To spend money on eBay, I have to find item first.....

[jgrit]

In all categories I enter - Boston stand - and no Boston speaker stand titles show up. I enter Boston multimeter speaker and a title shows up with both words - Boston and stand - in the title. Why didn't the titled item show up in Boston stand search I originally searched for? Only 160 results, so all Boston stand results should show?

[jgrit]

On second view, it seems as though eBay search is assuming I am looking for only sports stand or flower stand.

[eburtonlab]

Two issues you may be encountering.

First, searches are often steered into a particular category based on the keywords used. When the search results load completely, check the category displayed to the right of the search bar to see if you are limited to a particular category. If necessary, choose "All categories" and search again.

If you are using the "Price plus shipping: lowest first" sort order, your search results are often filtered -- possibly drastically so. If you are getting 160 results when there should be more, that is often a sign of a search that is not showing you all results. Try a different sort order to see if you get more results. Ordinarily there should be a message with a link to see more results if the results are "streamlined" or filtered, but that message may not always appear as it should.

A search for boston stand in all categories:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=boston+stand&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&_sop=12

[jgrit]

You are right. The search results were filtered drastically. For no reason. The electronics category was included in my second search, but not the first. The category should have been in both searches. This is a serious glitch in eBay search feature. How can I spend my money on eBay if eBay does not properly show me what I am searching for?

[eburtonlab]

Whether searches are steered into a specific category is keyword dependent. Different keywords may be steered into a different category, or may show results in all categories. This is something eBay has done for years.

And the more recent problems associated with the "Price plus shipping: lowest first" sort may also depend on the individual keywords used. In the past, the filtering of that sort was much less severe, and there were consistent notices at the top of the results that made it clearer what was happening, and easier to bypass using a "see more results" link.

For those searches that are drastically filtered or where no notice is shown, I would suggest using the "Feedback" link in the lower right corner of the search results page (when using a desktop browser) to provide some feedback to eBay developers. The more folks complain about the drastically filtered searches and lack of notices and "see more" links, the more likely it is that eBay will address the situation.

[jgrit]

I agree. I called it a glitch; but actually, Ebay is steering the buyer into category of NO SALE. Ebay search should just do what the buyer asks it to do. No need to assume or steer. Just do what search the search entry words are entered and results in the listing titles. This is so simple; but, for some reason, eBay has chosen to make it complicated. Search result: NO SALE.

[mudshark61369]

@jgrit,

In order to find items you want to buy you need to title your searches correctly.  Your search for Boston Stand which returned appropriate results with Boston and Stand as the keywords.

If you had added the company's full name "Boston Acoustics"  speaker stand you could have used all categories and you would have received the results page below. Note the underlined key words,

Boston + Acoustics + speaker + stand   in the left column on the results page the main category chosen for you was Home Speakers and Subwoofers.  Those would be found under Consumer Electronics

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1313&_nkw=Boston+Acoustics+speaker+...

[bennotbill]

This year I've started using Google as well as the eBay search. Google often shows the eBay items that their own search doesn't show for whatever reason. And if the item I find on Google is not on eBay that's too bad. It's eBay's fault for manipulating their own search.

[kelekt]

how ridiculous is it to have to teach people how to use search!!?!!  computers aren't new and people have been searching online for many many years yet somehow Ebay search is so bad you now have to teach people how to find stuff - and to top it off we are all learning that you find more on Ebay by using Google search (leaving Ebay to search Google to find things on Ebay: bassackwards system) = risky business if that becomes the norm because that is exactly how I found the item I wanted ON ANOTHER VENUE. I went to google and searched for something and found the best price/item elsewhere.

it's like someone coming into a B&M shop and asking for something and you tell them to go to the shop across the street to ask them where to find that thing in your shop. 

seems to me that once a customer comes to your site to shop you would want them to a)easily find what they are actually looking for b)excited to come back to search for more things they want.

[eburtonlab]

how ridiculous is it to have to teach people how to use search!!?

Most people seem to be able to find things to buy without any help, though.

eBay's search seems designed to allow someone to load the app on their phone, enter a keyword or two and find some good buying options without too much trouble, in most cases.

But not everyone searches the same way. And sometimes different people expect different things from the exact same search. eBay's search is a compromise that allows a relatively inexperienced user to find some things to purchase. There are trade-offs at work. Making some things easier to do can make other things harder.

To make searching more intuitive for most people, eBay makes searching more complicated in certain ways; different keywords are treated differently and searches are steered into different categories, spelling corrections and substitutions are made automatically rather than telling users that there are no results for their poorly-chosen or mistyped keywords. And like an autocorrecting spell checker, not all of the corrections are always right, and the errors can be glaring. And the more complicated the rules are, the more exceptions and edge cases there are where things do not go as users might otherwise expect.

No matter how easy eBay makes it to search, there will always be some situations where a little time spent crafting a particular search will pay off in not having to spend more time to sort through too many results that are not of interest, or to allow you to find something that might not be where you first expect it to be.

There are ways to get around eBay's default search behavior, if you want to know. If you don't want to know, that's fine, too.

[caracy]

OR..... I have gotten into the habit of using a search category that has nothing to do with what I want. Then ebay says "We couldn't find any (whatevers) in (where ever) so we searched all categories." Gee thanks idiots, THAT's what I wanted to do in the FIRST place! 

I agree. I buy a lot less now because the search returns are useless and/or time consuming.