Poor Ebay Search Engine (unrelated items)
So, today I typed in "Mens Merrell Rubato Shoes" (used shoes) and the first listing shown to me was a pair of Women's Robato shoes. And of the 6 listings, 2 were womens shoes. I spoke to customer service and they said nobody has complained about this and I was the first. They said they want to show people all possible applicable listings. Well, I typed in "Mens" not "Womens". How dumb can you be. The first listing was of course a sponsored listing, so I guess they just want the money as opposed to accurate search results. I would think this would turn off many would be buyers.
18 comments
Unavailable member
·2 years agoYou get shoes for women because of how you searched. “Men†is contained in “womens,†which is why you see that result. Better to search then filter for men’s shoes. Ebay search isn’t a personal shopper, and they aren’t going to hand pick results for you. If eBay would try to come up with a more focused result by excluding what it thinks you don’t want, that would be a disaster.
dbfolks166mt
·2 years agoAs evidenced by the variations in the other responses it depends on the parameters of the search. I ran the search using Mens Merrell Rubato Shoes, exact words any order, price + shipping lowest first and got 12 results none of which were women's shoes.
rockyroadtradingpost
·2 years ago@goldrushfinds Consider yourself lucky that all you had to look at was women's shoes.
I was listing a men's Scottish Kilt the other day. I ran a search for comps and my search results included a bunch of photos of almost totally naked men in harnesses and other B&D gear. And that was using the totally normal search terms you would use to find a men's plaid Scottish kilt. I don't know what happened, and I couldn't recreate it when I tried. But something went verrrrry wrong. 😬
inhawaii
·2 years agoI searched for "Merrell Rubato Shoes".
That brought up 61 results.
Then clicked on "mens shoes" on the left.
That brought up 22 results, the first one being the OP shoes.
DANG THAT EBAY SEARCH!!!!
ten_o_nine
·2 years agoSponsored over accuracy.
saylesville2003
·2 years agoIn some cases if the brand name is capitalized it renders different results than if the brand name is not capitalized.
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoI had 28 listings returned, all men's.
Not sure how CS can help with search results, though.
goldrushfinds
OP2 years agoI can beat you. I came up with 43 results (if I don't enter a condition parameter) of which approx. one third were womens. This search was done from the home page with no other search criteria other than typing those words in the search bar.
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoHuh?
All of my results were men's shoes. I plugged your search query into the home page with no alteration. No women's shoes. No condition parameters.
And I guess we're 'defending this faulty search engine' because our results were not faulty, at least in this search. If you want a bad search engine experience, try Etsy.
onlinecentral
·2 years agoOn the Advanced Search screen, you can exclude words, such as Women's, from your search.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/ebayadvsearch
Otherwise, you can click on Mens within the filters on the left when viewing search results.
goldrushfinds
OP2 years agoAgain, may be true, but most would be buyers are not aware of this. I see no excuse for my clear search criteria (including word "Mens") to include womens shoes.
slippinjimmy
·2 years agoYour "clear search criteria" is Any Words with a little bit of AI that makes sure that at you only get shoes.
FYI - I just ran your original search < Mens Merrell Rubato Shoes > and all I am getting are Mens (22 listings).
goldrushfinds
OP2 years agoDon't know what you did differently, but those are not my results. I opened Ebay site as a would be shopper would do, with no other actions or limiting criteria. I then typed in the search bar "Mens Merrell Rubato Shoes" and got 43 results, quite a few of which were womens. Worse yet, when I then added the criteria used shoes (by clicking box under condition), I got 14 results, 7 of which were women's. I just don't understand why you are all defending this faulty search engine. Think like a buyer, not a seasoned seller who knows this site in and out.
pjcdn2005
·2 years agoSearched Mens Merrell Rubato Shoes from the home page and also got 22 results of mens shoes. I can't explain why results are different.
slippinjimmy
·2 years agoIt's not the engine it's the driver!
Try this search (include the quotes) and all you should see are mens.
"Mens" Merrell Rubato Shoes
Or as an alternative just use your origin search and then refine with the filters on left.
goldrushfinds
OP2 years agoThat may be true, but why should a potential buyer have to put Mens in quotes to get the right results. Most people won't know to do that.
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoYou don't - I didn't put "mens" in quotes. Just the straight title, exactly as you had it.
goldrushfinds
OP2 years agoPlease excuse me as i had the listing number wrong. There were 13 listings returned, 6 of which were womens.