They burnished out all the character. It completely lacks the quirk, play, and scrappiness of the old logo and projects a much more "neutral" and generic space. Which I suppose is a valid intention reflecting a strategic shift -- it's just a bit dull and bland for my taste.
the funny thing is -- and I'm making an assumption about ebay here based on previous experience I've had in logos and redesign -- is that this was probably the effort of hundreds (if not thousands) of hours of deliberation, re-designs, focus groups and meetings; but the end result looks like it could have been derived in about an hour of work
Yeah, it totally reflects such a process. Maybe the suits wanted something sleek and "frictionless marketplace" or something, but it also just screams process: clearly the lowest common denominator, the least offensive to the largest number of people.
