First, eBay doesn't need saving. As long as they don't choose a UI that is needlessly onerous, they will do fine with or without. It will boil down to whether they are facilitating new users or pissing off old users; a better UI can increase growth, a bad one can reduce it, but when you're in the position they're in, a nice UI is practically a kindness rather than a necessity. Look at Craigslist.
Second, how much of Pinterest is essentially shopping without the purchasing? I'd venture quite a bit of it. I know my wife and sisters-in-law use Pinterest extensively, and they're mostly looking at things they want to buy (and recipes). Both Pinterest and eBay are about tapping into your greed as quickly as possible. It seems like a move in the right direction--and perhaps an implicit acknowledgement that they are Pinterest's principle competitor.
Finally, and this is kind of a technicality, the old layout didn't punish bad photos as much as it should. If you uploaded a shitty little photo, in the list view it looked the same as a nice big photo until you clicked through. Switching to an image-heavy master layout will encourage people to take better photos, and better photos will increase sales.
All things considered, this is the only site I've seen since Pinterest that really should be using this layout.
First, eBay doesn't need saving. As long as they don't choose a UI that is needlessly onerous, they will do fine with or without. It will boil down to whether they are facilitating new users or pissing off old users; a better UI can increase growth, a bad one can reduce it, but when you're in the position they're in, a nice UI is practically a kindness rather than a necessity. Look at Craigslist.
Second, how much of Pinterest is essentially shopping without the purchasing? I'd venture quite a bit of it. I know my wife and sisters-in-law use Pinterest extensively, and they're mostly looking at things they want to buy (and recipes). Both Pinterest and eBay are about tapping into your greed as quickly as possible. It seems like a move in the right direction--and perhaps an implicit acknowledgement that they are Pinterest's principle competitor.
Finally, and this is kind of a technicality, the old layout didn't punish bad photos as much as it should. If you uploaded a shitty little photo, in the list view it looked the same as a nice big photo until you clicked through. Switching to an image-heavy master layout will encourage people to take better photos, and better photos will increase sales.
All things considered, this is the only site I've seen since Pinterest that really should be using this layout.