Ebay search engine algorithm changed to be too general: PLEASE COMPLAIN ABOUT IT!

[paytonrules2003]

Some time during the past week or so eBay has changed its search engine algorithm so that anyone searching for a specific item will get hundreds of results instead of the few that actually apply. This has the result of frustrating potential buyers and harming both sellers and buyers.

For example a search for "November 1977 Byte Magazine" yields 326 results and the only way you can pare it down is to use the left side categories. Many buyers will not have the patience or skill to do this and will give up instead of being able to compare price and condition and make a purchase.

Worse, the results are not even close to what someone is looking for: Different years, different titles, some things that are not even magazines!

A week ago you would have simply gotten the 5 relevant results you needed.

Another example: 1958 Pennsylvania Railroad Brochure now yields an incredible 211 results, 99% of which are not from that year.

Why would anyone think this is a better way to do search? Please complain as the only way to get this changed back is to make your voices heard in large numbers!

[red.rock.rarities]

This is killing sales because I imagine it frustrates buyers when they can't find what they're looking for. It's very similar to the awful search algorithm on poshmark...not sure that's a model ebay would want to follow. I made a new ebay account for specialty items and I only notice the faulty search on that account. My old account seems to still have the old search algorithm that works properly. The new search is annoying when trying to do sales comps and "sell similar". I don't want to keep putting quotes around specific words all day...it really slows things down.

[lioneltom]

My Saved Search emails both yesterday and this morning were back to the usual 5-10 rather than 70-80, so somebody at eBay has reversed the Nov 14-15 change in their algorithm that generated the useless emails.  Thank you eBay!

[nilis13]

Thanks for the update. Maybe now I can actually make some sales.

[historical-treasures-rare-coins]

Yay!  Thank you ebay for fixing this monstrosity of an error!

It’s discouraging that the issue existed for over 5-6 weeks, but I am glad that it has been resolved. Hopefully it stays that way. 

[historical-treasures-rare-coins]

The search engine has broken again. 
It literally reverted to it’s old poor search results nonsense today. It was working just fine yesterday. 

Congratulations ebay. It worked for a whole 2 weeks before it started cluttering the search results with irrelevant items again. 

This is NOT difficult. Quit messing with it!

[historical-treasures-rare-coins]

Ebay’s search engine literally broke again a few days ago. 

You can’t make this nonsense up. It will be broken for a week or 2 giving us irrelevant results, and then ebay will magically fix the issue. 

This is embarrassing for a multi-billion dollar company. Quit jacking around with the search algorithm please.   It is affecting our sales and our buyers ability to find our items.  When we sellers and our buyers put in specific search criteria, we expect specific results. Stop giving us useless results!

PLEASE FIX THIS EBAY!

[eburtonlab]

The search engine has broken again.
It literally reverted to it’s old poor search results nonsense today. It was working just fine yesterday.

It will be broken for a week or 2 giving us irrelevant results, and then ebay will magically fix the issue.

What is not working, exactly?

It is possible that the problems are related to the specific keywords you are using, so others searching using different keywords may not be experiencing the same issue.

If the problem is limited to a specific search, use the "feedback" link on the search results page to report it to eBay developers. If it is a more general problem, please provide some details so that others can verify that the search is not working correctly or possibly suggest some ways around the problem.

[grayroad79]

I've been having the same problems last few months.  Interestingly, it's only the US site.   I sometimes use other country sites like Italy and they have not changed.  I called to complain but they were not interested.

[historical-treasures-rare-coins]

grayroad79 is correct.  I just checked the ebay Canada website, and the algorithm works accurately there.  It seems to be only an issue with the ebay US website. 

[historical-treasures-rare-coins]

I can provide numerous examples.

Here is a general one.  I sell lots of ancient coins.  They are all graded by the NGC company.

A search for NGC graded coins of the Roman emperor Gordian would look like this.

Ebay search terms:  NGC Gordian

There are 309 search results.

------------------------------------

If I want to be even more specific and want the highest grade coin, I use these search terms: 

NGC Gordian MS

There are now 422 search results even though it is a more specific request. 

The ebay search algorithm is inverted.  The more specific criteria that I use......the more results that ebay provides.  This is wrong and should be the exact opposite.

However if I use the following search criteria with NGC in quotes:  

"NGC" Gordian MS

I now get 22 results.  This is the accurate search.

The problem is........99% of ebay buyers don't search using quotes.  Therefore most can't actually find the items that they are really looking for.  This is really bad for sales. 

[eburtonlab]

If I want to be even more specific and want the highest grade coin, I use these search terms:

NGC Gordian MS

There are now 422 search results even though it is a more specific request.

The initial search was steered into a specific category due to the keywords used; adding additional keywords turns the specific search into a general search of all categories, which finds more results. By narrowing the search to the same category as before, the results are much more reasonable looking:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/4734/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=ngc+gordian+ms&rt=nc&_oaa=1&_dcat=4734

A different general search that provides similar results:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=ngc+ms+gordian+denarius&_sacat=0

And another general search:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=ngc+ms+gordian+roman&_sacat=0

So even if buyers are not familiar with a particular search technique like using quotes or narrowing to a specific category, there are still many ways to get reasonable results if one search is not providing specific enough results.

[505ridinghigh]

I hate the new algorithm! It’s taking me too long to go through things and will buy elsewhere if this keeps up. Etsy did this and my buying has been almost zilch since.

[nopans0]

Ebay changed their search engine in october of 2018 and it has never been changed back, I went from selling 10 to 15 items a day to maybe 3 or 4 a week, complete joke anymore can't find anything on there.

[rcainal]

I see they still have not fixed this issue.  It is driving me crazy and basically makes this app so annoying that it is unusable.  I will complain in feedback but it doesn’t appear it is helping our case.

[jonnyd99]

There is definitely something wrong with eBay's search.  I've been using it for years, mainly to seek motrocycle parts.  Today when I do a search, it is listing items with NONE of the search terms I gave.  As it stands, it's a total waste of time - and I mean that.  I.e. if it doesn't go back to its old way of working, I won't bother to use it.   Is it trying to emulate Amazon, where searches continually show up loads of rubbish?   Amazon must think its users are stupid, as using it is such a trial of patience, not to mention the contnual listing of items that are out of stock!

eBay: please fix this, it's your bread and butter you're risking!