Online Auctions
Online auctions are very popular and in hindsight were an incredibly profitable marketing idea (wish I had it;). I have friends who are consumed with buying and selling online and one who does it as a very practical part time money making adventure. He got started by cleaning his garage one day, and he had a huge pile of junk he needed to take to the dump. He had the nifty idea to sell what he could through E-bay in order to cut down his dumping fees. Well to make a long story short, he found buyers for every piece of his junk, including a garbage can full of old oily rags and several broken tools (incredible what people will buy online). One caveat to be aware of while buying/selling online is you must be careful about fraudulent sellers, and always use trusted “middle software” (like paypal) to handle financial transactions to protect your accounts.
Have you ever wondered how online auctions work? I work with software databases every day and below is my brief description of what goes on “behind the scenes” of an online auction in the hopes of improving the understanding for less technical users.
On the surface you would think an online auction is similar to a regular auction. Bids are made on a product in competition with other people. At the end of the auction the item goes to the highest bidder.
However, because you are in “cyber space” the process is a little different behind the scenes than the traditional auction. For one, you have to register on the auction site you are using, and it keeps track of items you bid on and sell via its software engine created for this purpose. This software determines the amount you need to bid to become the highest bidder and you can accept this amount, or enter a bid of your own choosing. The computers doing this auction compare your bid against others to determine the winner at the end of the auction.
The software behind the scenes is a relational database that keeps track of all auction items, bids, winners etc... Most auction dBs are made up of three relational tables: 1) the user registration table, which contains all user-related information; 2) the item listings table, which includes the item, description, and lot number; and the 3) transaction table, where each bid record is stored. These tables are linked by related fields and constantly work together to track bids on an item.
As an example: a given bid record will contain the user ID from the user registration table, the lot number from the item listings table, the bid amount, and the date and time stamp. The auction software continuously runs computational comparisons on the bid records to determine the highest bidder. When the auction ends a winner is declared, automated notifications are sent to the buyer and seller, and then the process starts all over again for the next item.
FYI - So that you don't have to constantly watch your auction, many sites employ a piece of software known as a “proxy bidder”, which automatically places bids on your behalf. To use the proxy bidder, you designate the maximum amount you wish to spend on an item. Then, each time a bid is placed that is higher than yours, the proxy bidder kicks into action and places a bid for you. It will only increase your bid amount by as much as is necessary to top the current bid, and will not exceed the maximum amount unless directed by you to do so.
Of course – the best software auctions are powered by Microsoft’s SQL Server Database Engine. Once MS SQL Server 2005 is released in a few Months, auctions powered with this product will be an awesome sight to behold ;)
Have you ever wondered how online auctions work? I work with software databases every day and below is my brief description of what goes on “behind the scenes” of an online auction in the hopes of improving the understanding for less technical users.
On the surface you would think an online auction is similar to a regular auction. Bids are made on a product in competition with other people. At the end of the auction the item goes to the highest bidder.
However, because you are in “cyber space” the process is a little different behind the scenes than the traditional auction. For one, you have to register on the auction site you are using, and it keeps track of items you bid on and sell via its software engine created for this purpose. This software determines the amount you need to bid to become the highest bidder and you can accept this amount, or enter a bid of your own choosing. The computers doing this auction compare your bid against others to determine the winner at the end of the auction.
The software behind the scenes is a relational database that keeps track of all auction items, bids, winners etc... Most auction dBs are made up of three relational tables: 1) the user registration table, which contains all user-related information; 2) the item listings table, which includes the item, description, and lot number; and the 3) transaction table, where each bid record is stored. These tables are linked by related fields and constantly work together to track bids on an item.
As an example: a given bid record will contain the user ID from the user registration table, the lot number from the item listings table, the bid amount, and the date and time stamp. The auction software continuously runs computational comparisons on the bid records to determine the highest bidder. When the auction ends a winner is declared, automated notifications are sent to the buyer and seller, and then the process starts all over again for the next item.
FYI - So that you don't have to constantly watch your auction, many sites employ a piece of software known as a “proxy bidder”, which automatically places bids on your behalf. To use the proxy bidder, you designate the maximum amount you wish to spend on an item. Then, each time a bid is placed that is higher than yours, the proxy bidder kicks into action and places a bid for you. It will only increase your bid amount by as much as is necessary to top the current bid, and will not exceed the maximum amount unless directed by you to do so.
Of course – the best software auctions are powered by Microsoft’s SQL Server Database Engine. Once MS SQL Server 2005 is released in a few Months, auctions powered with this product will be an awesome sight to behold ;)
posted by mkelley at
9:55 PM
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