Launching Pcific Safeguard: From the Development Point of View

Pcific Safeguard is a brand-new Chrome extension that we have just released, available to UK users for now. It helps you check another person’s listing before buying, or review your own listing from a buyer’s point of view. Pcific Safeguard is designed to spot the little details, identify potential problems, and explain technical jargon in a way that anyone can understand.

The key thing about Pcific Safeguard is how it was designed. We wanted to design it for everyone, but how do you actually do that? You have to think from another person’s perspective. That sounds easy, but a lot of software nowadays, especially SaaS software, which is software you access as an online service, is designed around what management or somebody else thinks the user wants. We decided early in development that we wanted to create something we would genuinely use ourselves. That is where Pcific Safeguard came from.

When we first sketched it out, the main challenge was working out how to make an extension so easy to use that people of any age could understand it without pulling their hair out. We created prototypes and early designs, but they did not reach our goal because they all introduced friction. With the first prototype, you had to open the extension, press “Review with Pcific,” and then read the review inside the extension’s tiny user interface. It was a good product with a bad user experience. You would have to pin it to a toolbar that was probably already full of extensions, click it, and then start the review. It might not sound like much, but every extra step matters when someone is about to buy something.

That led us to the idea of rendering Pcific Safeguard directly inside eBay. This was an architectural challenge, meaning it was difficult to make the different parts of the extension work reliably with eBay’s website, because we had never built anything like it before. There were many failed attempts, but once we got it working, we placed the “Review with Pcific” button where people would naturally look, just above the “Add to basket” and “Buy it now” buttons. That is the part of the page people normally focus on when they are deciding whether to buy something.

The next challenge was the visual design. If we made it look too much like eBay, people might mistake it for something created by eBay. If we made it look too different, they might ignore it or think it was a scam. We eventually developed a glass-style design with smooth animations. We wanted the software to feel alive. The user might not consciously notice every detail, but they should feel as though the extension is working alongside them.

When you press “Review with Pcific,” you first see a rotating spinner while the review is being prepared. Once it finishes, Pcific Safeguard gives you a score and a full verdict explaining what the item is good for, what it might not be suitable for, and what you should watch out for. It also gives you three questions that you can ask the seller. Even if you do not have time to read the entire review, you can copy those questions and send them directly to the seller to get the information you need.

We wanted people to be able to recognise that the review came from Pcific, so we carried the same visual style from the review button into the review panel itself. The first version looked horrible because we had effectively wrapped the entire panel in the button’s design. There were contrast problems and plenty of other mistakes, but we kept working on it until we reached something we were happy with.

We also wanted people to understand the general result without having to read the entire review. A good listing uses green, a listing that requires some caution uses an amber-orange colour, and a potentially bad listing uses red. Those colours are carried throughout the experience, including the review button, its shadow, the Scratch Pad, and the button used to copy the seller questions. This creates a consistent atmosphere around the review and helps communicate the result before you have read every detail.

Another question that came up during development was: what happens when you are moving between different listings? You do not want to read every review again just to remember what you thought about each item. That is why we designed the Scratch Pad. The Scratch Pad lets you write down your own notes about a specific listing, and those notes remain saved to that listing. If you have five tabs open with five different devices, you can move between them and keep track of your thoughts about every single one.

Once we had designed the experience, we had to make sure Pcific Safeguard was more than another AI wrapper with a nice interface. An AI wrapper is a product that places a simple design around an existing artificial intelligence service without adding much of its own intelligence or value. We spent a great deal of time working on how our AI reviews listings, particularly how it explains technical language. Not everybody knows what a central processing unit, or CPU, is, so Pcific Safeguard explains what it does and why it matters to the computer someone is considering buying. We apply the same approach to many other technical parts.

During testing, we found that general AI instructions were not enough. When we reviewed Intel MacBooks from around 2018 or 2019, the AI was sometimes far too positive about them. It did not give enough weight to problems such as the butterfly keyboard or the availability of newer Apple Silicon alternatives. We therefore created specialized instructions for Intel MacBooks. The AI is told to flag butterfly keyboards, recognise the relevant model numbers, and encourage the buyer to compare an Intel Mac with Apple Silicon alternatives. If the device is available for a genuinely good price, Pcific Safeguard can still explain that it may be worth considering if the buyer understands and accepts the compromises.

We discovered a similar problem with gaming PCs. Some eBay listings advertise an old sixth-generation Intel i7 processor in a way that makes the computer sound much more powerful than it really is. We do not expect every buyer to understand processor generations. Someone might see “i7” or “i9” and reasonably assume that it must be powerful. In our early testing, the AI could also be distracted by positive seller feedback or a clean-looking listing and fail to question the age of the actual components.

To address this, we gave the AI access to web search and the Pcific database, along with specialized instructions for reviewing the complete listing critically. Our internal database contains information about devices and components, which allows the extension to find relevant information much faster than relying entirely on web searches. The AI is instructed to consider the whole listing instead of making its decision from one positive detail. When we tested the gaming PC listing again, it correctly identified that the i7 was a sixth-generation model and explained what that meant for the buyer.

Once the buyer checker was working, we looked at what Pcific Safeguard could do for sellers. Sellers can review their own listings through the eyes of a buyer. Instead of simply describing the listing, the extension looks for questions buyers might ask, information that needs clarification, and important details that could be missing. This helps sellers create clearer listings while giving buyers more confidence in what they are considering.

We then integrated IMEI verification. An IMEI is the unique identification number assigned to a mobile device. A seller can verify a phone through Pcific and receive the result within the same workflow. We have tried to make the process as straightforward as possible, including options that allow people to use another device or their camera to capture the required information. Camera processing happens locally on the user’s device, meaning Pcific does not receive the live camera footage. Once the verification provider returns the result, Pcific displays it to the seller.

After completing the verification, the seller receives a PCF code and a template that can be copied into their eBay listing. When a buyer with Pcific Safeguard visits that listing, the extension can recognise the PCF code and check the device against the information held in our database. The AI can then use that verification as additional context when reviewing the listing. It gives the buyer more useful information while allowing the seller to show that they have taken an extra step to verify the device.

We also had to decide how usage limits would work. AI checks are not free for us to run and can sometimes be quite expensive, so we introduced Pcific Plus for people who need to use Pcific Safeguard more frequently. The problem with subscriptions is that nearly everything has one nowadays, so we wanted ours to provide genuine value instead of placing the best experience behind a payment.

Logged-out users receive three buyer checks and three seller-side listing checks. Logged-in users receive six of each. If you need more, Pcific Plus provides 150 buyer checks and 150 seller checks for £4.99 per month. Plus members also receive beta access, meaning early access to new versions of our tools before their wider release, and we are planning to add more tools to the suite over time.

We never wanted Pcific Safeguard to become pay-to-play. Whether you are logged out, using a free account, or paying for Pcific Plus, every review uses the same technology and provides the same quality. Paying users receive more checks, not a better or more trustworthy answer. We do not want to weaken someone’s experience simply because they have not paid or signed up. Our aim is still to help people feel safer when buying and selling on other marketplaces.

The final challenge was making the extension itself feel like a finished Pcific product. It now adapts to light and dark mode, and animations are used throughout the experience to make everything feel smooth and responsive. We believe attention to detail matters. If we create a good product, use it heavily ourselves, and keep listening to the people testing it, then we can build something that genuinely helps buyers and sellers.

Pcific Safeguard is now available on Chrome for UK users, and we hope it makes checking and creating listings a little easier. If you are one of the first 30 people reading this, use the code SFLAUNCH to claim one month of Pcific Plus. Once all 30 claims have been used, the code will no longer be available.

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