If you are having low sales lately, search is completely broken.
Summary: quadcitypickers expresses frustration with eBay's search functionality, noting discrepancies between eBay and Google search results for specific items. Other participants offer explanations, such as the need for precise search terms in quotes and potential search biases related to search history. Some participants report mixed experiences, with one finding relevant results and others suggesting technical reasons for inconsistencies. Despite claims of the search being broken, another participant mentions successful sales, indicating that people are still able to find items.
I've been searching comps while listing this morning.
Either I get zero results, but if I GOOGLE SEARCH, I find them.
OR...I get hundreds of results that DO NOT MATCH WHATSOEVER
eBay won't admit these issues, either.
You can clearly see I searched 4155 Grand. This is a specific model of knife. The Wusthof Grand Prix II 4155 20cm
But I get hundreds of results that neither contain grand, nor 4155, nor 20cm.
Second example, I literally copy/pasted part of the title. ZERO RESULTS.
Google searched and taken to this listing.
What is going on?
onlinecentral
·1 week agoIn your OP you wrote, "The Wusthof Grand Prix II 4155 20cm".
In your search, you input "wustoff 4155 grand 20cm"
I'm not sure why you truncated your search criteria and didn't use the word Knife.
When I searched for "Wusthof Grand Prix II 4155 20cm knife", there were 86 results total.
The 4155 appeared in 3 of the top 7 results.
inhawaii
·1 week agoThe search is not "completely broken".
I sold 3 items yesterday and 1 so far today.
People are somehow finding my stuff.
tobaccocardyahoo
·1 week agoDo you get the same results when you are logged in (and the best match search considers your search history) as you do when it doesn't?
Google search results are not biased by sales history or other factors not available to Google or any other public source.
There could be a technical reason which will never be resolved which is at play.
The Amazon Search searches a distributed database where the data is received by the search process asynchronously and over a fixed period of time. If one of the servers is heavily loaded and does not respond within that fixed period, the data does not appear in the search results.
I have no detailed information on how the Ebay search will deal with that situation.
kensgiftshop
·1 week agoI always get better results searching Google for items on Ebay, then using Ebay search.
luckythewinner
·1 week ago · EditedWhen I search Wusthoff Grand Prix 4155 I get three results, all of which appear to be Wusthoff Grand Prix 20 cm knives.
inhawaii
·1 week agoThat's very odd.
I just did a search for "pocket knife" and guess what came back? A bunch of pocket knives.
stainlessenginecovers
·1 week agoIt's been well known that searches, here, amazon etc. take EACH word and give you results. Not the 'entire' search term UNLESS- you put it in quotations.
So, the search system is no more broken today, or last week month or year.
quadcitypickers
OP1 week agoThat's not true.
Alternator - 970,000 results.
Ford Alternator - 170,000 Results
Ford F150 Alternator 25,000 Results
Ford f150 Alternator 2.7L 2,500 Results.
So unless this search ability changes per category, it seems to truly be broken with certain searches.
Still doesn't explain how I can find eBay items on Google, search the exact title and get zero results.
stainlessenginecovers
·1 week agoAnyone ever visited an Auto Parts store where they ask 'Year/Make/Model' and then' Engine..... would know to put the YEAR of the vehicle they are trying to find parts for- first!
2016 Ford f150 2.7 alternator
523 results of which the first 50 or so were just that (quit looking after 50ish)
ten_o_nine
·1 week agoI wrote a post about 5 years ago. "If you can't find it on eBay, Google it and you'll find it on eBay", I think it's still true.