San Dimas Blog

San Dimas is Big in France, Apparently

I've been very pleased by the positive reaction to San Dimas. We have beta testers from all over the world -- the US leads the way in terms of number of beta testers, no surprise there. However, I was surprised to find out that the number 2 country is... France! This is despite both Germany and the UK having bigger eBay usage. Also, there is no translated version of the interface yet, and we have done zero press about San Dimas in France up until now.

As if it weren't enough to be number 2 in beta testers, French bloggers and media have written up a storm about it. Here are some of the stories:

Nouvelle version d'eBay en préparation

This was the first French article, and was published back in April. After this was published we saw a big spike in beta user registrations from .fr email addresses.

Premiers pas dans le projet San Dimas - AccessOweb, le blog

What appears to be an in-depth review of the San Dimas features. I say "appears to be" because I can't actually be sure, since I was an abject failure in learning French, this despite my four years of French class in junior high and high school.

One of the commenters on the blog post says this:

"Pour en revenir au graphisme, moi je le trouve au contraire très bien foutu : plus classe que du html avec de légers dégradés, et surtout un écran pas surchargé du tout où l'on pourrait se perdre, comme sur la homepage d'ebay. On ne peut pas non plus le constater sur des screenshots mais la navigation est très agréable également. Bref joli test pour une jolie application !"

Which Google translates into this:

"To return from there to graphics, me I find it very well on the contrary foutu: more class that HTML with light ranges, and especially a screen not overloaded of the whole where one could lose oneself, as on the homepage of ebay. One cannot either note it on screenshots but navigation is very pleasant also. In short pretty test for a pretty application!"

Umm... thanks?

Application riche #13 : eBay San Dimas - Fabien Deshayes - Du client riche à un Internet riche

Another in-depth review, I think. My favorite quote is the following:

"La grande force de San Dimas est à mon avis cette navigation complètement nouvelle qui casse les codes d'une page web, ou même d'une application de bureau plus classique : fini les pop-up, les rechargement : ici tout se fait par onglets ou par panneaux, profitant à merveille des technologies Flex et Air pour donner un style à part entière à San Dimas."

Which translates as:

"The great force of San Dimas is in my opinion this navigation completely new which breaks the codes of a Web page, or even of an application of more traditional office: finished the popones, recharging: here all is done by mitres or panels, benefitting wonder from technologies Flex and Air to give a style to whole share in San Dimas."

I'm calling pop-ups "popones" from now on.

Que sont les applications riches (RIA) ? - Partie 3 - Quel futur pour l'Internet riche ?

There is a small San Dimas mention in this article, which is a three part magnum opus on Rich Internet Applications. (3 part blog post! Take that, Twitter!).

What I like about this one is that it refers to San Dimas as "projet San Dimas d'eBay".

Premiers regards Vidéo : Project San Dimas : Ebay en Apollo

I've saved the best for last. Somebody made a 17 minute (17!) video of a San Dimas walkthrough. In French. I have no idea what the narrator is saying. Can anyone help translate this?

Bravo, French San Dimasers, Bravo

Note: This is a cross-post from my personal blog.

-Alan

bugaboosbooks
Not quite France but I can see it from my window, I hope to be one of your first testers from Jersey. Although Jersey is British but not part of the UK (its complicated) we still go through the UK eBay site, is the Beta version worldwide or US focussed for now?
Richard
Jul-03-07 09:37:40 PDT Report this comment
projectsandimas
The beta now works with international sites. We haven't translated the interface to other languages yet, but as long as you can put up with American English you can certainly use it with eBay UK. Sign up at projectsandimas.com if you haven't yet done so, and you'll get an invite soon.

-Alan
Jul-04-07 09:04:14 PDT Report this comment
claireaixenpce
Alan when you want a translation from Franch to English, send me your text ;) (I'm better than Google...)
I'm creating my own business to help Small Business in France to practice eBay and it's a vey good news...

Thanks a lot for this information
Jul-04-07 10:34:39 PDT Report this comment
juliawww
Alan, I think I ate a "popone" in a great little cafe in Paris..or was it in New York? - Julia
Sep-04-07 17:15:09 PDT Report this comment

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