We are pleased to announce that you can now get alerts about your eBay activities on your desktop through your Skype instant messenger. Skype joins the list of instant messenger programs through which eBay members can choose to receive alerts – AOL Instant Messenger, MSN/Live Messenger, and Yahoo! Instant Messenger.

If you have Skype version 3.1 or above (it's free to download from skype.com), you can choose to receive:

• Watched Item reminders – Skype will remind you 15 minutes before a listing you're watching in My eBay is about to end.
• Outbid alerts – if you're outbid on a listing, you can still keep the item from being won by another eBay member, because Skype will instantly let you know that you have been outbid.

You can sign up for alerts on your Skype account from the Notifications Tab under the Preferences section in My eBay. You can also sign up directly from an item page. Just find the text about getting alerts towards the centre of the page, and click the "IM" link.

You only have to sign up for Skype Alerts once. After you sign up to receive a Skype alert for one item, you'll get them for all your Watched Items or for items you've been outbid on. We hope Skype Alerts will make using eBay more convenient for you.

Regards,

The eBay.co.uk Team