How to clear "Frequently searched by you" on eBay main page?

[bid]

I was recently researching some (embarrassing) products to sell on ebay because I was trying to determine the market and how to list them. Now, ebay keeps recommending these products to me. I was able to clear recently searched or viewed or whatever, but it still displays a plethora of porn under "Frequently searched by you" when I go to ebay.com. How can I get this porn to stop following me? I already listed the box of dvds and am done with it. Like, we have a shared family computer. There's got to be a way to fix this. I already tried searching repeatedly for generic products: the bots still think I'm a porn fiend. 21 years on ebay and the first problem of this kind.

[pburn]

Well, "live by the sword, die by the sword," as they say. On my eBay homepage, there are images of items I've actually opened the item listings for--not just performed a search for.

I mean, you're the one who searched and opened item listings for the porn items. After being a member for 21 years, didn't you know that is how the homepage is populated? I just don't think eBay can be criticized for this one.

I don't know of a way to eliminate the porn-style items you were not only searching for, but also opening the item listings of. Someone may be able to suggest a way, but I think I'd spend some time searching for other non-porn related items and opening those listings. With luck, eventually, they'll outbalance the porn items you were looking at.

[ed8108]

Ebay's IT people have devoted a great deal of their time & effort to undertake what ebay unfortunately considers as site improvements, not as problems for users to fix.     👏

[eburtonlab · Accepted solution]

@bid 

As far as I can tell, the "Frequently searched by you" section can not be cleared, it can only be replaced by performing new searches to displace the old ones. Not sure how long it takes, but it should happen at some point.

Try bookmarking several similar innocuous searches, put the bookmarks in a folder on your browser's bookmarks toolbar, and when you want to take a break from your computer for a few minutes, just right-click on the folder and select "Open All in Tabs" to run all of those searches at once.

[bid]

Thank you. I found another temporary solution: I just bookmarked another ebay landing page that has no suggestions on it. I just hope my kids don't go to ebay.com until this event works itself out (lots of gay porn there). I found it is rather difficult to even view items in the "mature audiences" section of ebay, but once that cat's out of the bag they plaster such items on their main page. It's an oversight on ebay's programming imho.

[bid]

Thanks for the time replying to my question. I think it is a slight oversight on ebay's part. I mean it took me a long time to even figure out how to search the dark web which is ebay's "mature audience" listings. Even if I want to get back there now from this very computer I would have to consent again to see the listings, yet ebay proudly announces porn on the ebay.com main page right under the prada shoes my wife was looking at. Ebay has evolved tremendously in the past few years. When I started it was the wild west and I would have expected this kind thing back then- now I thought they would have given users more control over the content they see. I have been a casual user of ebay for the past few years- started getting back on more frequently while trapped in the house and whilst trying to sell junk from the garage accumulated over the years from various junk auction end lots. It's been a fun treasure hunt of my own making 🙂

[eburtonlab]

@bid 

You are welcome. Bookmarking another page is a good idea.

You should be OK by signing out of your account (and possibly deleting your eBay cookies), provided your family does not share the same account or keep the account credentials saved in the browser.

I think the inability to clear those sections of the main page is a programming oversight; one of the eBay "blues" indicated in another thread that clearing your "recently viewed" page should also clear those searches from the main page, but that is not how things work at the moment, unfortunately.

[inkbox]

No it’s on purpose to make you search and search for stuff that you do not want buy. All the while hoping to get the junk off your page.  

I have been searching for over two hours total over two day period and I still get a porn page I stumbled onto twice,

Al the saying goes: in for a penny and in for a dollar. 

[inkbox]

Whatever you do don’t search for redhead. No joke!

[southern*sweet*tea]

@bid 

Yes, you can clear it.

On the front page where it says recently viewed items, click see all.

https://www.ebay.com/myb/container?key=recentlyviewed&_trkparms=

Top right hand side, click clear all.

Voila! All gone.

You can do the same thing in the app, but I forget how.

[mnimocks]

This is true for the "Recently Viewed" items, which is different from and will not work for the "Frequently Searched By You" Section of your home page.

[adkhighker]

Another solution is to never go to the ebay.com home page for searching. I never do because I have all my favorite searches bookmarked in a folder up on the toolbar of my browser. For example, I'll do a search on an item, and then I'll bookmark that search for that item. Then when I click on that search, I'll just double tap the item in the search bar that I saved so it gets highlighted (or triple tap if it's more than one word), and I'll type whatever I'm looking for at the time right over it. I do the same thing for when I'm researching closed listings. Search on any closed listing, bookmark the search for that item, and then when I'm doing a new search for something else, just highlight the old search item and type in the new one your're looking for. I rarely go to the eBay homepage. I don't even have it bookmarked.

[curious69cat]

I have just tried using my AdGuard AdBlocker extension on my Chrome browser to "block an element". I blocked the whole Frequently Searched By You section.

It appears to have gone now even after refreshing the home page and restarting the browser.

[yorkshire61]

Why is it that Ebay and their masses of software engineers who think they are 'improving'  the site not realise that these 'improvements' frustrate the hell out of the majority of users.  It benefits nobody.

I stand in total disbelief most times at what they think is best for us yet nobody actually wants.  Then to add insult to injury they invite you to "Tell us what you think" link on the homepage.

For years now i have been forwarding..."why bother...you don't listen anyway"  with no feedback whatsoever from them.

They really really don't care about their customers at all.  Ebay annoys the hell out of me with their stupid ideas  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

[lssurw]

The absolute incompetence of Ebay programmers not allowing Frequently Searched to be cleared is beyond forgiveness. I will be closing my Ebay account. Hear that Ebay? You just lost a customer because of your stupid policies.  And, no, it's not my loss.