eBay Software Foundation? Auction site buys eBay Software Foundation domains

It appears eBay is making plans to launch their own software foundation.  On September 28, 2011, eBay Inc. registered over half a dozen domain names related to: eBay Software Foundation.

The list of names includes: ebay-softwarefoundation.com, ebay-softwarefoundation.net, ebay-softwarefoundation.org, ebaysf.com, ebaysf.net, ebaysf.org, ebaysoftwarefoundation.com, ebaysoftwarefoundation.net, and ebaysoftwarefoundation.org.

Although nothing has been announced yet so it’s not official, one would imagine that the “eBay Software Foundation” might be a non-profit organization that provides support for the eBay community of open-source software projects, similar to the Apache Software Foundation. 

Less than two weeks ago, eBay Inc. registered six different ‘eBay Insights’ domain names such as eBayInsights.com and eBay-Insights.com,  following the company’s announcement it was building a new division to woo developers and attract merchants called X.commerce.

Here’s a look at the Whois record for eBaySoftwareFoundation.com.

Registrant:
        Domain Administrator
        eBay Inc.
        2145 Hamilton Avenue
         San Jose CA 95125
        US
     
    Domain Name: ebaysoftwarefoundation.com

        Registrar Name: Markmonitor.com
        Registrar Whois: whois.markmonitor.com

    Administrative Contact:
        Domain Administrator
        eBay Inc.
        2145 Hamilton Avenue
         San Jose CA 95125
        US

    Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
        Domain Administrator
        eBay Inc.
        2145 Hamilton Avenue
         San Jose CA 95125
        US

    Created on…………..: 2011-09-28.
    Expires on…………..: 2013-09-28.
    Record last updated on..: 2011-09-28.

At the time of this story going online, none of the domains resolve to a web site.