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EBay, in a bid to drum up more business, said Monday it plans to reward top-rated sellers on the online auction site.

The San Jose, California-based company said sellers who receive the highest ratings from buyers will receive 20 percent discounts on the fees they pay to eBay and feature more prominently in search rankings.

EBay said the system would be in place by October, ahead of the Christmas holiday shopping season, and that 150,000 sellers in the United States were expected to immediately qualify.

It said the program would launch in Britain and Germany at the same time as it does in the United States.

Sellers with as few as 100 transactions a year and 3,000 dollars a year in sales can qualify for the program based on buyer feedback, eBay said.

Google announces new operating system based on Google Chrome. the new operating system, aptly named Google Chrome OS, will be an open-source operating system initially geared toward netbooks, Google announced in a blog posting late Tuesday evening.

Google claims the new operating system, which should ship on netbooks starting in the second half of next year, will be “lightweight” and heavily Web-centric.

With Chrome OS, Google plans to follow the same formula it used with its browser: “Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds,” Google stated in its announcement. “The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web.”

Google will also make security a high priority with Chrome. The company notes it will be “going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.” As you might assume, that is a pretty ambitious goal, considering every current operating system sees its fair share of security flaws and patches.  Chrome OS will run on x86-based PCs, as well as machines built around the ARM processor