Why did search start producing literally thousands of irrelevant results for each search?

[kustomz]

I have been an eBay seller for 28 years and I list items nearly everyday. Several months ago the search function started showing literally thousands of result for a search that should produce a few to dozens of results. Yes, I have seen the responses to put part of the search term on "quotes" to make search more specific. WHY?! Why would eBay make the default for the most basic and most important tool worse? If someone is looking for a specific item, say a specific model of eyeglasses buy manufacturer and model number, showing them them 4,000+ irrelevant results of items made by that manufacturer is 100% a hindrance, not a help.  If I wanted a more generic search I would enter more generic search terms. As usual eBay has made a perfectly fine functionality of their site worse. Example: Searching in titles only and sorting by Best Match - Fendi FF 0015 produces '2,600+ results for Fendi FF 0015'. The same search but with "FF 0015" (the model number in quotes) produces the only 10 results that actually match my search. This is idiotic and absolutely not helpful in any way. Again, why?

[slippinjimmy]

- Fendi FF 0015 -

This search will find items matching Fendi or FF or 0015

If you want only items that contain both Fendi and FF 0015 you need to put those two (3) in quotes or use advanced search.

The space between FF and 0015 makes them two different "words".

[kustomz]

I clearly stated that I know this. This is NOT how search was prior to a few months ago for the past 28 years. The more terms you put into the search bar, the more specific the search was and should be. Not the other way around. Clearly I am searching for items titles with ALL of those terms in it. If I wanted everything made by Fendi I would just enter Fendi.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

I have found numeric values have stopped being used by the search. Not only part numbers but dates.

Why they made to change is probably so secret that the person who made the change and the person who told them to make it have probably had their minds wiped.

My guess is that the person who decided to make it does not believe the Ebay buyer has a part number and needs to search for it.  Or wants a specific issue of a magazine.

[eburtonlab]

I have seen the responses to put part of the search term on "quotes" to make search more specific. WHY?!

Using quotes in that way can produce better search results than not using quotes -- at least for certain searches. That is why folks suggest using quotes.

Using quotes bypasses eBay's "smart search" features, and forces eBay to provide only exact, literal search results. If eBay's keyword substitution feature is causing problems for you, using quotes is one way to get around that.

Searching in titles only and sorting by Best Match - Fendi FF 0015 produces '2,600+ results for Fendi FF 0015'. The same search but with "FF 0015" (the model number in quotes) produces the only 10 results that actually match my search.

"Best match" sort seems to be more susceptible to this sort of problem; try another sort, and the results seem much more reasonable without having to use quotes.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=Fendi+FF+0015&_sacat=0&_sop=10

[dhbookds]

Rather than Best Match..........try using Newly listed........

[kustomz]

Yes, yet again, I understand that using quotes forces the search to be more correct. This was not the case until a few months ago. I have been using eBay's search feature for 28 years. I know how it should and used to work. My question is what was it changed? Just like if you sort by Lower Price you almost always get 109 results. Even for a search that should produce thousands of results. eBay has clearly messed with search for no reason.

[kustomz]

Yes, but why have they added steps to what has been and should be the simplest and most important tool on their entire site? Sorting by Lowest to Highest Price also produces very incorrect numbers of results.

[eburtonlab]

My question is what was it changed?

That is a question that only eBay can answer, so you will have to ask eBay that.

[kustomz]

Uh, that's why I posted the question here, Captain Obvious.

[eburtonlab]

This is a user forum. The people reading and responding here do not work for eBay or speak for eBay, unless they have "@eBay" in their usernames.

Folks from eBay are not typically responding here to open-ended questions about why eBay does the things it does.

At best, if you tag someone from eBay by name and ask a specific question, that person might offer to pass your question on to a particular team within eBay.

[stainlessenginecovers]

Why is because they expect potential buyers to use the item specifics off to the left. Although most won't; most don't know; the programmers paid to do these things simply know no better. 

How to fix it? Over time, either they will figure out that they have made searching only for the highly experienced, costing sales and fix it...or not. 

The good thing is- seems AZ, FB, CL etc. are also using this same '**bleep**' system. I tried looking for a 1978 Pontiac Trans Am on CL and it showed me dozens of OTHER cars. 

[homer.dm]

Not only that, also they changed how the < ' > symbol works and more importantly for me how the "negative" symbol works: until a few months ago I could use it to filter out the results I did not want to get. 
I tried to speak with ebay's customer service here in Italy but they have no clue. Note that all this stuff still works just fine for a customer searching my ebay store, but does not work in my "manage active listings". 
It would be nice to have at least an explanation 😞

[homer.dm]

I would love to have an official answer, but how can I reach technical customer support about it?
Every link in the Italian website is useless, and looking for it on ebay.com always brought me here.