone into this metasearch is far superior.

we could help them amp the value if they pushed out RSS in the search returns.

inclue lets vertical site link dynamic feeds with premium RSS reader for Outlook in one download.

Why return results when you can build relationships?

>

Hello Nick,

I am going to advise the winner of the auction to do this. I built some RSS funcionality and tested it with another application so I felt no need to reproduce it here. However, that is a good idea. I also have some other great ideas for the new owner. If I was going to operate this myself, I would do several things.

Ted,

You are absolutely correct. Digforit.com could only be produced from scratch with months of coding. The “off the shelf” php meta-search scripts are toy scripts. I would know because I have played around with them in the past. However, I have also used c++ and Ajax with this engine.This engine also does alot more than your normal metasearch engine.It´s not the greatest engine in the world, but certainly there is nothing off the shelf that even remotely compares. Like I said in the auction, this was a research project…and I am also still making some additions and doing some bug fixing.

Hmm, after digging for it myself a little bit, I found out that auctioning websolutions on eBay is seemingly a serial business to Eric? His last item was “Ondemandsystems.com”–sold for 13.217.01 US $ in Nov. Check it out here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA.....7565182744

and here:

http://www.clickpress.com/rele.....05cp.shtml

Ondemandsystems.com seems to be down.

We don’t know anything about the most important thing of all - the source code!

99 of 100 programmers are worthless, so if I can’t review the sources to make sure the code isn’t junk why would I buy it.

Heck I have 99 programmers standing in line who can write me crap adn take my money!

Mr. eBay

Hello Lutz W,

Thanks for your post. The beauty of reputation management systems on the internet is that it provides exposure. btw…I also received a great feedback on that project.

I would not exactly call it “serial”, but I have made previous transactions. However, your post seems to be a bit of an indictment..presuming that there is something wrong with me selling off technology that I will no longer use.

Contrarily, I think this should give a prospective buyer more confidence considering that I have handled software transactions in the past and the buyer was satisfied enough to give me a great feedback.

Also, I am absolutely positive this this will not be the last time I sell a web based business.

Hopefully when I launch Koove.com, you will become a user and be pleased with the fact that I used good means to produce an application that provides value to you and others.

Have a nice day.

“99 of 100 programmers are worthless, so if I can’t review the sources to make sure the code isn’t junk why would I buy it”

I wouldn´t quote such a high percentage, but as someone who has managed quite a few software projects I definately understand your sentiment. It actually would have been good idea for me to provide a snapshot of the code.

Have a nice day.

How can this not bump up against Googles Terms of Use stating you can’t use the API’s for comerical use??

You guy are ridiculous to think that this is not an off the shelf script. Jux2 came from the same source. I also have the same script running without the gui. I have not implemented my graphics and such as of yet. I may be selling mine as well once the gui is in place. The only thing that makes this “digforit” engine different is that the owner has some customizations done to the script. The basic workings are the same, and there are tell tale signs to such. I will not disclose the source here, but will do it if there is an interest.

Powergorilla,

This is not an off the shelf script. You can´t possibly have anything running similar to my engine…especially running job, classifieds…and doing tagging. There is also a pay per click engine that I developed. This entire site was developed from scratch.

What I am saying is that the base of the script is off the shelf, but you have customized it. I have been down this road before, because I was on a mission to start a search engine. I am not knocking you at all. The customizations are well thought out. Give me your IM so that we can talk. I have taken this all a few steps further. A conversation on IM can benefit us both greatly. I have developed a business that I am going to sell. It is based around the search engine being the center of the network. This business would be very profitable for someone that has the time and money to promote it. For jux2 selling at as much as it has. I think it was $100K. That was a completely off the shelf script. It came from the initials O.S. I am not going to disclose it here, but for anyone that had a hunch, it is now confirmed. The reason that I know where digforit came from, is that you used some of the same graphics and text that is on the site selling the script. The same query string also tells me. I have the same script. If you want to discuss this further, than please give me your IM. I just think that you should have not tried to say that you “created” the script, but rather not said anything at all.

Powergorilla,

This is the last time I will address you. The base of my search engine is not off the shelf. There is nothing comparable that processes meta-search for web, images, video, audio, blogs, jobs, classifieds, products, etc. There is nothing off the shelf that does any of this in Ajax…not to mention the tagging and pay per click engine that I have developed and implemented. I have not customized an off the shelf script. Your sentiment is misguided and misplaced. Furthermore, it would be wise to learn some business etiquette. I can´t imagine how you would expect for me to want to chat or talk with you considering your fallacious claims. I don´t need to discuss anything with you.

Have a nice day and good luck developing your engine.

Powergorilla,

You wrote:
***I also have the same script running without the gui. I have not implemented my graphics and such as of yet. ***

***I have taken this all a few steps further. I have developed a business that I am going to sell.***

Which one is it? You have either ran a script without the gui, graphics,etc or you have taken it all a few steps further and developed a business. You can´t speak in the past tense about things you have not yet done. Furthermore, your responses(and not just the once I have quoted above) are a contradiction of terms. The reality of the situation is that you are Trolling and I won´t continue to feed the Troll. I think the most ironic thing is that you entered this thread with a false claim about an engine in which you have not seen the source code and one that covers 9 more categories than Jux2 (I have personally never even seen another metasearch engine that covers categories like Blogs and Jobs..much less a market for such scripts), yet you followed it with a hint that you would be selling your own project in a similar attempt. Also…For you information, you can´t customized a script and apply it to another category. It is not possible for you to customize a image search script and then apply it to classifieds for instance. Every category is a complete individual effort. You can´t apply a cookie cutter method to accomplish this type of effort.

Regardless of what you reply with..you won´t get another response from me.

Cheers,

Eric Willis

I know for a fact that what Powergorilla is stating is true. (I even saw your pre-sales post on their forum, Powergorilla! Unfortunately for me it was after the fact). I’m also not going to disclose the name of the script publicly (yet), but it is what drives this engine and, identical in most respects to the one I bought from you Mr. Willis, 9 months ago, save a few new additions by the company selling it from Russia. The same one you told me was your design, your hard work, blah, blah, blah. And, the one you sold me with unfettered rights to!

This custom code of yours is available for $499.00. You buy a license from Russia-Dude, he makes a couple tweaks and you sell it on eBay for 25K. This is not your design, idea or work.

I also find it unconscionable that you use other people’s copyrighted code, remove the copyright, and claim it as your own. Remember that one Mr. Willis? Your AJAX-like javascript? Do you remember your answer, Mr. Willis? You blamed your Russian programmer. In no uncertain terms you called him a thief! I had to take what you sold me and completely modify and, in some cases, completely rewrite the code so as not to propagate your flagrant abuses of other’s work.

I don’t think you are in any position to speak about business etiquette to anyone sir. Almost every claim you’ve made in response to this thread is inaccurate to say the least. And of course you’ve seen other metasearch engines that do all of these, you sold me one! (Again, save the additions Russia-Dude has added.)

Further, isn’t it interesting that DigForIt’s about page is identical to what you provided for the engine I bought from you 9 months ago, and identical to the website that sells this this engine for $499.00? When asked about it you’re response was that you don’t do copywriting and it is just a place holder for the new owner. Hmm, two problems: using someone elses copyrighted material as a place holder without express written permission is, well, what’s that word… sarts with a T… andyway, I have documents from you stating you would provide complete documentation of how the engine worked and how to maintain it. Instead, what I received, again, was someone elses copyrighted material and never any of the documention promised prior to sale. Of course, this wouldn’t be a problem for someone using Mr. Russia-Dude’s code since you can sell the webiste as a complete whole. But, if that’s the case, then what you’ve been telling people here would make you a … what’s the term? Starts with an L I think.

Or how about this; when asked about the code base your response was… “It wouldnt be the first time hat [your spelling] a programmer has done original work for me and then reused my code for a new project.”. So is that what you will tell the new owner of DigForIt when they find out what you’ve done, as I did?

I could go on for hours with example after example of your deeds, but I needn’t bother. You will be your undoing.

Cheers,
FraudHunter

I can also confirm what powergorilla was saying is true, on the account that I have the same script/se sold to me by Powergorilla himself using the same claims… and essentially pleading on the OS forum to have the “Powered by” removed on the day of the transfer, thus hiding the origin. But I found out anyway.

So its quite funny: two frauds arguing over business etiquette…