Or they can confirm it's deliberate and they don't care!

I'm sure they don't care, just like all the other issues they've created, but considering what we pay them in fees, they should care. Not caring is standard but it's really not a good look.

It's not something that they've done wrong though.  It's been a design decision made by the web site team in order to achieve the aim of distinguishing the image from the background, and possibly also because they think that an all white background can be hard on the eye.  If that's a factor, then a border instead of a grey background isn't going to cut it.  But they're not going to change it, although they could slightly reduce the intensity so that there is still a differential but not so pronounced, but I doubt if they'll even do that.

Perhaps to make water-marks less visible ?

I know when ebid uploads my photos to google it changes what was a white plastic sheet as background into something more like an overcast sky.   From being similar to the page I'm typing on into something more like 'Additional options' below. 

Same reason ebay do it - to ensure a clear indication of where the image is against what is generally going to be a white background. Without it - the image can possibly look lost. It could also be the case that ebay only want to generate one image to save on space - and given google requires one that has a grey overlay - they may as well use the same one.

Not to say it can't be a white background - amazon have white backgrounds on product listing pages (though they do apply a grey filter on list views).

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@jonatjonatjonat wrote:

It could also be the case that ebay only want to generate one image to save on space - and given google requires one that has a grey overlay - they may as well use the same one.

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Just to point out there are not two images - a CSS effect is applied to the existing image. Google actually recommends a white or transparent background on images included in a Shopping feed due to the even darker effect they apply.

I know it's a decision they've made for whatever reason they've dreamt up to justify it. Just like their EDDs, it's been designed to be wrong and is working exactly as designed and intended. Where images are being used to sell things, it's basic common sense not to doctor them but to display them as the seller intended as an accurate (as far as is possible) representation of what's being sold. There are enough potential issues just from monitor display settings without adding more. Be it ebay, google, Amazon or any other site displaying items for sale, to add any coloured overlay onto images of items for sale is just plain stupid. Pictures can be easily delineated by a basic, simple border.

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@moonlight-rhapsody wrote:

In the March Seller News, ebay have announced the option to "Give your listings an instant glow-up with eBay’s background enhancement tool. Transform your product photos with an AI-generated backdrop to give them a professional and uniform look".   Maybe the background enhancement tool will enable a white background to be shown... 🤔

 

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The background enhancement tool won't make any difference. The effect being discussed is an overlay being applied to every product image; it is not a modification of the image itself. Essentially it is as if product images are displayed behind a 95% tinted glass screen; i.e. a screen that allows 95% of light through. It doesn't matter what the seller does to the image nor what eBay's image manipulation tools do to it either - the image will still be placed behind that tinted screen so it will appear 5% darker.

Yeah, I saw that too. Just tried it out. Big downside is that it's only available on the app, not the full desktop site. Listing on the app in general is really poor compared to the desktop so a shame that this one feature is app only.

It does have, among a whole range of AI generated backdrops from marble, wood etc to beaches, forests and cities, an option for plain white. The only problem is that, once you apply it and submit the listing, it changes it to the bloody 5% grey again! 🙄 

That ↑ is not what I call white!