Obvious search bug

[dvbryant]

Right now if you search on the main web page (not mobile) for "nakamichi sr-3a receiver" there are five results. This is both Chrome and Firefox on Linux.

However, if you omit the "receiver" and just search for "nakamichi sr-3a" then there's only one result.

That obviously makes no sense, right? Adding a search term should limit the results, not increase them.

I would have missed the other items except I just happen to see one in "Similar Sponsored Items".

Thanks!

[eburtonlab · Accepted solution]

The reason the number of results are different is that a search for nakamichi sr-3a is automatically steered into the Vintage Audio & Video category, and only results in that category are shown. Adding receiver to the search keywords does not cause the search to be steered into a particular category, so more results are found in other non-vintage categories.

If you search for nakamichi sr-3a and then specify "All categories" using the menu to the right of the search bar and search again, you will actually find six results (there is a service manual that does not contain the keyword receiver) :

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=nakamichi+sr-3a&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&_oac=1

eBay will often direct a search into a particular category based on the keywords used. Adding additional keywords, or using a search command (such as putting one of the keywords in quotes or using an exclusion term) will typically bypass that automatic category navigation and allow all categories to be searched by default.

Details of this can be seen in this old Help page which can be found on eBay Ireland's site:

https://www.ebay.ie/pages/help/search/search-commands.html

[dvbryant]

Wow, thanks for the quick and concise reply!

Yes, that's exactly what's happening and I just didn't notice the categories to the left. I would argue that in this case steering me to a category is not particularly useful because there are so few results. It would make more sense to narrow results automatically only when searching "all categories" resulted in too many matches.

This actually reminds me of when I was selling (quite a while back) and sometimes an item would fit in multiple categories and I had to choose just one or, if I remember correctly, pay extra for multiple categories. Not sure how things are now, but it seems like most sellers don't think their Nakamichi SR-3A is quite "vintage" yet...  😀

Thanks again!

[greg5000]

Yes, I confirmed the same and it shows how easily Sellers can miss out on sales, and Buyers can miss out on opportunities to purchase.

Hopefully, it's an opportunity for eBay to improve the platform and make the search tool work as most would expect.

[greg5000]

I've been on eBay a long time and wasn't aware that eBay was steering customers to specific categories, but I did confirm what you said.

When I entered the search, both times "All Categories" was the default selection.  It would be nice to know that I'm getting a search that I can see, vs. being steered into one I didn't ask for (and that provides less, not more results).

[eburtonlab]

You are very welcome.

I agree that the automatic category navigation can cause problems for buyers; when searching it is a good idea to keep an eye on that category name to the right of the search bar once the search results page has loaded completely to make sure that eBay has not limited the search to too narrow a category.

And sellers should keep that in mind when deciding which category to list an item in. Even sellers that do not consider the SR-3A to be "vintage" may want to list there since many buyers will find their searches directed there automatically. Listing elsewhere runs the risk of not getting as many views.