Search results (tags) for: "tech"

Guest Curator: Geeky Gifts for Guys With Josh Catone

2009-12-17T16:00:00-05:00

Josh Catone is the features editor at Mashable, one of the web's largest tech blogs, where he manages all of the site's features and posts from guest contributors. Prior to joining Mashable, Josh was the Lead Writer at ReadWriteWeb and the Lead Blogger at SitePoint. A good portion of his paycheck goes to feed his Etsy addiction or to support local artisans at the Providence Open Market (which runs throughout the summer in his home city of Providence, Rhode Island). He very rarely leaves home without his beard.

It's tough being a nerdy guy, but even tougher buying gifts for one. There are a ton of great items on Etsy to appeal to the computer dork in all of us, but a lot of them are aimed at the geek girls in our lives. From Pacman rings to earrings made from RAM, there's a lot out there for geeky girls, but what about the tech dudes in your life? This guide is full of gifts that any gadget-loving male would be thrilled to find under the tree (or menorah) this year.

Strappy. a leather macbook case by FULLGIVE

Your laptop is your faithful companion — it's always there for you (unless the hard drive dies, more on that later), and it does whatever you need it to do without question, so of course it deserves a dapper case. The Strappy is one of the nicest laptop cases I've ever come across. With this stylish bag slung over your shoulder everyone will assume you're some hotshot startup founder (bonus points if you actually are). By fullgive, $207.

9-pc Emoticons Magnets

Magnetic poetry is a lot of fun, but who needs all those words? Internet geeks long ago learned you can express pretty much any feeling with just a few pieces of punctuation, cleverly arranged to form emoticons. Mymimi's emoticon magnets set has just about everything you'll need to express your mood (without all of the unnecessary language). $15.

Rock Dock - Nintendo Controller iPhone/iPod Dock

The iPod/iPhone is slowly becoming this generation's gaming device of choice, so what better way to charge it than in the cradle of the choice game playing machine of yesteryear? GeekUnique's Nintendo Controller iPod/iPhone Dock merges two of my favorite pieces of hardware to reach a rare level of meta geekery. $39.99.

Esc Geek Chic Pillow

Sitting in front of the computer all day can be murder on your back. One thing that could certainly help is this super chic Esc key pillow. It's perfect for a little back support, and might even come in handy when you try to "escape" work for a few hours to catch a quick nap. By diffractionfiber, $22.

Padded iPhone, iPod Touch Sleeve with Pocket - Black White Weaving

The iPhone presents a dilemma for male Etsy shoppers. On the one hand, you don't want to scratch up your phone's case (and these things are made of a material with the approximate scratch resistance of a stick of butter), but on the other hand, most of the iPhone cases for sale are decidedly girly. thameowdesigns has you covered with a very masculine black and white tweed iPhone/iPod case. $22.99.

RECYCLED CIRCUIT BOARD Geekery LARGE CLIPBOARD LC6

Try to cast your mind back to the last time you had to write on real paper and you'll remember one of the tricky things about it — it's thin and hard to write on unless there is a hard surface behind it. Enter: the clipboard! If you must use paper, there's no better backing than a recycled circuit board clipbard. By DebbyAremDesigns, $24.50.

Rainbow Ribbon Cable belt

Decidedly less masculine is this rainbow ribbon cable belt. Made from recycled 1 1/4" conductor ribbon cable, this stylish piece instantly adds some geek cred to your outfit and goes with anything (that's how rainbow works, right?). By digiBling, $14.

Clock made from a Computer hard drive

I was initially supposed to submit this post last week, but shortly after I started writing it, my hard drive decided it was time to completely stop working. That got me thinking — what sorts of things could one do with a busted hard drive? The answer, according to pixelthis, is to turn those useless hunks of metal into beautiful clocks. This one would be at home on any man's desk. $33.

QWERTY ) Bifold Wallet

At the end of a long work week it's always nice to spend a relaxing evening out on the town. Show off your inner geek by sporting a QWERTY bi-fold wallet. The heavy canvas wallet has a standard keyboard printed right on the front. By QuietDoing, $28.

Recycled FLOPPY DISK made into a Geek Gear Notebook ORANGE

Sometimes even hardcore nerds need to go analog. The recycled floppy disk notebooks from heavensentcrafts are a great way to inject some digital flavor into old school tasks like writing on pieces of dead trees. They're also a great stocking stuffer. $6.

Circuit board coasters set of 4 recycled geek chic

One thing you definitely don't want next to your pricey electronic equipment is a sweating drink. The geekiest way to keep your computer (and table) safe from the pool of condensation around your ice cold glass of cola is to use one of these handy recycled circuit board coasters. By MissMotleys, $14.

Personalized Laptop Computer Key Cufflinks

I'm a blogger, so most of the time that means sitting around in my PJs and staring at a computer screen. However, on those occasions when I am forced out of the house to socialize with other fleshy beings, I want to look my best. Capitolagirl's custom computer key cufflinks are a way to look downright spiffy while still keeping that familiar connection to your keyboard. $22.50.

2 GB FLASH DRIVE / Qombee Blue

When I was younger, my brother and I used to play a game in which we'd smash together two matchbox cars. The car that didn't flip over was the winner. We called the game "Crack Up." Why? Because we were 7, and that's what 7-year-old boys do with their matchbox cars.This has to explain why I am so drawn to the die cast car USB drives from dhhdesign. $25.

Question Mark Block Nintendo Mario

Remember those question mark blocks in the old NES Super Mario games? You'd whack poor Mario's head into them not knowing what you were going to get — maybe you'd grow bigger, or throw fireballs, or become invincible — you just knew it was going to be worth the headache. I'm not sure what the purpose of a real life question mark block is, but isn't it worth buying for a chance at that elusive 1-Up Mushroom? By lostmitten, $12.

Looking for past Guest Curators? Check out our archive!

Handcrafting Etsy

2009-12-17T09:15:00-05:00

I recently heard Professor Richard Sennett, author of The Craftsman, speak and was pleased to hear him connect traditional crafting cultures to the culture of computer programming. Here at Etsy, we think of software coding as a craft and fully embrace one of Sennett’s central ideas: namely that craftsmanship, by combining skill, commitment and judgment, establishes a close relationship between head and hand, man and machine.

Against that backdrop, I am thrilled to introduce the newest additions to the Etsy team: Jason, Greg, Isaac, Matt and Stefan. They are the team behind Adtuitive, a New York-based company which yesterday became part of Etsy. These are five highly-skilled craftsmen with deep technical expertise in algorithmic search, machine learning and data interpretation, and advertising infrastructure. In other words, five really smart guys who can help Etsy accelerate progress towards our longer-term goals. All five members of the Adtuitive team will immediately join the Etsy team.

Etsy bought Adtuitive, the company, but ultimately companies are made up of people. This team of crafty coders – with their deep knowledge, experience of working together, and fit with the Etsy culture – will help us to more quickly and successfully serve our sellers and delight our buyers. They will work on key initiatives for 2010: improving Etsy’s search algorithms and expanding Etsy’s Showcase advertising system with an eye to improving the overall user experience on the site.

Please join me in warmly welcoming Jason, Greg, Isaac, Matt and Stefan to the Etsy community.

Etsy Finds: Nerdology

2009-12-05T09:24:00-05:00

While I have never been been what you'd call "proficient" with technology, I have an appreciation for machines and the cool stuff that can be done with them. In 2nd grade, I found myself interested in music, and bought my first record player at a yard sale. From there, I found microphones and tape recorders at thrift stores, and stole my father's office dictaphone. It was during my "sculpture years" that circuit boards, retired cameras, old monitors and any analog machine that made a noise could be found in my dorm room. Still, every time I walk by a discarded machine on the street, I think, "But it has such potential!" Far better than wishful thinking, today's Etsy Finds collection is chock-full of amazing handmade electronic instruments, robot-inspired art, vintage electronics, gadget cozies and playful gifts for the techie in your life.

Be sure to check out Etsy's Gift Guides for Geek Chic and The Tech Lover to get more holiday gift ideas. Also, imagination abounds in the not-to-be-missed Geekery and Music Categories.

Zen Hammock For Your Gadgets

By lafemmemonkita, $18.

Vintage Polaroid Swinger Camera

From opendoorstudio, $19.50.

Mini Homemade Noise Maker

By SymetriColour, $58.

Vintage AM Radio (Free Shipping)

From thevint, $27.

Vintage Radio Police Scanner

From LovelyVintageEtc, $56.

Follow with Hashtag Necklace

By PunkyJane, $35.

Set Of Wooden Origami Speakers

By jwhitney100, $290.

1980 Yearbook Portrait

By BeesAndTrees, $12.

Dual Phone/Pod Docking Station

By woodtec, $119.

Vintage Electro Voice Microphone

By vintageguy1, $120.

Snowman Ornament (Vacuum Tube)

By lunaclaydesign, $10.

Scuba Cat T-shirt

By hamburgerpanda, $24.

Red Lobster Audio Speakers

By ikymagoo, $275.

Vintage Transistor Panapet Radio

From PotKettleBlack, $48.

Computer Hard Drive Clock

By pixelthis, $33.

Usb Port Vinyl Decal For laptop

By VinylOnTheGo, $9.

Wood Grain Stereo Headphones

By antibromide, $47.

Cassette Tape Phone Cozy

By yummypocket, $23.

9ft Instrument Cable

By cordinated, $37.50.

Vintage Portable Record Player

From allunique, $139.95.

Less Than Three Ring (unisex)

By metalsmitten, $45.

Apollo Laptop Sleeve (custom size)

By brokesy, $85.

Mr. Mustache Skull Mouse Pad

By inhope, $14.

Mirror and Acrylic Cufflinks

By crimsonking, $16.

Melamine Robot Bowl

By LittleKorboose, $10.

Custom Wooden Guitar Pedal Board

By ThreeDogMoon, $160.

20's Bell and Howell 16mm Camera

From SlothArt, $105.

Oscar Box Art Robot Print

By johnwgolden, $80.

Vintage Light Bulbs

From CoolVintage, $8.50.

Light Controlled Sound Instrument

By rarebeasts, $119.

Recycled License Plates Buckle

By vintageinretrospect, $29.

Geek is the New Cool Necklace

By Morphologica, $25.

4GB USB Flash Drive Casemod

By NifNaks, $59.

Felt Gadget Case with Retro Owl

By NORMandLOU, $14.

80's Clear Phone

From dreamingofvintage, $18.

Forever Analog Zine

By vickeh, $4.

Tin Type Robot 55

By reclaim2fame, $119.

Analog vs. Digital Graphic Tee

By snowconecollective, $20.

HELL YEAH Holga , 3.5 Inch Mirror

By kateblack, $7.50.

Vintage TV Knob Brooch

By ScienceKitty, $12.50.

Candy Dispenser USB Flash Drive

By dhhdesign, $25.

Birdy Pocket in Berry Red

By AnOptimisticCynic, $9.

Roundly Stud Earrings

By PeriwinkleDzyns, $7.50.

Techie Nightlight

By angeladt, $9.

Vintage His and Hers Key Storage

From tippleandsnack, $12.99.

Mix Tape - 1 Inch Pinback Button

By Buttonhead, $1.50.

Tube boost/overdrive Pedal

By BelieveInKarma, $175.

Analog Drum Synthesizer

By synthmonger, $75.

Looking for more Etsy Finds? Try these links:

Gift Guides | Guest Curators | Trends | Gift Ideas

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Tech Update: Google Product Search Syndication

2009-11-25T15:05:00-05:00

UPDATE 12/1/09: The initial rollout of Google Product Search Syndication to Etsy sellers with active individual Google Merchant Center accounts has been completed. A gradual rollout of this feature to the remainder of the Etsy seller community will now begin. Questions and comments welcome in this discussion thread.

Sellers,

We're excited to announce that Etsy is partnering with Google as a participant in the Google Product Search Marketplace Partner Program.

Etsy's Google Product Search Syndication feature will allow Etsy sellers to have their items automatically submitted frequently and with all relevant attributes to Google Product Search. You can find Google Product Search via the "Shopping" link at the top of most Google search pages.

As a Google Product Search Marketplace Partner, participating Etsy sellers' items will appear in Google Product Search with the associated Etsy shop name and shop feedback visible and searchable.

This feature is being rolled out gradually to the Etsy seller community. Beta testing has been underway and we are now gradually activating this feature for Etsy sellers who currently use their shop feed to submit items to Google Product Search. No action is required from sellers. A gradual rollout to the remainder of the Etsy seller community will follow.

Participating sellers will see a link called Syndication under the Promote section inside Your Etsy when signed in. This Syndication page lists the partner websites Etsy is working with to help you maximize your shop's exposure. More partner websites will be added in the future.

Google Product Search Syndication will be enabled by default for participating sellers. Sellers can opt out of this service at any time.

We'd like to thank all the beta testers for their ongoing valuable feedback.

Please visit Etsy's Help site to learn more details about using Google Product Search Syndication.

Other Tips for Your Etsy Shop in the Seller Handbook

John Allspaw Joins the Etsy Team

2009-11-19T00:27:00-05:00

One day in early 2005, I got a call from a friend and former colleague asking for career advice. My friend was considering a role running site operations at a fledgling Internet company that was creating a whole new way of connecting people on the Internet. They were a small but inspired operation running in a data center in Vancouver and the site was starting to really ramp up. The company needed his unique blend of good humor, playfulness, creative spark, world-class technical chops, and unmatched ability to get things done. I was already an early adopter and major fan of the company he was considering and told him it seemed like a solid bet. The company was Flickr, and the friend was John Allspaw.

Fast forward to the present, and after five very successful years at Flickr, John and I talked recently about another career move, but this time it was a little closer to home: John will be joining the engineering team at Etsy as VP of Technical Operations, responsible for the site operations, database, and quality assurance teams. I think his reasoning for making the move from Flickr to Etsy illustrates just what a great fit John is for Etsy:

“The reason I stayed here for five years wasn't for the vesting or the accolades. It was because I worked with people who *care* about building something that people *care* about. This also happens to be the same reason why I chose my next step: Etsy. They care, and it shows.“

I couldn’t be more excited for someone with John’s incredible experience to be joining Etsy. Before Flickr, John and I worked together at Salon.com and IDG/InfoWorld. He then went on to Friendster, one of the earliest social networking sites. Once he got to Flickr, John built site operations from 20 servers in a small Vancouver data center into a cultural phenomenon spread across six data centers around the world, with 40,000 photos being served per second and four billion photos being managed. Over four years, traffic to the site grew 40x while the number of users grew tenfold. All the while, John and the excellent team he built were the ones turning the knobs and pulling the levers to make it all work along with the developers at Flickr.

John recorded his hard-earned knowledge in a well-regarded book about capacity planning for web sites (The Art of Capacity Planning) and became a favorite speaker at technical conferences – when you’re successful, everyone wants to know the formula. With all of that happening, he also found time to play guitar in an itinerant bluegrass band, filing in the gaps between the washboard and the banjo. And have two kids!

John will joining us officially in late January, bringing his know-how to help us make Etsy better. I can’t wait to work with John again. Without further ado, please join me in welcoming John to Etsy!

About Us series | Tech Updates

Etsy Finds: What's Your Flavor?

2009-11-16T12:00:00-05:00

Becoming a gift-giving savant is a piece of cake. Simply utilize the power of the classic personality test and your own astute sense of observation to find just-so gifts for everyone on your holiday list. Q: Does your sister love slick fonts, showering and mojitos? A: Mint body scrub and a typography necklace are the answer!

Today's Etsy Finds present a broad spectrum of gift ideas for the many personalities and styles you know and love. Shop Etsy's Holiday Gift Guides for more character-specific gifts that evince your exacting observational skills.

Gifts for the Person Who Has Everything

Lulu - Peyote Beaded Bracelet

By roiaobrien, $468.

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Recycled Cashmere // Assorted Colors

By giantdwarf, $55.

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Large Bowl in Swag pattern

By jillrosenwald, $180.

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Wee Soft-Sculpture Snail

By beetlegirldesign, $25.

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Stacked LBJ Mugs

By rothshank, $70.

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Stripey Wool Crochet Blanket

By rocketandbear, $320.

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Mountainous Moon Sculpture

By paulandkatestudio, $115.

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Willie Pillow

By sprucehome, $85.

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Gifts for the Modernist

Laser cut Bamboo Clock and Calendar

By decoylab, $68.

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Mini Modern Rock trio

By metalicious, $135.

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M is for magazine. in white.

By paperdollwoodshop, $38.

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helvetica typography acrylic necklace

By plastique, $20.

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Gifts for the Fashionista

Asymmetrical Olive Knit Sweater

By PeekoApparel, $135.

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Black Pleated Leather Spats

By jdotdesigns, $54.

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Rockwell ring part II

By thebeside, $240.

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Grey Shawl With Crocheted Lace

By afra, $42.

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Gifts for the Francophile

Masculin Feminin Exotique (print)

By floodfish, $40.

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This is not a Tie. Dadaist Necktie

By toybreaker, $30.

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Striped Fitted Jersey Dress

By VainandVapid, $92.

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Eiffel Tower print Scarf

By PrettyRaccoon, $21.

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Gifts for the Old Soul

stencil pillow with wool and kapok

By enhabiten, $32.

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Vintage Antique Lady Bracelet

From zipidydodah, $250.

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Miniature Cabinet of Curiosities

By MiniatureRhino, $28.

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Sawyers Viewmaster

From HelloVictory, $17.

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Gifts for the Gourmet

Brown Turkey Fig with Raw Honey

By lemonbird, $8.50.

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Rustic Serving Trio- Flame Birch

By firewoodfurniture, $69.

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Vintage Cocktail Glass Set

From ethanollie, $35.

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Jam of the Month Club Membership

By lemonbird, $145.

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Gifts for the Nature Enthusiast

Baby Toes Hanging Terrarium

By monkeysalwayslook, $34.

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Butterfly Specimen Vial Necklace

By ladylavona, $45.

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Victorian silver fossil studs

By MiniCyn, $41.

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THORN - jewelry display - matte plum

By saraschalliol, $46.

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Oriole Bird Feeder

By baconsquarefarm, $35.

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Porcelain Claws and Dome

By kgrandey, $75.

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Gifts for the Do-It-Yourselfer

The Gentleman Crafty Apron

By PollyDanger, $35.

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Tomato Felt Pincushion

By Autumn2May, $24.95.

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Alpha I Contemporary Needlepoint Kit

By felicityhall, $98.

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large w.i.p. bucket

By designsmayamade, $38.

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Gifts for the Tech Obsessed

I Can't Force Quit You

By Joannarchy, $1.

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Computer Hard Drive Clock

By pixelthis, $33.

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iPod / iPhone / iTouch Case

By SydneyAngel, $25.

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Computer Key Jewelry - Home Key

By creativedexterity, $74.

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Looking for more Etsy Finds? Try these links:

Gift Guides | Guest Curators | Trends | Gift Ideas

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Customer Care: Improving Etsy Support

2009-11-12T12:30:00-05:00

Etsy's Support Team is committed to providing the best possible service to the Etsy community. We are delighted to announce that we are launching a brand new Help section and a new set of internal tools for Etsy's Support Team.

As we have with other recent features, we are going to roll out use of the new Help system over the next few days instead of all at once. We appreciate your patience and participation as we get the new Help system up and running.

Here are the highlights:

Searchable Help. Wave goodbye to those long, clunky, list-style Help pages. For the first time, Etsy's Frequently Asked Questions knowledge base (FAQs) is searchable! View FAQs by topic on Help Home, or quickly find answers by searching for a keyword or phase.

Contact Etsy Support. The new Help site allows you to contact Etsy's Support Team via a web form, instead of leaving Etsy to use email. Super convenient! (Note: You must be signed in to your Etsy account to use this feature, and we're gradually rolling this out to members. Until you your account comes up in the queue, this section will direct to the old FAQ.)

Help History. You can view and update your questions to Etsy's Support Team — and see our responses — right from the Help site using the My Help History page. In addition, a copy of the response from Etsy's Support Team will be sent to the email address on file in Your Etsy > Account Info. (Note: You must be signed in to your Etsy account to access My Help History, and we're gradually rolling this out to members. Until you your account comes up in the queue, this section will direct to the old FAQ.)

Submit a Suggestion. Have an idea to make Etsy even better? Want to offer us your point of view about Etsy? Use this handy form to let us know. (Note: You can alternatively discuss your ideas with other members in the community Ideas Forum.)

Teach Etsy How to Help. The new Help site allows members to rate the helpfulness of each FAQ. This provides us with valuable information so we can continually improve our resources for you. The Help site "learns" which FAQs are the most popular and automatically keeps these near the top for easier access.

Better Admin Tools. Etsy's Support Team has a new set of internal tools that integrate directly with the Help site to better serve our community. Every message sent to Etsy's Support Team is read and responded to by a real person. This human touch is vital to provide personalized assistance to every member who needs help. As we ramp up to full speed with these new tools, we have the ever-present goal in mind of improving the quality and timeliness of our customer support.

You may notice this week that emails you receive from Etsy's Support Team will look a little different. You can now easily see both your question to Support and our reply as a discussion thread. In addition, you will receive a reference number for your issue to improve correspondence tracking.

If you've recently sent an email to Etsy's Support Team, don't worry! You do not need to resubmit your question through the new Help site. We will respond as usual. Currently, you can still contact Etsy's Support Team by email to support@etsy.com, abuse@etsy.com, billng@etsy.com or content@etsy.com. We will forward emails to these addresses into our new Help system. (Be sure to send your message from the email address on file in Your Etsy > Account Info.) Over time, we will phase out the use of these email addresses and transition to using the Contact Etsy Support web form to contact the different areas of Etsy's Support Team.

P.S. If you would like to receive breaking, vital Etsy news as it happens — delivered straight to your email inbox — then sign up for Etsy News Alerts emails. Read more about it here. Expect this as an Etsy Alert email in your inbox if you already subscribe to the list.

You can also get an RSS feed of all TechUpdates here.

Etsy Finds: Gifts for Mankind

2009-11-04T12:25:00-05:00

Hi Etsy shoppers! I'm Erin Loechner, the blogger behind award-winning Design for Mankind, and I am super thrilled to host Shop Live this evening at 7 p.m. ET in Etsy's Virtual Labs (click here for more details).

In celebration of this gift-centric event, Etsy has curated fantastic handmade gifts inspired by my picks. Between these Finds, the Design for Mankind Gift Guide and our Shop Live event tonight, I guarantee you'll find something for everyone -- from your favorite mailman to your loyal hairdresser. Happy shopping!

The Nerdy Older Brother

Computer Hard Drive Clock

Erin's Pick! By pixelthis, $35.

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ipod, itouch, iphone case

By tovicorrie, $28.

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Ne'er-do-well Art Bureau Screenprint

By stuartkolakovic, $9.

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Breakout style duct tape wallet V2

By KMCdesigns, $22.

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pH Equation L T-shirt - Green

By Ikyoto, $15.

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Compass necklace in fine silver

By lulubugjewelry, $68.

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A Great Teacher

your customized note book pouch

Erin's Pick! By squirrellicious, $22.

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Little Bluebird Mini Dish Gift

By wiseimpressions, $8.

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Whimsy and Spice herbs and spices gift box

By whimsyandspice, $24.

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Teacher's Gift Personalized Note Cards

By sweetbellacards, $15.

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Forbidden Fruit

By DestinysCreations, $60.

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Vinyl Wall Chalkboard Decal Sticker

By SpellitOutdesigns, $28.

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Your Sweet New Girlfriend

Milou Necklace

Erin's Pick! By FoxAndClover, $38.

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Deluxe Mixtape Pouch - Love Songs

By BraveMoonman, $50.

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I think Im in Love T-shirt White M-L

By rosiemusic, $24.

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Warehouse Clutch

By Ikestaedt, $50.

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16 inch recycled felt applique pillow

By alexandraferguson, $69.

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I Like You 5 x 7 Print

By Juliapott, $10.

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Hardworking Mom

Sparkling Bath Tablet Like Seltzer

Erin's Pick! By sweetpetula, $6.

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Love Mom Tattoo Necklace

By JemmaJewel, $148.

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Bird Personalized Charm Bracelet, 2 Birds

By polkadotmagpie, $95.

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Eco Toes in Wool Plaid

By infusion, $45.

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Love Letter(original mounted)

By raydelphotography, $75.

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Linen & embroidered bag w. brooch

By memake, $85.

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Precocious Kid

Child Teepee (Free Shipping)

Erin's Pick! By GracieBeanBaby, $130.

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Little Whale from reclaimed wood

By WilliamDohman, $32.

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Worry-Woolie Notebook Brown

By Spiderbite, $15.

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Carrot Purse with Rabbit Family

By RattaWan, $26.50.

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Waldrof Refrigerator

By imaginethatwoodshop, $159.

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The Young Mad Scientist's First Blocks

By XylocopaDesign, $39.95.

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The Workaholic

2010 pocket planner - scallops slate

Erin's Pick! By dozi, $11.50.

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Organization Stamp Box

By thesmallobject, $24.

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porcelain cup with translucent bottom

By stepanka, $34.

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Book of Lists

By jedgell, $13.

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Relaxation Set of 3 Soy Candle

By CottageGardenTherapi, $32.

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Extra thick large journal or sketchbook

By moonbindery, $94.

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How's that for a holiday gift list? Shopping handmade doesn't have to be nearly as difficult (or pricey!) as we sometimes think. Happy holidays, everyone — long live Etsy!

Looking for more Etsy Finds? Try these links:

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Talking Product: An Update on 2009 Site Feature Priorities

2009-11-02T15:00:00-05:00

Hi friends,

Welcome to the latest installment of Talking Product. For those of you who are unfamiliar with these posts, they are part of a regular series from my colleagues and me. Our CEO, Maria, started this series last year with her Talking Shop posts. In 2009, we’ve offered more posts by disciplines: Talking Product, Talking Marketing and Talking Tech. In June, all of us got together for a talkfest that we offered up as an audio podcast to more personally communicate with all of you about what’s happening at Etsy.

I am excited to offer you this latest update that covers the last few months. It also presents an overview of our priorities for the remainder of this year and into early next year, as well as a few general Product Team updates.

As a reminder from my previous updates, our first and foremost priority in recent months has been improving the shopping experience. We believe that among the most valuable things Etsy can do for sellers is attract buyers to the site, get them shopping and keep them coming back. While there is much work ahead and this will be a constant focus for us, we’re excited about some of the changes we’ve made so far and about the upcoming features we have in the queue.

So, what we have been up to lately?

Search

As I’ve indicated in past updates, improving the search and discovery experience on Etsy has been our top priority. We’ve made important strides in our efforts to improve Etsy's searching and shopping experience. Here are a few highlights:

Now when you perform a search on Etsy, you will often see links for recent popular related searches above your results. These related searches are actual searches recently performed by Etsy shoppers. They serve as suggestions for shoppers to refine their initial search or to stimulate ideas for successful similar searches. Related searches also offer sellers ideas to effectively tag items.
We made improvements to the way subcategories are suggested during the item listing process. Now, only those subcategories relevant to an item's top-level Category are suggested as item tags. This adjustment is helping to make the Category browsing experience more relevant.
We gave shoppers the ability to filter their search results by Category. This new feature provides shoppers a quick and easy way to narrow and refine their search results. Many Etsians tell us that this enhancement makes finding just the right item on Etsy easier and faster.

Checkout

We continued to work on making Checkout as smooth as possible, especially for new buyers. Our A/B testing framework allows us to test Checkout changes with a small percentage of shoppers, to make sure the changes will be understood and actually improve the user experience, before rolling the changes out to all shoppers.

We enabled new buyers to register on Etsy as a part of the regular Checkout flow. This was an important change since previously new buyers were required to leave Etsy.com in the middle of the Checkout flow in order to complete registration. The old process often resulted in buyer confusion.
We're currently A/B testing removing non-essential elements from the header of Checkout pages to focus shoppers on completing the Checkout process.

Seller Tools

Over the past few months, our new shipping tool with regional shipping options and the ability to rearrange items in your shop moved from the beta testing phase to full launch.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

In the last couple of months, we’ve devoted a fair amount of attention to SEO. With the help of our friends at SEOmoz, Etsy developed a stronger SEO strategy and implementation plan. The most significant changes of the last few months are:

Giving sellers more control over your shop page title, Item listing page titles, and Section page titles
Canonical tags for improved search engine ranking for these pages
Updating shop URLs to be more search-engine friendly as well as changing to 301 redirects

We focused on shop and item listing page SEO and launched improvements, including tools to help sellers preview how their shop home pages and item listings will appear in Google search results. We believe that these changes are, in part, responsible for the continued strong traffic to Etsy.com.   In partnership with SEOmoz, Etsy also created the Etsy Guide to SEO.

SEO is an ongoing effort, and we'll continue to make improvements. We are grateful to Etsy sellers who actively participated in our Virtual Labs sessions on this topic and to those who are diligently using the guide to improve traffic to their Etsy shops.

Community

We recently launched a redesign of the Community Hub. The goal with this redesign was to provide clear, more immediate access to information for the Etsy community about important news, events and activities occurring on Etsy.

Many of you have asked us to communicate frequently and with as much relevant information as we can. Prior to the launch of the new Community Hub, Etsy had only one blog, The Storque. To date, The Storque has served as a resource for Etsy buyers, sellers, staff, and the general public. It showcases a lot of terrific content and information, but the content that’s most relevant to Etsy sellers is not always easily accessible. The Community Hub is a step in the direction of focusing our communications on distinct audiences. We appreciate your patience and your feedback along the way and hope that you find the new Community Hub useful.

What is in store for the remainder of 2009 and early 2010?

As the year winds down our main focus is on keeping the site stable for holiday shoppers. Starting mid-November and going through December, we will go into a bit of a code lockdown so as not to disrupt the buying and selling experience on Etsy. During this period we will only release changes that will not risk the performance and user experience of the site. This is a common practice for most ecommerce sites and one that we believe is critical. With that in mind, some of the updates below will launch before this lockdown while others will launch early next year. Also, some of the changes might only launch to a small subset of users, and then over time we’ll expand to all users. We’ll provide updates on the specific timing and plans for each of these items via the Forums, Community Hub, and The Storque as we get closer to each launch.

Search and Discovery

Many shoppers, especially those new to Etsy, don’t know what they’re looking for when they arrive at the site. Maybe they are searching for a gift, or they know they’re going to find something they love at Etsy, but they’re not sure what. In addition, some Etsy shoppers describe their search experience on the site as “overwhelming” while others describe it as “addictive.” We’re looking to convert those who may feel overwhelmed into addicts. We believe a key to that lies in enabling shoppers to refine search results in various ways.

To that end, many of the features currently in development will be designed to give visitors a better view into the kinds of unique items available on Etsy and help them more easily refine the results displayed. We know that shoppers who perform a search on Etsy are significantly more likely to buy something than those who do not use the search function.

One feature in development is what we call Search Suggestions. This means that we'll suggest relevant search queries as site visitors begin to type a query into the search bar. These suggestions will be specific to Handmade, Vintage, Supplies, All Items or the Category page from which you search. The suggestions will be derived from Etsy’s search logs and will be displayed in a dropdown box as is the practice on many heavily trafficked ecommerce sites. We believe this functionality will help shoppers more quickly and easily discover items of interest on Etsy.   We're also dedicated to improving the overall search experience by focusing on improved handling of misspelled search terms, the page shoppers see when they perform a search with no results, and more.

Checkout

We remain focused on making Checkout as easy as possible for all Etsy buyers, especially new buyers. We're working on a project we call Guest Checkout, which will enable new buyers to check out on Etsy without first choosing a username and registering on the site. This type of functionality exists on many ecommerce sites and is generally an expected option for shoppers. By introducing it on Etsy, we intend to remove hurdles in the Etsy Checkout process.

International

Many buyers and sellers have asked for an easier way to communicate prices in currencies other than U.S. dollars. We plan to introduce a currency calculator on item pages so that shoppers can quickly (and without leaving the page) calculate prices in currencies other than U.S. dollars. The actual transactions will still occur in U.S. dollars.

Google Product Search

Many Etsy sellers use their Etsy shop RSS feed to schedule uploads of their items to Google Merchant Center, for placement in Google Product Search.

Later this year, Google is changing how sellers on marketplaces like Etsy upload items for placement in Google Product Search, and we're working with Google on a solution that will allow Etsy to automatically upload items from your shops into Google Base if you choose to opt in to the program. This functionality will be launched in beta form to a small group of sellers and will gradually roll out to the entire Etsy seller community. More details on this initiative will be announced soon.

Help

As mentioned in my last update, we have been working to launch a new Help site to make it easier for our members to find information more quickly along with a new set of internal tools for Etsy's Support Team. We’re pleased to report that this is about ready to launch. Please stay tuned to Etsy’s blog, The Storque, the new Community Hub, and to the Forums for further details.

Updates From the Etsy Product Team

We’re delighted to welcome Michael Craig to the team. Michael joins us as our design director focusing on user experience design. Among other things, he will focus on creating design standards for the site. Welcome, Michael, a.k.a. mcraig71!

We’re also thrilled to welcome two new babies to the team. Congrats to Beth, a.k.a. bethela, on the birth of her very cute son, Rowan! (MCR, who heads up Etsy's Sys Ops Team, and his wife also had a boy!)

We love to hear from you. You can find the Product Team on Etsy:

Sean is sean11
Tom is kutty
Eric is ericds
Beth is bethela
Amy is amydec
KC is okaysee
Jen is jendoo
Michael is mcraig71
And I’m saralouhicks

Lastly, but most importantly, we appreciate all of your input that you provide in the Forums, Storque blog comments, and in emails to Etsy’s Support Team regarding improvements and suggestions for the site. We take the suggestions from our community as one of the greatest considerations in determining our product roadmap, and we’re personally committed to make progress against them. We understand that it may seem that many long-requested features have not been prioritized, but we want to stress that we are listening, we appreciate your suggestions, and we are making progress.

There’s more ahead so please stay tuned. I’ll be back at the beginning of the year with another Talking Product post that provides an overview of our priorities for 2010. As always, your feedback is important, so I look forward to a continued dialogue around our priorities.   Thanks!

Tech Update: Upcoming SEO Improvements for Shop Home Pages

2009-10-30T19:40:00-05:00

UPDATE: We have completed the SEO improvements for shop pages, including the 302 to 301 redirect changes for username.etsy.com URLs.

[The following was originally posted on October 30, 2009.]

UPDATE: We're happy to announce that all the search engine optimization (SEO) changes described in the post below are now live on Etsy, except for the 302 to 301 redirect change for username.etsy.com URLs, which will roll out over the next 24 hours.

[The following was originally posted on October 28, 2009.]

As part of our ongoing initiative to increase SEO effectiveness on Etsy.com, we will be releasing an update within the next 24-48 hours that is designed to improve page rankings on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.

Search engines look at the number of links into a web page, such as a seller’s shop or product listing page, and the quality of those links to determine the relevancy of that page in response to a search query. Our change will ensure that ALL incoming links to Etsy pages are counted by the search engines.

Prior to this change, all links to your shop URL (username.etsy.com) were 302 redirects to www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=123456, which many search engines viewed as temporary and therefore did not count in their algorithms. From a technical perspective, we changed 302 temporary redirects to permanent 301 redirects, which are counted.

In the process, we’ve also updated the current shop page URL (www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=123456) from a format that uses a numerical “user_id” to one that is SEO-enhancing as well as shopper-friendly: www.etsy.com/shop/username.

We anticipate that you’ll have questions and hope to address the majority of them below:

Do I need to make changes to all the current links to my site?
No, you do not need to make any changes to your current site references — whether you’re using username.etsy.com or www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=123456. Both will be automatically redirected to www.etsy.com/shop/username. In the future, if you’re embedding the link to your shop page on another site, please use http://www.etsy.com/shop/username. If you’re marketing your site and need a URL that’s easy to remember, continue to use username.etsy.com in your marketing materials.

When I create a new shop, what URL will be generated?
When a new shop is created on Etsy.com, two URLs will be generated: username.etsy.com and www.etsy.com/shop/username. Etsy will automatically assign www.etsy.com/shop/username to the page URL. Shop owners can continue to use username.etsy.com for marketing purposes — this will be automatically redirected to www.etsy.com/shop/username.

When can I expect to see the results of these changes?
Once changes are made on any site, it takes search engines a few weeks to recognize that change and reflect it in page rankings. Search engines crawl Etsy.com more frequently than most websites because of its size, number of inbound links and frequency of change.

Tell me more about 302 vs. 301 redirects.
On the Internet, there are different types of redirects used for different purposes by the search engines. The redirect from username.etsy.com to www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=123456 was a 302 redirect. Search engines assume 302 redirects are temporary and therefore do not count links to 302 redirects towards the number of links to a page. In contrast, 301 redirects are seen as permanent, and do count towards the number of links to a page. We're changing the 302 temporary redirect to a 301 permanent redirect to make sure all links to username.etsy.com are counted by search engines.

We’d like to recognize and thank our partners at SEOmoz – Rand, Lindsay, and Jen – for their involvement in our initiative. SEO is an ongoing process and as we continue to roll out enhancements, we will communicate them on The Storque. If you have questions or comments, please join us in this discussion thread in the Forums. We’d love to hear from you.

P.S. If you want to get the breaking, vital Etsy news as it happens — delivered straight to your email inbox, then sign up for Etsy News Alerts emails. Read more about it here. Expect this as an Etsy Alert email in your inbox if you already subscribe to the list.

You can also get an RSS feed of all TechUpdates here.

Not-So-Top-Secret: Policy Sneak Peek

2009-10-20T10:32:00-05:00

Psst ... Secret Squirrels! You may not know this, but for the past few months, a special task force at Etsy has been locked away in a tiny conference room, buckling down to polish up Etsy's site policies. I've just smuggled some highly classified documents out of the heavily-guarded, steel-doored Lawyer Hole over at Etsy HQ. I think you'll want to take a look at this file — it contains proposed revisions to the DOs & DON'Ts of Etsy.*

It’s been over a year since we last updated the DOs & DON'Ts of Etsy. During that time, the team has received feedback on our existing policies from the Etsy community — through the Forums, emails, Virtual Labs and in-person meet ups. Thank you for your input! Keeping our policies clear and up-to-date is one way we can help preserve the integrity of the site. We want to continue working with the community to better our services and our marketplace. This sneak peek preview provides another way for us to improve the site together. The revised DOs & DON’Ts will be posted on a special page for about a week to offer the opportunity to read through the document and respond with your thoughts about the proposed changes. If necessary, we may make final tweaks before we go live with the new DOs & DON'Ts. Our other policy documents, as well as Help content, will be updated to reflect the revisions to the DOs & DON’Ts at that time.

We understand that the changes may have a direct impact on some members and shops. Once we go live with the new policies, we will institute a grace period of several weeks to allow all members to edit existing account information, shops and listings as needed.

Visit this special page to see the preview of the revised DOs & DON'Ts of Etsy.

As you will see, most policies remain the same. In many areas, we've just clarified existing information or elaborated upon current practices to include these items formally in the DOs & DON'Ts document. Below I’ll highlight the changes, but be sure you preview the updated DOs & DON'Ts in their entirety.

Membership: A few notable policies that apply to all members have been moved up to the Membership section, like our policy for linking from a shop or profile to another selling venue. Collectives (seller accounts involving multiple people) have been further defined with the categories of Collaboration, Sharing a Shop and Shop Management Help. We clarified our rules for younger Etsians; collectives that include minors under the age of 18 may not utilize community features unless otherwise stated.

Conversations: You may not use Conversations to interfere with a transaction (with details on this in the Transactions section, too). We've also elaborated on the definition of "spam" as it relates to Etsy Convos.

Transactions: We’ve added information to the Transactions section, describing the roles of the seller, the buyer and Etsy in a transaction. Additionally, we’ve detailed various concerns or scenarios in which a transaction may be disputed, including: non-payment, non-delivery, refusal of service, dissatisfaction and interference. We’ve also clarified the circumstances in which a transaction may be canceled. In general, the additions to this section outline in greater detail the processes and policies already in place for transactions.

Feedback: To better accommodate custom orders and international transactions, we will be increasing the timeframe for submitting feedback from 90 days to 120 days. (This will go into effect when the policies are "live.") Additionally, we’ve clarified the circumstances in which Etsy will review feedback for removal, and we've lifted the 30-day limitation to requesting a feedback review for policy violation.

Shops and Listings: Formerly called “Selling,” this section has been expanded to include detailed policies about shop set-up, listing items, tagging and specific rules for handmade items, vintage goods and supplies. The section on Tagging is entirely new to the DOs & DON’Ts, but most of this information was available in Etsy’s Help section or through guides posted on Etsy’s blog, The Storque. Expanded sections on rules for handmade, vintage and supplies items should help sellers understand what can be sold on Etsy and how to list items for sale.

Charitable Shops and Listings: Etsy appreciates the spirit of giving back. Due to some laws and the existence of unsavory individuals who may try to take advantage of this spirit, we have added a section for charitable shops and listings.

Prohibited Items: In response to a variety of community concerns, we have clarified our prohibited items list. These items — though they may be handmade, vintage or a crafting supply — are not allowed to be listed for sale on Etsy.

Showcase and Treasury: Making a first time appearance in the DOs & DON'Ts are specific sections for participation in the Showcase and the Treasury. We have gathered information from other areas of the site about these interactive features to formalize as policies in the DOs & DON'Ts.

The DOs & DON'Ts of Etsy, Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, Copyright and Intellectual Property Policy and the Help site all will be updated for consistency. Once we gather your feedback and make any changes, we will launch the final versions of everything together. At that time, we will send an email notice to all members. As stated above, we will also allow a grace period for all members to edit their existing content to comply with any changed policies.

*OK, so I admit it. I'm a lousy spy and a loyal Etsy employee. I totally made sure I had permission from the head honcho before I released this not-so-top-secret sneak peek of our new policies to you, the Etsy community. Truth is that we really want your feedback. Be sure to read the preview of the entire revised DOs & DON'Ts to provide us with the most accurate feedback, and then join us for discussion in this Forum thread.

All About Etsy FAQ: Welcome to the Community Hub

2009-10-09T16:00:00-05:00

Today we're excited to unveil your new Community Hub!

There's a lot going on in the Etsy community on any given day — at any given moment. This page is designed to gather together the main streams of activity so you can see the latest at a glance. You can participate in any way you want. We hope you'll join us!

The Community Hub is linked in the main Etsy top navigation bar found on every page on our site — just click on Community. If you want to bookmark it, use this url: http://community.etsy.com

From the Community Hub you can:

get quick updates about goings-on
access the Forums and Chat (there's also a "From the Forums" feed with some of the latest topics)
pop into the Virtual Labs for real-time, interactive events
reach the Teams pages on Etsy, where groups of members self-organize
jump to The Storque, Etsy's blog, where we post content ranging from shopping to seller how-to's
check out the Resources pages for helpful tools and graphics
join in community shopping polls with the Voter

Social networking has taken off in the Etsy community, so we're streaming in our Twitter feed. We're also providing you with the links to our other social networking pages, such as Facebook, and our media feeds, such as YouTube, Flickr, and iTunes (coming soon). There's much to explore, so dive in!

For upcoming events, check out the calendar embedded on the page.

Stay tuned for more improvements to some of these pages. We'd love to hear your feedback, so please share your thoughts in the comments below.

UPDATE: Due to some limitations we had to remove the top links from the new Community Hub (e.g. Cart, Sign In, Favorites, Conversations, etc.). If you are Signed In to Etsy when you visit the Community Hub you will still be Signed In even without the top links. We understand that this is a confusing experience and longer term we hope to find a solution to improve this. In the meantime, you can always go to www.etsy.com to view your top links.

Read more posts in the All about Etsy FAQ Series | Visit the Community Hub

Tech Update: Site Maintenance 2009 Schedule

2009-10-02T17:00:00-05:00

UPDATE: Our engineers will be working on the site on Monday, November 16, but the site will not be taken down for this maintenance window. That the site will be accessible during maintenance is actually part of the improvements that have been made.

We apologize for the back and forth. We are getting down to the final preparations before the holidays and we are working hard. One new factor appeared on the scene: the new baby of MCR, our chief Sys Admin, and his wife. No, this is not the sole reason for the shifting schedule, but it is the only one with a high enough cuteness factor to be worth mentioning.

As I wrote back in January, we have planned a number of behind-the-scenes changes and improvements for the rest of the year that will enhance the stability and scalability of the site, but require site downtime. To put those improvements in place, I announced monthly maintenance windows in which the site would be unavailable while we make these changes Since then, we have realized that we need more frequent maintenance windows to make these improvements more quickly, so we will now be doing these maintenance windows roughly every two weeks. To give everyone the most notice possible, we are publishing the new schedule below.

Our first maintenance window on the new schedule will be next Monday, June 8 from 2 a.m. - 6 a.m. ET. During this time period, all functions on the site will be unavailable, and all Etsy users will be directed to a page that notes that the site is undergoing scheduled maintenance. For updates during the maintenance window, please see http://fix.etsy.com. (Note: Any sellers who have purchased a Showcase that would run during this maintenance window will receive a pro-rated credit for the 4-hour maintenance period. You can expect your bill to be credited within two to three business days after the date of the maintenance.) The new schedule for maintenance windows is as follows (all are 2 a.m. - 6 a.m. ET):

Monday, October 5 postponed to October 12 (2 a.m. - 8 a.m.)
Monday, October 19 (cancelled)
Monday, November 2
Monday, November 16

We are still thinking about and discussing the maintenance schedule for after November 16, since we want to be as sensitive as possible to the holiday shopping season and minimize any disruptions during that time.

We will communicate these dates in advance each time as a reminder. While there may still be occasional emergency maintenance windows, our goal is to use these regular planned maintenance windows to proactively make changes that will minimize emergencies.

Thanks in advance for your patience during our site maintenance periods, and thanks for using Etsy!

*To translate these times into your local time zone, please click here.

[The previous schedule was published on January 21, 2009.]

Tech Update: Filter Search Results by Category

2009-09-28T18:00:00-05:00

Today we're excited to announce a useful new addition to the Etsy Search experience — you can now filter your search results by category.

When searching on Etsy, you often get a lot of results back. We think it's important to provide shoppers ways to narrow down their search results, while highlighting the wide variety of amazing items on Etsy, from Handmade, Vintage and Supplies.

Let's look at the search results in Handmade for "Halloween," for example. Under the Handmade heading on the left side of the page, you will now see links to the top seven categories ordered by the number of results for that search term in each. You can click the "see more categories" link to view all the categories with results. You can also jump to the results for your search term in Vintage, Supplies or All Items.

In this example, we see there are 1,919 results for "Halloween" within the Handmade: Art Category. Clicking the link for the Art Category will take you to those results with the option to drill down further into the applicable subcategories.

Now we see there are 238 results for "Halloween" within Handmade: Art: Photography. Let's drill down further to the 60 surreal Halloween photographs.

At any time, you can jump back up to any of your previously chosen filters. In this version, starting a new search will clear your filter choices. You can also clear your search term and simply browse all the items available on Etsy by category.

We hope you enjoy this new way to make discoveries on Etsy! Tell us what you think in this Forum thread. (We'll close comments on this blog post so that we can consolidate your feedback on the thread.)

Tech Update: New Checkout Updates

2009-09-24T19:20:00-05:00

As we mentioned in the previous Checkout Update, we're working to make Checkout a simpler, smoother process for shoppers, and we are rolling changes out gradually to make sure they improve buyer conversion. ("Conversion" is the percentage of shoppers who complete Checkout.) Improving buyer conversion helps more shoppers get a taste of Etsy and leads to more orders for Etsy sellers. In short, more happy Etsy members!

Today we're rolling out a change to a small percentage of Etsy traffic that removes non-essential elements from the header of Checkout pages, to make the process clearer and faster. Simplifying the page header in the Checkout process is an e-commerce practice used by many great shopping sites, such as Amazon and Apple.

Here's a preview of the shipping information page with a simplified header:

We're going to see if this change makes it easier for shoppers to complete Checkout, and we'll make adjustments as we learn more. If we're certain the changes improve the Checkout experience for shoppers, we'll roll the changes out to all of Etsy's traffic.

We'll update this post as we learn more.

Tech Update: Upcoming Changes for Shop and Item Page SEO

2009-09-23T18:00:00-05:00

UPDATE: We're happy to announce that the search engine optimization (SEO) changes described in the post below are now live on Etsy. It's important to note that the changes won't appear in Google search results immediately. Google checks web pages for updates periodically, so the changes won't appear in Google search results until Google visits your page again and updates the information it has about your page. If you want to see when Google last checked one of your pages, search for the page in Google and click the "Cached" link for your page.

At the top of the cached version of the page, Google states when they last viewed the page.

We're also excited to announce the launch of a tool that enables sellers to preview how their item pages and shop home page will appear in Google search results. When you list a new item or edit an existing listing, you can click a link to "View a preview of how your item will appear in Google search results."

This shows a preview that updates as you enter or edit your item title and description. You can simply enter your item title and description and instantly view how your item will appear in Google search results. This tool is also available on the Your Etsy > Appearance page where you can update your Shop Title and Shop Announcement and preview how your shop home page will appear in Google search results.

As we mentioned in the original post below, SEO is an ongoing process. We'll continue to make improvements and keep you updated on our progress here on The Storque.

[The following was originally posted on September 1, 2009.]

Etsy has been working with SEOmoz, a third-party consultancy, to improve the search engine optimization (SEO) for Etsy.com, including shop and item listing pages. Improved SEO means shoppers are more likely to find Etsy pages when they use search engines like Google and Bing.

We're excited to announce that we’re getting ready to move forward with some changes based on the guidance of the experts at SEOmoz. (Big thanks to Rand, Lindsay, Jen and everyone at SEOmoz!)

We're pre-announcing these changes to ensure sellers have time to prepare, but it's important to note that you don't need to make any changes to your shop or item listing pages. It's your choice whether you want to work on SEO. We know some sellers will want the opportunity to optimize their pages and take full advantage of these changes, and we also want to explain what Etsy is doing to improve SEO.

These changes will take effect within the next few weeks, and we’ll update this announcement to let you know when the changes are live on the site.

We'll start with an overview of changes we're making and then dig into some examples.

Titles

Google and other search engines limit the number of characters displayed in the page title of links on their search result pages. SEOmoz has found that the likelihood of Web searchers clicking through on a specific link in search results increases if the page title appears complete in Google or other search engines. To prevent page titles from getting cut off, we will remove non-essential characters, such as periods and commas, and then truncate page titles at the end of the last complete word up to 66 characters. (If this sounds complicated, check out the details and examples below.)

It's important to note that page titles are only visible to search engines, on search engine search result pages, and at the top of web browser windows.

SEOmoz has also found that brand names tend to increase the likelihood of Web searchers clicking on a page title in search results, which is why we're putting "on Etsy" at the end of page titles. Familiar brand names help searchers quickly identify links they trust, and to the extent the Etsy brand has gained significant awareness, SEOmoz recommends including "on Etsy" at the end of page titles. However, sellers' shop, section, and item titles are likely most relevant to searchers, and will be prioritized at the beginning of page titles. In certain situations "on Etsy" will be removed to create more room for the seller's shop, section, and item titles. We're also making sure that the seller’s username, which is often the seller’s brand, appears in page titles.

And now for some detailed examples.

Shop homepage title

The current format is: <username> on Etsy - <shop title>
The new format will be: <shop title> by <username> on Etsy

In order to keep the page title tag to 66 characters or fewer, we created rules for how the content will be truncated. The rules ensure that the full username is in the title tag, remove "on Etsy" if the <shop title> is too long, and truncate the <shop title> if it's still too long after "on Etsy" is removed.

If the <shop title> + <username> is greater than 54 characters, but less than 62 characters, "on Etsy" will be removed.

If the <shop title> + <username> is greater than 62 characters, "on Etsy" will be removed and the <shop title> will be truncated to the end of the last complete word, up to 42 characters + (20 - <username>). If your username is less than 20 characters, there's more room for a longer <shop title>.

Here are a few examples:

<username>: littleblackrabbit (17 characters) <shop title>: vintage and recycled inspiration (32 characters) <shop title> + <username> = 49 characters, so "on Etsy" will be included and nothing will be truncated Page title: vintage and recycled inspiration by littleblackrabbit on Etsy

<username>: BettyTurbo (10 characters)
<shop title>: mostly involving cake ice cream and moustaches (45 characters)
<shop title> + <username> = 55 characters, so "on Etsy" will be removed
Page title: mostly involving cake ice cream and moustaches by BettyTurbo

<username>: iheartnorwegianwood (19 characters)
<shop title>: Harnesses cage skirts fringe leggings specialness (49 characters)
<shop title> + <username> = 68 characters, so "on Etsy" will be removed and the <shop title> will be truncated
Page title: Harnesses cage skirts fringe leggings by iheartnorwegianwood

Here's a tool you can use to calculate the number of characters in your <username> and <shop title>.

Because you have limited space in titles it's best to include the most important keywords at the beginning of your <shop title> and to focus on the unique value of your shop.

It's important to note that your <shop title> will only be truncated in the page title, which is visible to search engines, on search engine search results pages, and at the top of web browser windows. Your full <shop title> will still appear on your shop homepage on Etsy.

Item page title

The current format is: <item title> by <username> on Etsy

While we're not changing the format, we are adding rules for how content is truncated. The rules ensure that the full username is in the title tag, remove "on Etsy" if the <item title> is too long, and truncate the <item title> if it's still too long after "on Etsy" is removed.

If the <item title> + <username> is greater than 54 characters but less than 62 characters, "on Etsy" will be removed. If the <item title> + <username> is greater than 62 characters, "on Etsy" will be removed and the <item title> will be truncated to the end of the last complete word up to 42 characters + (20 - <username>).

Section page title

The current format is: <username> on Etsy - <section name>
The new format will be: View <section name> by <username> on Etsy

If the <section name> + <username> is greater than 49 characters but less than 56 characters, "on Etsy" will be removed. If the <section name> + <username> is greater than 56 characters, "on Etsy" will be removed and the <section title> will be truncated to the end of the last complete word up to 37 characters + (20 - <username>).

Canonical tags

We're going to use canonical tags on shop homepages, section pages and item pages.

What's a canonical tag? This is part of the code for your Etsy pages that lets search engines know when different URLs (web addresses) are actually the same page. For example, check out these two URLs: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=sc_main_21&listing_id=29577528
and http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=29577528

The URLs are different, but they point to the exact same page. Generally, search engines assume that a different URL means it’s a different page, unless the code of the page uses a canonical tag to tell the search engine otherwise.

This change will only be visible to search engines, but is important because it will help improve the search engine rankings of sellers' pages. The number and quality of links to a page is an important factor in search engine rankings. If Google thinks those two pages are different, it will count the number of links to each page separately. If Google knows pages with different URLs are the same page, it will add up the links to the different versions of the page and give credit for all of those links to one version of the page, likely increasing the ranking of the page.

If you're interested, SEOmoz has more info on canonical tags.

What's next?

It's important to note that SEO is an ongoing process, and we'll continue to make improvements. We're working with SEOmoz to identify how to improve site-wide SEO, and we'll keep you updated on our progress here on The Storque.

Over the past several weeks, many Etsians have participated in Forum discussions and a Virtual Lab with Rand Fishkin, CEO of SEOmoz. If you didn't get a chance to participate in the recent Virtual Lab with Rand, we'll be announcing additional Virtual Labs in the coming weeks.

We're closing comments here and starting a Forum thread so that Etsy Admin can better answer your questions and the discussion will be searchable. Join us there

Tech Update: Sorting Your Item

2009-09-09T10:30:00-05:00

Tags are keywords sellers attach to their items during the item listing process. After selecting a category for your item, sellers can attach up to 13 keywords or tags. These tags are used to help surface items in Etsy's Search, and they currently determine which subcategories your item falls under.

For example, an item in the Bags and Purses Category with the tags "Clutch" and "Applique" will appear in the Clutch subcategory and Applique subsubcategory of Bags and Purses:

Etsy suggests subcategories for your item on Step 2 of the item listing process, where sellers are asked to "sort your item." These suggestions come in the form of links based on the tags you enter or suggested subcategories you choose.

In the past, these suggested subcategories appeared as "Related Tags" and the suggested subcategories could come from anywhere in Etsy's category tree. Beginning today, we'll only suggest subcategories relevant to your chosen top-level category. We're also making it clearer that these suggestions are not only tags, but also directly relate to the Etsy Categories.

Why are we doing this? We believe this update will help reduce mistagging and confusion during the listing process, and help make the Etsy Categories more relevant. This update should make the item listing experience feel a little more logical.

There is no need to edit or re-tag your listings. You can still enter tags not suggested by Etsy during the item listing process, and the order of your chosen subcategories does not have an impact on your placement in Etsy's Categories. For tagging tips, see this article on current best practices for tagging items on Etsy.

We're taking a thorough look at categorization and tagging on Etsy, and this small adjustment is part of that process.

Check the Virtual Labs Schedule for Shop Critiques | View the Etsy Seller Handbook

Tech Update: Introducing Rearrange Your Shop

2009-09-03T15:15:00-05:00

Today we released a new feature for all sellers that allows you to rearrange the order of the listings in your shop. When the preview video got a record-breaking response, we knew this was a feature many sellers wanted as soon as possible! We want to thank all of our beta testers over the last few months who provided feedback and greatly improved the feature during development.

Below, we have detailed instructions on how to use the Rearrange Your Shop site feature. Please note the following:

We will throttle the feature to all sellers over the next two days, so for a short period only a subset of sellers will have access. The selection process is random. You will know if the feature is turned on by going to Your Etsy > Shop Appearance and viewing the bottom of the page.
You need to enable the feature before you can start using it. See instructions below on how to enable this feature.
We recommend that you have a high speed internet connection when using Rearrange Your Shop. The feature pulls a lot of data to your browser and requires a cable, DSL or other high speed connection for best performance.
The feature was tested on and is confirmed to work with the following browsers: Internet Explorer versions 6 to 8, Firefox version 3 and higher, and Safari version 3 and higher. We do not recommend using this feature on browsers that are not listed above.
This feature was built with a systemwide "on/off switch." What does this mean? Under extreme circumstances when Etsy needs to manage the load on our servers, we could temporarily disable this feature for all sellers. Sellers would be notified with a message under Your Etsy > Shop Appearance. In short, our Engineering Team could turn off this one feature without taking down the rest of the site — be it for maintenance or for site speed and performance reasons to maintain the shopping experience on Etsy.

Here is how to get started:

Sign in and go to Your Etsy.
Click on Shop Appearance.
At the bottom of the page you will see a section for Rearrange Your Shop:
Enable the feature and save.
Go to your shop's homepage (yourshopname.etsy.com).
Under Featured Items (if you have that enabled), you will see a link to "Rearrange Your Shop."
When clicked, you will be placed in an new mode where you can drag and drop listings. Here is a screenshot of when you mouse over a listing:
Finally here is screenshot of moving a listing:

For additional questions, you can reference the brief FAQ below.

What is the Rearrange Your Shop feature?
The Rearrange Your Shop feature allows sellers to rearrange the item listings in their shops to any order they wish.

How does the feature work?
To rearrange your listings, you click and drag your item listings to change the order on any page of your shop. Remember, each shop page has a total of 21 listings. If you want to move a listing between pages, you can click on a listing and select the page it should be moved to. Note, if you hold down shift when you move a listing between pages, it will keep you on the current page. Normally when you move a listing to a new page, you will be taken the new page.

What happens when I add a listing or relist after I change my shop layout?
When you add a new listing to your shop, that listing will appear first, even if you rearranged your listings previously in your shop. Once a listing is added, you can rearrange it in your shop as well.

What will shoppers see when they view my shop after I rearranged my listings?
The default view for shoppers will be the new custom layout you created. Shoppers can still choose to sort listings based on time listed and price.

Does rearranging listings change the way I feature items in my shop?
No, the Featured Items section will remain the same and is managed separately.

How do I turn the feature off?
You can turn the feature off by going to Your Etsy > Shop Appearance. From there you can disable the feature. When you turn the feature off, shoppers will see your listings sorted by the time they were listed.

Can I rearrange listings for each of my sections?
At this time, you can only rearrange listings for the main portion of your shop, not each section.

What are some features Etsy might add to Rearrange Your Shop in the future?
In the future, we would like to add the following enhancements to Rearrange Your Shop:

Adding more keyboard shortcuts for faster rearranging.
Including the custom order in more areas of Etsy, including the shop view under Your Etsy and the Etsy Mini.
Changing behavior such that when you edit a listing or relist, it stays in the same location in your shop.

We are so happy to be launching this new feature for all sellers! Please let us know if you have comments or questions in this Forum discussion thread. (We'll close commenting here in order to better follow the conversation.)

Tech Update: Beta Test of New Rearrange Your Shop Feature

2009-09-01T14:30:00-05:00

UPDATE: We have completed the final phase of beta testing for the Rearrange Your Shop feature. During this final phase, the shops included in beta testing will be available for everyone to view. If you come across one of these shops, you will see that the sort order for the shop's items will say "Custom" instead of the default, "Most Recently Listed."

The final step after this phase is to provide the feature to all Etsy sellers. Thanks so much for your patience while we test the new feature — we know sellers are eager to use it!

[The following was originally published on June 9, 2009.]

Today we began a closed beta test of our new Rearrange Your Shop feature with a handful of selected Etsy sellers. This feature allows sellers to arrange items in their shops by dragging and dropping items. To give you a sense of how this works, we recorded a quick product demo. (Watch the video above.)

Over the course of the next few weeks we will gather feedback on the user experience, expand the beta to include more sellers, and we will post an announcement on the blog when the feature is available to all Etsy sellers.

For additional questions, you can reference the brief FAQ below.

What is the new Rearrange Your Shop feature?
The new Rearrange Your Shop feature allows sellers to rearrange the item listings in their shops to any order they wish.

How will I know if I am part of the beta?
We will send an email to beta participants. Sorry, we cannot accept additional beta testers beyond the original group at this time.

How does the feature work?
To rearrange your items, you click and drag your items to change the order on any page of your shop. Remember, each shop page has a total of 21 items. If you want to move an item between pages, you can click on an item and select the page the item should be moved to. When moving an item to a new page, the item will always appear as the first item on the new page. Finally, when you've completed your new layout, you can save or cancel.

What happens when I add or relist items after I change my shop layout?
When you add a new item to your shop, that item will appear first, even if you rearranged your items previously in your shop. Once an item is added, you can rearrange that item in your shop as well.

What will buyers see when they view my shop after I rearranged my items?
The default view for buyers will be the new custom layout you created. Buyers can still sort items based on time listed and price.

Does rearranging items change the way I feature items in my shop?
No, the Featured Items section will remain the same and is managed separately.

Can I rearrange items for each of my sections?
At this time, you can only rearrange items for the main portion of your shop, not each section.

We are looking forward to sharing this new feature with everyone — we just want to make sure it's the best it can be!

P.S. We closed commenting on the Storque post because the record-breaking number of comments was slowing down the load time on the post! Please continue to give us your feedback in this forum thread.

P.P.S. If you would like to receive breaking, vital Etsy news as it happens — delivered straight to your email inbox — then sign up for Etsy News Alerts emails. Read more about it here. Expect this as an Etsy Alert email in your inbox if you already subscribe to the list.

You can also get an RSS feed of all TechUpdates here.

Tech Update: New Shipping Tool Available

2009-08-28T10:46:00-05:00

Sellers,

We are happy to announce that we completed our beta test of the new shipping regions tool. Sellers will now have the option to use the existing Shipping Profile page or you can use the new Shipping Profile page, which includes the option to ship to a geographic region as well as to an individual country. Sellers can also find the link to the new Shipping Profile on the existing Shipping Profile pages.

For now, we have included just two new regions, but we may add more in the future:

Europe non-EU countries
European Union countries

Here are some answers to frequently asked questions about this feature:

Using regions in your shipping profile is completely optional. You need not change your current shipping profiles, and you can still create "custom shipping profiles" just as you have done in the past. The regions are predefined and cannot be altered.

These regions are not necessarily tied to specific shipping profiles used by postal services or shipping companies such as UPS or DHL. This level of customization is something we'd like to offer in the future, but it is not possible at this time.

We cannot create regions at the province or state level at this time. This means, for example, that we can't offer regions within the U.S. or Canadian provinces or other such groupings.

A country shipping cost will override a regional shipping cost if that county also appears in the region. For example, if there is a country cost listed for France and a regional cost for the European Union (which includes France) the country cost will be the one used. The country cost can be set either higher or lower than the shipping cost for the rest of the region.

The order in which countries are displayed on the View Listing page has been updated. The item the country ships from will be listed first (except in rare cases where the seller does not ship to her own country), and all other countries and regions will be listed alphabetically thereafter. Finally, "Everywhere Else" (if offered) will be displayed last.

The shipping cost will be applied based on the mailing address the buyer enters at Checkout. (This part of the tool remains the same.)

Here's an example of how a hypothetical seller from France could set up her shipping costs:

Ship to France: $5 USD
Ship to Canada: $8 USD
Ship to Europe non-EU countries: $7 USD
Ship to European Union (EU) countries: $6 USD
Ship to United States $8 USD
Ship to Everywhere Else $10 USD

Note: It is OK to have the same price to more than one country or region as in this example.

In this example, buyers who check out and enter France in their shipping address would be charged $5, since the country shipping cost would override the regional European Union (EU) cost, even though France is in the EU. Similarly, buyers from Germany (in EU) would pay $6, buyers from Switzerland (non-EU) would pay $7; buyers from the United States and Canada would pay $8. Buyers from Australia would pay $10, as they would be from "Everywhere Else" in this example.

Using shipping regions is completely optional; as a seller you don't have to do anything differently if you prefer to continue to set shipping costs individually for each country. These changes to shipping are compatible with the shipping profiles you currently use on Etsy.

To start using this new shipping regions tool, you can find a link on both the create a shipping profile page and the edit a shipping profile page under Your Etsy. Remember: If you change your shipping profiles, you need to apply the revised profiles to your listings by going to Your Etsy > Batch Shipping.

We are closing comments on this post so that we can follow your discussion in this Forum thread.

Shipping How-To's | Tech Updates

Tech Update: Checkout Updates and Buyer Conversion

2009-08-27T16:20:00-05:00

UPDATE: In the post below, we described testing improvements to the registration process for first-time Etsy buyers. For the last few weeks, we've been testing in-line registration, which enables first-time buyers to register as a part of Checkout instead of having to leave Checkout to complete registration. We're happy to announce that our tests showed that in-line registration resulted in more first-time Etsy buyers completing Checkout, and we have now rolled in-line registration out to 100% of Etsy's traffic.

Here's to making it painless for shoppers to check out on Etsy! We still have many more changes in mind, so stay tuned as we continue to improve this aspect of the site.

[The following was originally published July 22, 2009.]

As we move into the latter half of 2009, one of Etsy's main projects is to update Checkout in order to make it a smoother, simpler experience for shoppers. Here among Etsy's Product Team, this is part of what we call "improving buyer conversion." Buyer conversion is simply the percentage of buyers who both start and complete Checkout. The higher the conversion rate, the more shoppers are buying from you!

For example, one of the improvements we are working on has to do with first-time buyers on Etsy. Often, first-time buyers have not yet registered for Etsy, and so it's during Checkout that they first encounter the membership requirement. In other words, they are required to both register and check out to complete their first purchase. We know we can make sign-up during Checkout more convenient for shoppers (and therefore good for Etsy sellers).

We will roll out these changes gradually, using an A/B testing framework, which Sara, Etsy's VP of Product, described in her recent post. This A/B testing framework will give us the ability to launch this new functionality to only a small percentage of our users, while a majority of members will still experience the existing functionality. Therefore we can compare the two and quantify the effectiveness of the new process. Once we optimize the best way of flowing through the process, we will roll out these improvements to all of Etsy's traffic.

Looking to the future, we have additional improvements for conversion that we will test and implement between now and October 2009. If you have suggestions on how we can improve conversion for buyers on Etsy, please visit this associated Forum thread.

Tech Update: Caching and Site Speed on Etsy

2009-08-10T15:05:00-05:00

In recent weeks, Etsy has been experiencing record site traffic, and we are grateful to the buyers and sellers who are visiting Etsy now more than ever, even in summer months. In fact, the past three weeks have been the three biggest traffic weeks in Etsy's history. With the surge in traffic, the demand on our systems has grown, and we have had to make adjustments to deal with the increasing demand. One of the methods we have used is known as "caching." In a nutshell, "caching" refers to the practice of saving a copy of the original source of information in a place that is faster to access than the original source of information. When lots of users visit the site, the speed of access is important, but since a "cache" is a copy, the copy can be slightly out of sync with the original information. In those cases, there can be a "lag" when the information is accessed from the cached location.

Many of you have experienced this in the past two weeks during our high-traffic period, as you may have noticed item listing edits appeared to lag in updating. In all cases, the price of an item has always been reflected accurately when a buyer places it in a cart. After further tuning of our systems to deal with the recent surge in traffic, I think we overcompensated with our caching approach on listing pages, and I have asked the Engineering Team to change our caching strategy back to the way it worked previously. In practical terms, this means that sellers' edits to item listing pages should show much more quickly. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

Caching can be a complex subject. You may be familiar with the term "caching" from your use of a web browser like Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer or Opera. With this type of caching, your web browser pulls data (usually images) from remote systems on the Internet and saves a copy of (or "caches") that data on your computer to make access to the information faster. In that scenario, instead of going repeatedly to a far away server to fetch an image, your computer saves a copy of the image on your hard drive to make the web page load faster. As web sites have grown rapidly, computer systems that power web sites like Etsy have developed caching practices of their own to speed delivery of web pages. When a site like Etsy is slow, fewer buyers come to the site, and shopping is more difficult and frustrating.

There are different caches (or copies) of information that live in different systems inside a large web operation. At Etsy, we use Solr (open source search software) to provide the fastest search experience for users. Our use of Solr resulted in immediate increases in search speed and volume (see the post here), making it easier for buyers to find and purchase items on Etsy. To achieve that level of speed, Solr essentially acts as a high-speed cache, or copy, of the original listing data. As new listings are created on Etsy, they enter a queue that updates the items in the site search cache (or copy) in a matter of minutes in most cases, keeping the copy synchronized as closely as possible. Visitors to Etsy are rewarded with a fast search experience. Compared to a year ago, Etsy's search is roughly 10 times faster while handling twice the volume of listings.

We also use a number of other caching mechanisms to keep the web site fast and responsive as our traffic grows. We have always used caching as a means to increase the speed of the site with the ultimate goal of making it easier for sellers to manage their shops and for buyers to find and purchase products in those shops. Our goal is to always provide the freshest information possible to our buyers and sellers as they use Etsy. As we continue to grow, we may have to make trade-offs to keep the site fast and speedy for buyers and sellers, but we will do our best in the future to minimize any lags you may experience and do a better job of explaining up front any changes that might affect the user experience. In trying to provide greater stability on the site, we ultimately turned one of our system tuning knobs too far in one direction, and I apologize for the confusion it caused.

Please see this Forum thread for discussion.

Tech Update: Unscheduled Forums Maintenance 7/24/09

2009-07-23T12:00:00-05:00

On Friday, July 24, 2009 from 12 a.m. - 2 a.m. ET we will be doing unscheduled maintenance on Etsy's Forums. (Click here to translate this time on a world clock.) During this time period, all functions on the site will be available, with the exception of the Forums. For updates during the maintenance window, please see http://fix.etsy.com.

We have published the scheduled site maintenance times for the rest of 2009 here.

P.S. If you want to get the breaking, vital Etsy news as it happens — delivered straight to your email inbox, then sign up for Etsy News Alerts emails. Read more about it here. Expect this as an Etsy Alert email in your inbox if you already subscribe to the list.

You can also get an RSS feed of all TechUpdates here.

Tech Update: Unscheduled Site Maintenance 7/16/09

2009-07-15T19:00:00-05:00

Heads up! On Thursday, July 16, 2009 from 6 a.m. to 6:20 a.m. ET we will be doing unscheduled maintenance on Etsy's systems. (Click here to translate this time on a world clock.) During this time period, all functions on the site will be unavailable, and all Etsy users will be directed to a page noting that the site is undergoing maintenance. For updates during the maintenance window, please see http://fix.etsy.com.

We apologize for the inconvenience, but it's a sign of good things to come! Our engineers are preparing the site for new features currently being tested.

Tech Updates: Related Searches

2009-07-10T15:00:00-05:00

Now when you perform a search on Etsy, you will often see links for recent popular related searches above your results. You can try it out now with a search for "handbag":

These related searches are actual searches recently performed by Etsy shoppers. They are specific to Handmade, Vintage and Supplies — you will receive different related searches in a search for "handbag" under Handmade than in a search for "handbag" under Vintage, for example. Related searches are also available for popular searches on category-specific search results.

The related search links for a given search query are selected at random from a pool of recent popular related searches, and they change upon refresh or as you page through search results. They are designed to help shoppers narrow their search results with more specific searches, and they also serve as a suggestion tool providing ideas for searches.

Tip: Sellers can get ideas for item tags from relevant related searches, as they represent actual recent searches from Etsy shoppers. It's amazing to see the things people search for on Etsy!

More improvements are in the works for Etsy's Search, with much of our focus now on improving Etsy's category structure and introducing category-specific search refinements for shoppers. Please keep the detailed feedback coming and stay tuned. We'll close comments here so we can follow discussion in this Forum thread.

Talking Product: Etsy Site Feature Priorities for 2009

2009-07-01T19:00:00-05:00

Hi friends,

Following up on our recent Talking Shop podcast, I want to provide a few operational updates from the Etsy Product Team. We are excited to summarize what we’ve accomplished since my last Talking Product update and to provide a glimpse into the priorities for the second half of the year.

So, what have we accomplished in the last few months?

Search
As I noted in my last update, Search is our top priority for 2009. We made enhancements to Search designed to improve the Etsy shopping experience:

We simplified the Search drop down menu and launched an Advanced Search option.
We gave shoppers new options to sort search results by Most Relevant and filter by "ship to country."

Checkout
We’ve been working to make clarifications and improvements to the Etsy checkout process, and we launched several updates in the past few months to make it easier for shoppers to purchase on Etsy:

We made improvements to the Etsy checkout process.
We added the suffix “USD” across the site to notify users that our prices are listed in US dollars.

Seller Tools
We launched beta versions of two new features frequently requested by sellers: a new shipping tool which includes regional shipping options for Europe and the ability to rearrange items in your shop. We’re making a few updates to these features based on feedback we received during testing, and we will be rolling these new features out to everyone in July.

Payments
We provided sellers with the ability to pay their Etsy bill with PayPal. This was a highly requested feature for many sellers, and we hope many of you have opted in to use this new service.

Showcase
We gave Etsy Category pages a fresh new look, making Category Showcases more prominent. We also launched Subcategory Showcases for Jewelry and Art.

Sharing
We made it easier to share your Favorites and share Etsy with your friends on Facebook.

Developer Community
Lastly, we also launched the Etsy Developer Community and API and have seen some exciting applications enabled by it. Our Handmade Code series on Etsy’s blog, The Storque, has featured a number of them, including Craft Cult, Etsy Hacks, ColorMatch by 26OliveStreet and the “Etsy Addict” iPhone application.

What’s in store for the remainder of 2009?

Our top focus continues to be on helping shoppers find and discover unique items and making it easier for them to check out. Here are some further details on our top priorities going into the second half of the year:

Search and Browsing
Search remains our top priority. One important area of focus will be improving the category structure and introducing category-specific search refinements for shoppers.

As part of the improvements to our category structure, you will see in the coming months updates to certain categories. We’ve been working closely with sellers in specific categories to understand the best taxonomy for these areas, and we look forward to launching these updates.

Adding category-specific search refinements means, for example, if a buyer is searching or browsing for a sweater, we want to make it easier for them to refine their choices by options like size and color. In order to do this we will need to enhance the item listing process and update our category taxonomy. We think these enhancements will provide much needed improvements to finding, discovering and buying on Etsy.

These are very large undertakings as listing, tagging, searching and browsing are at the core of our site experience. Improvements will occur over time, and we will do our best to communicate major changes.

Checkout
As mentioned in my last update, we are working on “inline registration” (in other words, letting first-time buyers check out on Etsy without forcing them to confirm their registration first). The goal is to make it easier for first-time buyers to check out on Etsy. This will be launching before the end of the summer using a new A/B testing framework. This A/B test will give us the ability to launch this new functionality to only a small percentage of our users, while a majority of members will still experience the existing functionality. This allows us to monitor performance and feedback before launching to everyone. We’ll provide further details as we get closer to launch.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
We are committed to implementing and sharing SEO best practices with our community. To that end, in addition to our own ongoing efforts, we are hiring SEO specialists to work with us on a comprehensive strategy as well as implementation plan. We're working to formalize an agreement with these specialists and will be sharing additional details in the coming weeks.

Community
We will be launching in the next couple months a redesign of the Community main page. The goal of this redesign is to provide better access to information to the community about important news, events and activities occurring on Etsy.

Help
Improving customer support is top of mind for us at Etsy. We will be updating our internal systems and processes in the coming months to provide better support to our members. This includes updating our Help pages to make it easier for members to find information more quickly.

There’s more ahead so please stay tuned. I’ll continue to provide regular quarterly updates on our progress as well as upcoming projects. As always, your feedback is important, so I look forward to a continued dialogue around our priorities. Please post your comments below.

Thanks,

Sara, a.k.a saralouhicks

Talking Shop Posts | Tech Updates

Tech Updates: Share Your Favorites

2009-07-01T18:30:00-05:00

Today we rolled out a number of improvements to Etsy's popular Favorites feature. These enhancements are designed to make Etsy Favorites more usable, visible and sharable.

Use 'em

Sold items can now be added to your Favorites. Sometimes you just aren’t quick enough, and an item you want is sold out by the time you see it. You can still add it to your Favorites. Views and hearts now continue to accumulate on items even after they’ve been sold.
Tip: Convo the seller to see if they can make another item for you or if they're planning to list another.

No more grey boxes to delete. Many Etsy community members have complained in the past about the clutter of anonymous grey items in their Favorites with the text “Listing expired or removed.” This would occur when an item expired, was being edited, or belonged to a shop in Vacation Mode. These grey boxes are no more. Here’s what happens now:

When an item you’ve hearted expires, it will be removed from your Favorites.
When an item you’ve hearted is being edited by the seller, it will not appear in your Favorites while the editing is in progress. When the editing is complete, the item will return to the spot you had it in your Favorites.
When an item you’ve hearted goes into Vacation Mode, it will remain in your Favorites — you will just be unable to purchase the item until the seller returns from vacation.

See 'em

A “heart counter” has been added to item pages. You can now see the number of hearts for any item, active or sold, along with views in the new “stats” section on the lower right of item pages.
Tip: If an item gets blogged about and then sells, it can still show off its street cred with more and more hearts and views.

Show off your Favorites on your Etsy Profile. You now have the option to display the last six items you added to your Favorites on your Etsy Profile page! These items will be displayed below the "Favorite Materials" section of your Profile. To turn this feature on, sign in to Etsy and proceed to Your Etsy > Public Profile. Check the checkbox at the bottom of the page next to “Favorite Items” and click "Save Changes" to start showing the world the cool stuff you find!

Share 'em

Don’t keep your Favorites to yourself! (Unless you want to.) Now when you sign in to Etsy and proceed to Your Etsy > Favorites, you will see a link for a new Share widget on the upper right. Pop this open for options to share your list of Favorites with your friends or with the world. With this widget you can easily share your collection of Favorites on Twitter or Facebook, embed them on your blog, or copy and paste the web address for your public Favorites page.
Happy hearting!

Tech Updates: Facebook Connect

2009-07-01T17:42:00-05:00

Today we made it easier to share your Etsy activity with your friends on Facebook, a social networking site many Etsians use.

When you sign in to Etsy, you will see a link at the top of the page (next to "Conversations") for "Facebook Connect." Click that link to activate an overlay that you can use to establish a connection with Facebook.

Once you're connected with Facebook, you will see your Facebook Profile Picture at the top of every page on Etsy.

What can I do while I'm connected with Facebook on Etsy?

You can share your Etsy activity with your friends! When you list an item or heart an item (add an item to your Etsy Favorites) while connected with Facebook, you will see an option to share that action on Facebook in the form of a story published to your Facebook News Feed. Click the "Post this item to Facebook" link to activate a pop-up from Facebook with a preview of your story before you publish:

These links to share your activity on Facebook will only be visible while you're connected with Facebook, and all posts from Etsy to Facebook are made explicitly by you. You can disconnect with Facebook at any time via the "Facebook" link at the top of the page. If you're not interested in connecting with Facebook from Etsy, you can remove the Facebook option by clicking the "don't show again" link on the Facebook Connect overlay.

We hope you enjoy this additional option to share the Etsy experience with your friends!

FAQs

What is Facebook Connect?
Facebook Connect allows you to bring your Facebook account into Etsy, so you can share what you're doing on Etsy with your friends on Facebook. You have complete control over what is shared.

How do I connect with Facebook on Etsy?
After signing in to Etsy, you will see a link for Facebook Connect at the top of the page, next to "Conversations." Click this link and then click "Connect with Facebook" to establish a connection to Facebook.

What can I do while I'm connected to Facebook on Etsy?
You can share select actions you take on Etsy with your friends on Facebook. These actions currently include adding an item to your Etsy Favorites ("hearting" an item) and listing an item on Etsy.

After hearting an item or listing an item, you will see an option to post the item to Facebook. Clicking that link activates a pop-up from Facebook where you can preview and annotate your post before publishing the item to your Facebook profile and Facebook friends' home pages.

Can I post items I've renewed or relisted on Facebook?
At this time Facebook Connect on Etsy allows you to post newly listed items on Facebook but not renewed or relisted items.

Does Etsy automatically post to my Facebook profile?
No. All posts to your Facebook Profile and News Feed from Etsy are made explicitly by you.

How do I disconnect from Facebook?
You will know when you are connected to Facebook on Etsy because your Facebook Profile Picture will appear at the top of all Etsy pages next to a "Facebook" link. Click this link and then click "Log out of Facebook" to terminate your connection with Facebook. This will log you out of Facebook completely.

I have no interest in connecting with Facebook. Can I remove the Facebook Connect link so I don't have to see it when I sign in to Etsy?
Yes. To remove the Facebook Connect link, click it to activate the overlay and then click "don't show again." The Facebook Connect option will no longer appear when you sign in to Etsy.

If you change your mind, you can re-enable the Facebook Connect option by going to Your Etsy > Account Info. On the Account Info page, you will find a "Settings" section where you can enable or disable Facebook Connect.

I signed in to Etsy and I was already connected with Facebook. Why?
This occurs when you sign in to Etsy while being logged into Facebook, if you've connected with Facebook through Etsy before.

I use the Etsy Shop application on Facebook. Is Facebook Connect the same thing?
Facebook Connect is separate from the Etsy Shop application. You can still use the Etsy Shop Facebook application and other Etsy Facebook applications. Facebook Connect allows you to share actions you take on Etsy, such as the items you list or add to your Favorites, with your friends on Facebook.

I have a Business/Fan Page for my Etsy shop on Facebook. Can I use Facebook Connect to publish my Etsy activity on my Page?
Not at this time. Facebook Connect on Etsy allows you to publish Etsy activity on your Facebook Profile, but not your Pages (sometimes called Fan Pages or Business Pages). We plan to enable this functionality in the future.

We're closing comments here since we want to follow your discussion in this Forum thread.

How-Tuesday: Nightlife Necklace with Diana Eng

2009-06-30T14:30:00-05:00

Welcome to another How-Tuesday. This week's project, "NightLife Necklace," is a fun LED jewelry project from our friend Diana Eng's new book, Fashion Geek. Etsy members receive 10% off their purchase from North Light Books. (Use promotional code: ETSY10 at checkout.)

Diana has been on the cover of ID magazine (check out the inflatable dress!), a contestant on Project Runway, a winner of Yahoo! Hackday, and is a founding member of NYC Resistor.

How did you get your start as a designer?
My grandmother taught me to sew when I was eight. I started sewing little skirts and stuffed animals for myself, and one of my favorite make-believe games was dress shop.

What got you into working with technology as a medium?
I always liked math, science, and computer programming. In fact, in grade school I was a big science fair nerd. One day I just thought it would be neat to combine my two interests, technology and fashion.

Other than your book, can you name some references for getting started learning how to use and work with electronics?
For electronics I constantly reference Forrest Mims' Getting Started in Electronics book. It really taught me a lot about how electronics work.

There are some great tutorials on Instructables for using conductive thread.

Can you name any designers that you find really inspiring that work with both fashion/design and technology/geekery?
Issey Miyake was the designer I first learned of who experimented with new technology and fashion. Though he never dabbled in electronics, he did work with computer programmers for his APOC project. Hussein Chalayan currently does runway fashion with electronics and collaborates with geeky folk such as Moritz Waldemeyer.

What else inspires you to design the types of things that you typically design?
I am fascinated by science and always find myself looking into things out of curiosity (such as biomimetics or ferrofluid). These curiosities inspire my designs.

Outside of the latest "technology" in fabrics and materials that outdoor apparel companies boast about using, does experimental technology/electronics have a place in high fashion or the future of clothing design?
Yes, I think that experimental tech/electronics have a place in creating different aesthetic effects. There are certainly new looks that can only be created with electronics. A lot of designers are looking to bring new looks to customers through technology. For example, Prada created a special oil slick looking two toned leather through new technology a few seasons back. Versace reinvented Versus as an R&D department.

Do you think of fashion as an art form? Do you think of technology as an artform?
I think that couture fashion is an art form. The materials used to create couture are so precious and the techniques are so difficult that couture pieces are one of a kind works of art.

I think that technology is a new medium for creating art. Artists will still need to know how to draw or sculpt, but they will be using technology as the new medium to create their art. Maybe one day there will be fashion created with technology that is so expensive and so difficult to make that only a one of a kind peice can be created.

And now for Diana's How-Tuesday project! The Nightlife Necklace uses LEDs as luminescent gemstones to create a necklace that glimmers at night. Perhaps this is something that people will think about in future tech couture.

Download the PDF of this project from Diana's book. (This file may take a while to load.)

Materials Needed:

Tools for the Job:

1-6 small LED's (size 3mm or T1)
Photoresistor
6 pony beads to fit LED's
1 large bead to fit photoresistor
Chain, approximately 14" or 36cm in length
4 jump rings
4 ribbon crimp ends
Lobster claw clasp
Conductive thread
Coin cell battery (CR2032)
Battery holder (BS7)
Electrical solder
1/2 yard x 1" or 46cm x 3cm ribbon

1 set of alligator clip jumper wires
Fine-grit sandpaper
Needle-nose pliers
Wire cutter
Soldering iron
Craft and fabric glue
Rotary tool (optional)
Domed abrasive point or drill bit (optional)
Sewing needle
Scissors

Note: Use six or fewer LEDs in your design. The battery is strong enough to power six LEDs, but more than six lights will result in lights that won’t be very bright.

Step 1: Test Fit	Step 2: Sand Beads
Test to make sure each LED will fit snugly in a pony bead. I used white LEDs and white beads, but feel free to add color and mix it up.	Use fine-grit sandpaper to sand the outside edges of the pony beads and the large bead to create a matte finish.

Step 3: Insert Photoresistor

Insert the photoresistor into the large bead. If necessary, use the rotary tool and a drill bit or domed abrasive point to widen the opening so the photoresistor will fit. Use a wire cutter to trim ½" (1cm) off 1 of the leads on the photoresistor. Use needle-nose pliers to create a loop on the end of
this lead.

Step 4: Create, Design, and Add LED's

Create a design with the pony beads. Insert an LED into each pony bead. Use a wire cutter to cut ½" (1cm) off the short lead of 1 of the LEDs. (For this design, I chose the middle LED on the left, as shown in the photo at left.) Use needle-nose pliers to then create a loop in this shortened lead.

Step 5: Solder LED Leads and Photoresistor

Bend all of the LED leads so that each short lead is touching another short lead and each long lead is touching at least one other long lead. (Make sure no short lead is touching a long lead) Trim the leads with wire cutters if needed. Use a soldering iron to solder the leads where they touch. Test each connection after you solder it. Add the photoresistor bead and solder the long photoresistor lead to the long lead of the closest LED.

Step 6: Attatch Chain and Add Conductive Thread

Cut 2 lengths of chain to the desired length (I cut mine to 7" [18cm] each) using wire cutters. Cut 2 lengths of conductive thread, each of which is double the length from the LEDs to the chain’s clasp (in this case about 14" [36cm] each). Tie a knot with 1 length of conductive thread onto the LED lead loop you created in step 4. Secure the knot with a dab of fabric glue, and cut the excess short thread. Test the connection. Attach 1 jump ring to the chain and then to the loop. Thread a sewing needle with the long strand of tied conductive thread, and use the needle to feed the conductive thread through each of the chain’s links. Repeat with the second length of conductive thread (threading it through the second chain) and the photoresistor loop you created in step 3.

Step 7: Fold Ribbon

Use scissors to cut a length of ribbon that when attached to the ends of the necklace will be long enough for you to slide the necklace over your head (I cut mine to 18" [46cm]). Trim the ends at a 45-degree angle to prevent the ribbon from fraying. At 3" (8cm) from 1 end, fold in the sides of the ribbon toward the middle. Fold the ribbon on itself and attach a ribbon crimp end. Make sure a bit of the fold sticks out at the edges of the crimp; you will use this later. Repeat at the other end of the ribbon.

Step 8: Attatch Ribbon

Use needle-nose pliers to open 2 jump rings and insert 1 in the loop of each ribbon crimp end. Attach 1 end of each chain onto each jump ring. Insert the needle with the thread from the photoresistor through the fold of ribbon that sticks out of the edge of the ribbon crimp end on that side of the necklace.

Step 9: Attatch Battery Holder

Continuing with the thread from the photoresistor, sew the conductive thread around the positive contact of the battery holder (BS7), being careful to not sew on the extra portion of ribbon that folds over (this portion will cover the battery holder). Repeat the sewing instructions in step 8 with the conductive thread from the LED loop. Sew the conductive thread from the LED loop across the edge of the ribbon to the battery holder. Use this thread to sew around the negative contact of the battery holder. Knot the thread and cut the excess. Attach a lobster claw clasp to the jump ring on one of the crimps.

To wear the necklace, place the ribbon over your head, as shown on page 44, or for a more elegant look, clasp the chains together and let the ribbon loop in the back.

Note: Put the battery in the holder to turn the necklace on; take the battery out to turn the necklace off.

More crafty project downloads can be found in our How-Tuesday series on the Etsy blog! And did you know that you can buy Supplies on Etsy?

Tech Update: New Shipping Tool Now Beta Testing

2009-06-03T15:15:00-05:00

Sellers,

As many of you have expressed through the Forums, in surveys and at meet-ups, there’s a big demand for regional shipping options. We are happy to announce that we are currently conducting a closed beta test of new shipping regions. This tool will give sellers the ability to set shipping costs for a predefined region, thus alleviating the problem of setting the same shipping costs across many countries.

Below is a list of the regions we are testing. (We may add additional regions at a later date.)

Africa
Central America
European Union (EU) countries
Europe non-EU countries
South America

When using the tool, beta testers can see which countries are included within these regions.

Below is a preview screenshot of the new Your Etsy > Shipping Options page with Shipping Regions:

As you browse items on Etsy, you might notice that our beta testers' listings may display shipping costs using the new regions. Below is an example of shipping information on a listing that uses Shipping Regions:

If you see listings that look like this: don't be alarmed! This is a sign of good things to come. We do not anticipate problems with transactions involving Shipping Regions, but please communicate with the seller (who is likely a beta tester) and contact Etsy's Support Team if you experience any transaction issues related to Shipping Regions. Thanks for being patient while we work out the kinks during this testing period.

Shipping How-To's | Tech Updates