Hunch recognises that one size doesn’t fit all and that when you’re looking for a recommendation you’re much more likely to find a product you like from someone that knows you well. Also people that know you well might recommend a product that you didn’t even know existed. Hunch aims to do the same based on the questions you answer and by linking other social networks to your Hunch account. Hunch then uses what it calls a “Taste Graph” to make predictions about the things that you like.

I’m liking the sound of this a lot. I’m fed up with eBay’s Daily Deals – They’re mostly a load of high street goods which I have little interest in most of the time. I’m fed up with eBay’s email marketing – they’re also run of the mill products I’ve little interest in.

If Hunch can be integrated into eBay then at last eBay might be able to draw on their heritage and get back to the site everyone loves because of the kooky niche products you would bid on or buy if only you knew that they existed. This does of course rely on eBay getting around to integrating Hunch into the site – not something they ever managed to do with the last great recommendation service they purchased – Stumbleupon. This time eBay need to get it right and integrate the technology and embed it into every aspect of buying behaviour and communication.

Most of the products I’ve bought lately on recommendation have been personal recommendations, not automated mass email marketing. I’d have never purchased items like the Acer Revo (which I love and you should have one of), if it hadn’t been recommended to my be a colleague. I’d have never known it existed and that’s what eBay should be doing for me. eBay should be helping me discover the unusual, the unique and most important of all the products I just can’t live without but didn’t know existed.

Of course that’s just extracurricular email marketing… here’s a thought, what would it do to eBay’s Best Match if everyone’s search results started to be individualised based upon what eBay knows about you, what you’ve purchased in the past and what people who know you or have similar tastes to you would like? What if Best Match became smart enough to find a Pogo Polaroid mobile phone printer for me and a…. well I don’t know what eBay might find for you and just possibly it’s something you don’t even know you want or need, but if eBay get Hunch right when you see it you’ll be buying it instantly.

The eBay partner network (affiliates program where eBay pay you for sending them traffic) is tightening up on the types of sites which they’ll pay out for. It’s ok to send them traffic from your own website but not by placing ads on other people’s websites.

The US are trying to figure out how to collect sales tax (VAT equivalent) on Internet Sales when each State has a different tax rate.

And finally some sad news, Maggie, the Internet Hound, who was with AuctionBytes for almost 10 years will be missed by Ina and David.

An eBay statement says that:

it has become apparent that there are few long-term, strategic synergies between StumbleUpon and the eBay Inc. portfolio. The separation of the two companies is the right move to further StumbleUpon’s success while eBay Inc. continues to focus on strategies to connect buyers and sellers across its many platforms.

On the StumbleUpon blog, Camp writes:

This change will help StumbleUpon move quickly and stay true to its focus – helping people discover interesting web content. Our goal is to make StumbleUpon the web’s largest recommendation engine and we think this is the best way to get us there.

It was never very obvious what synergies might exist between StumbleUpon and eBay, so it’s not particularly surprising to see the two part company. eBay having divested itself of one mismatched subsidiary is only going to add fuel to recent rumours that Skype too is being sold back to its founders.

Rumours that profitable PayPal is to sell its Marketplaces’ liability back to Pierre for an eBay Live pin and Meg Whitman’s autograph so far exist only in my head.

Whether they’ll make their money back remains to be seen. Page views per visitor rose from an average 7 in 2007, to 19 in 2008, and registered SU users increased from 5m in April to 6m now: that last statistic is, of course, as meaningless as “registered eBay users”. Actual visitors to the site fell by around 70% from 4.4m in July 2007 to 1.3m in July 2008: its fans may be devoted, but its hard to see StumbleUpon as a hot property.

Frankly, the eBay/SU marriage never made a whole bunch of sense. Even StumbleUpon’s blog struggled to find anything that made sense to say about it. “We’re both driven by our community of users, and we are both dedicated to connecting people” seems a deeply woolly excuse to spend $75million, and I’d be tempted to see Meg’s shopaholic tendency behind the purchase.

No more. eBay are rationalising their relationships. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that eBay will be extending their classified ads business:

Jacob Aqraou, general manager of eBay’s global classified business, said he expects the company will take over a “fair” number of companies in the next six months or so. In an interview, Mr. Aqraou said lackluster economic growth and the deepening credit crunch have depressed prices for private companies to such a degree that it now makes more sense to buy established classifieds properties than build new services from scratch. He said eBay’s strategy was to target classified-ad sites that have leading positions in geographies and industry segments in which eBay doesn’t currently compete.

Classified ads are said to be eBay’s fastest growing unit. By using established sites to “fill in the gaps” in their current offerings – Aqraou mentions Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, where eBay’s hold is currently very weak – they can expand at minimal cost and with little risk.

eBayers can also expect to see closer ties between these classified sites and the main eBay marketplace: Auctionbytes reports that eBay sent emails to New York-based users last week, advertising their own free local classifieds site, Kijiji.

I can remember when ISPs such as AOL and Compuserve attempted to control what content their users could access and both failed eventually allowing users full Internet Access. The UAE are one of the few places that still control what sites and content users can access.

Although Du have blocked Skype and Etisalat have blocked Stumbleupon it appears neither have blocked both applications.

A collaborative project between GigaOm, Read/WriteWeb, VentureBeat and TechCrunch, the Crunchies celebrate the most compelling startups, internet and technology innovations of the year. Winners are chosen by public vote from the internet community.

Other notable winners were WordPress as most likely to succeed, Facebook as best overall, and Kongregate as best time sink site. If you ever want to do any work again, I strongly advise you not to click that last link.