Q1bi. Is there a common thread and a local community sense in action?

Q1b. Visit the three auctions sites at http://ebay.com, http://ebay.co.uk and http://ebay.com.au:
Q1bi. Is there a common thread and a local community sense in action?

Answer:

The local community means a geographically defined community of place or a group of people living close to each other. (Wikipedia, 2009)

Hence, is there a local community sense in action for the web sites http://ebay.com, http://ebay.co.uk and http://ebay.com.au?

The answer is "YES". From the domain names, we know that ".uk" represents United Kingdom and ".au" represents Australia. Although the domain name of the website http://ebay.com does not show the country like uk or au, the domain name http://ebay.com implies that the website serves netizen globally or the website is hosted in the head office which is located in United States. See the screen dump below and you should know that ebay serves netizen geographically.


Diagram 1 - The Screen Dump of ebay.com


Is there a common thread at the websites http://ebay.com, http://ebay.co.uk and http://ebay.com.au?

Oxford (1998, p.959) states that thread is the connection between ideas. So, we can describe common threads as the things like thoughts or designs which are very similar or the same.

From the design of the websites http://ebay.com, http://ebay.co.uk and http://ebay.com.au, we can obviously found that the websites are using the same layout template. For instance, inside the front page of the three websites, there are a search bar on the top, a menu bar below the search bar, categories on the left... etc. Besides, the purposes of the three websites are the same. ebay (2009) announces that eBay is The World's Online Marketplace®, enabling trade on a local, national and international basis. With a diverse and passionate community of individuals and small businesses, eBay offers an online platform where millions of items are traded each day.

Simply put, the three ebay website are serving the same online communities which are to sell or buy things.

Hence, "YES". There is a common thread at the websites http://ebay.com, http://ebay.co.uk and http://ebay.com.au.

Reference:

1. Wikipedia (2009). "Local Community". Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, Retrieved Mar-8th-2009 from URL - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_community
2. Oxford (1998). "OXFORD Intermediate Learner's English-Chinese Dictionary", New Edition. Hong Kong, Oxford University Press (p.959)
3. ebay (2009). "About ebay". ebay - The World's Online Marketplace , Retrieved Mar-14th-2009 from URL - http://pages.ebay.com/aboutebay.html?_trksid=m40