PayPal Access appears to be similar to tools from companies like Google and Facebook but tailored specifically for e-commerce sites.

EBay also announced that it has integrated Facebook's Open Graph into its Magento and GSI commerce commerce software so that developers can create applications that tap into Facebook features.

Brian Walker, a Forrester Research analyst, said that X.commerce gives eBay an opportunity to extend its platforms by letting partners augment the core Magento, PayPal, eBay, and GSI products, and by allowing developers to leverage those platforms to build other customer applications and extend the commerce capability beyond online commerce.

X.commerce should appeal to merchants and developers as well. "I expect there will be a lot of activity where agencies, development shops, integrators, partners, and merchants leverage X.commerce in their business, though it is not yet clear how the offering will appear to larger companies eBay no doubt also wants to attract," Walker said via e-mail.