Ebay has literally millions of listings – so how do you most easily find the ones closest to you?

Towards the end of last year Ebay Classifieds announced that they were launching a Mobile Augmented Reality channel Junaio.

The channel will allow users of Ebay classifieds to discover local bargains simply by walking down the street.

The service, which is only currently available in the US, works by allowing users to scan the area around them through the camera in their phone and find listing around them.

“No other technology is better suited than augmented reality to display easy to access, location sensitive information to mobile users, especially on small screens. Hardly any data needs to be entered by users, their position and a single keyword are sufficient to lead them to available classified opportunities within easy reach”, says Peter Meier, CTO of metaio, junaio`s creators. “Location specific classified ads are very useful to our growing user community, and we hope to soon expand this service to other parts of the world.”

All listings in their local area appear above the picture of your camera which, for example, if pointed at a building can include flats for rent in that building or if pointed down a street can include items of furniture, vehicles or even pets that are available for adoption.

In order to help users in big cities, users can narrow down the results by distance or by entering a key word for their search. Users can also view their results in a list view rather than in a map view if they prefer.

The service also allows the seller to include a description of the object, the price, pictures and the sellers contact details.

“eBay Classifieds is leading innovation in local mobile shopping applications,” says Jack Sheu, Head of Marketing for eBay Classifieds. “The addition of augmented reality technology through junaio only enhances the shopping experience helping users find what they want, wherever they are.”

The service can be accessed by downloading the free Junaio app which is available for iPhone and Android devices via their app stores.

More about Augmented Reality in MobiAD News:

• Mobile Augmented Reality: A Market Overview

• Mobile Augmented Reality Builds Deep Consumer Engagement

• IKEA Uses Mobile Augmented Reality To Engage Shoppers’ Imagination