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Search pitfall leads to purchasing mistakes
I wanted 26 gauge wire. Did a search. Went down the list to find a low price. Ordered 28 gauge. Oops. My mistake. Returned item. Has this happened to you?
I'd like to see some indicator when the search result does not match the request exactly, or else a search (option?) that only matches the request exactly.
4 comments
wcmead
OP5 months agoI'm not concerned with keywords in the listing. Instead, I would like to be able to quickly scan the listings to sub-select. Highlighting would also allow me to improve the search, dropping keywords that were unecessary. Ctrl-F would be faster, but that's already admitting that the Ebay search was ineffective.
eburtonlab
Mentor5 months ago@wcmead
How did you search?
Keep in mind that if you just entered keywords into the search bar and searched, eBay considers any listing that has your individual keywords anywhere in the title or item specifics to be potential matches.
If a search keyword returns few results, but a similar keyword returns more results, eBay will sometimes substitute or correct your keyword, or provide those additional results along with the original results. Often there is an indication of this at the top of the search, but it can be very easy to miss.
If you want only exact, literal matches of your search terms, put your search terms in quotes to prevent any corrections or substitutions. Group keywords together if you want those keywords to appear in order with no intervening words.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/260833/i.html?_nkw=%2226awg%22+wire&_sop=10
wcmead
OP5 months agoGood point. I should use "" more often. Perhaps also use fewer search terms. And read the listing better for what I order. Finally, I neglect using advanced search when it is appropriate.
Still, would it make the results of default searches more transparent if the words in the listing titles that match the criteria were highlighted?
eburtonlab
Mentor5 months agoStill, would it make the results of default searches more transparent if the words in the listing titles that match the criteria were highlighted?
No doubt it would, but keywords can also be in the item-specifics, which would not necessarily be apparent if you are looking at the search results and just scanning the titles.
If you do want to quickly pick out keywords in titles, most browsers will let you find and highlight words on a page using Control-F.