NEW YORK - Online auction giant eBay apologized Sunday for a technical glitch that caused a one-day crash of its website search functions it attributed to a surge in holiday shoppers.

"The unanticipated technical issue resulted from a surge in live listings as sellers ramp up for the holiday season," eBay said on its blog.

"eBay currently has more than 200 million live listings, 33 percent more than at this time a year ago," it said, adding that the technical glitch was "easily fixed" after it was detected late Saturday.

President eBay Marketplace Lorrie Norrington apologized for the inconvenience and told sellers on eBay they would be compensated for their losses.

"Our immediate priority is to resolve this issue. Once that is achieved, rest assured that we will assess the economic impact of this issue and will be compensating sellers appropriately.

"In the meantime, we will be issuing full fee credits for affected listings," she added.

The technical problem came five days before the Thanksgiving holiday, on Thursday, which traditionally marks the start of the Christmas shopping season. The last two Mondays in November are expected to yield high-volume sales for online retailers.