# What's up with eBay ads now having about a mile of blank space near the bottom?

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-ebay-ads-now-having-about-a-mile-of-blank-space-near-the-bottom/534273
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [March 29, 2010, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-ebay-ads-now-having-about-a-mile-of-blank-space-near-the-bottom/534273 "2010-03-29T23:45:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2010, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-ebay-ads-now-having-about-a-mile-of-blank-space-near-the-bottom/534273/1 "2010-03-29T23:45:39Z")

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What’s up with eBay ads now having about a mile of blank space near the bottom? Do they allot a certain amount of space per listing whether you use it or not?

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### Author: ![Baraqiyal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@Baraqiyal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baraqiyal)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2010, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-ebay-ads-now-having-about-a-mile-of-blank-space-near-the-bottom/534273/2 "2010-03-30T00:09:22Z")

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The blank space may be full of hidden words that the seller hopes will be picked up by the search engine. If this is the case, a select all (ctrl-a) will reveal the hidden words.

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### Author: ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2010, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-ebay-ads-now-having-about-a-mile-of-blank-space-near-the-bottom/534273/3 "2010-03-30T03:23:30Z")

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> [@Baraqiyal](#):
>
> The blank space may be full of hidden words that the seller hopes will be picked up by the search engine. If this is the case, a select all (ctrl-a) will reveal the hidden words.

No, I put up an ad a couple of days ago, and it did it to mine, too. I have no hidden tags. It looks tacky, like I fell asleep with my elbow on the \<enter\> key.