what is this garbage in the Help pages... Does Ebay accept boolean searches or doesn't it?

[iamahumanbeing]

I need to use Boolean syntax in searches. In November 2017 someone posted here in the forum a quote from Ebay's own help page that was a thorough detailed discussion of Boolean searches that Ebay accepts, along with the link to the page. Now (January 2019) that text has all been deleted and the entirety of Ebay's help with Advanced Search is: "To use Advanced Search, go to the Advanced Search page and check the boxes" - that is literally verbatim the entire explanation of Advanced Search. And searching the help section for "Boolean" gives zero results.

Here is the link and the text that USED to be on it but has been taken down.

https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/search-tips/advanced-search?id=4049#using

QUOTE FROM EBAY'S OWN HELP PAGE, NOW DELETED:

Using search operators (Boolean logic)

Our searches aren't case-sensitive, so it doesn't matter whether you use capital or lowercase letters.
To refine your search and get more precise results, you can combine search operators with your search words. This is also known as Boolean logic.

Operator - What it does - Example

Quotation marks (also known as double-quotes)
Searches for the exact word or phrase in the listing title
"Action" DVD returns listings that have the exact words Action and DVD in the title in any order.
"Action DVD" returns listings that have these 2 words in the title in this specific order.
Parentheses around keywords separated by commas
Act together as an OR operator
Note: Use parentheses and commas together for best results
(purse,handbag) returns listings that contain either the word purse or handbag in the title.
Minus sign (-)
Acts as a NOT operator
Note: You need a space before the minus sign and no space after
Red -shoes returns listings that have red in the title and do not have shoes in the title.
bowl -(black,green) or bowl -black -green returns listings whose titles contain the word bowl but not the words black and green.
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[mudshark61369]

@iamahumanbeing,

I would guess since the information about boolean searches has been removed from the help pages, that this is another unannounced change ebay has made.    You could try going to the technical issue board, Discussions> Inside ebay> Technical issues to see if any information about a search change has been posted there.

There are some very tech savvy members who post on this board, who may be able to give you better information, later today.

[robot-hands]

Ebay doesn't use boolean they use cassini.

If you want to use a boolean search you're going to go back in time or use Lycos or AltaVista.

Ebay fetches you what they want you to see, not what you searched for.

[berserkerplanet]

Boolean searches still work just fine, eBay shows me what I search for, and there have been no changes I'm aware of.

(and there is no reason to post this to Technical Issues forum - eBay is NOT there, there are no announcements made about anything there either, and this isn't a technical issue, just a rant about eBay documentation or lack thereof. Instead of expecting them to read anything more than 3 words strung together, eBay is dumbing everything down for the swipe monkeys, and the rest of us suffer. Mobile buyers are the future. Can't forget that mantra.)

[robot-hands]

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@berserkerplanet wrote:
, eBay shows me what I search for,

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Well you're the only one then...what's the secret?

[lacemaker3]

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@berserkerplanet wrote:
Boolean searches still work just fine, eBay shows me what I search for, and there have been no changes I'm aware of.

...

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The boolean operators are: AND, OR, and NOT.

eBay search does not use boolean operators according to the boolean search logic. For example:

[lacemaker3]

@iamahumanbeing, you will get better results from an eBay search if you change the sort to anything other than "Best match".

If it's not "Best match" then it is supposed to display all the results according to your chosen sort. However, items that are not indexed will not be shown, and eBay sometimes shows a warning that "some listings have been removed in order to show the most relevant results".

If you don't feel your results are complete, then you can try doing a google search and add "site:ebay.com" to your search string.

The instructions you quoted still appear to work. If you run an advanced search from the advanced search page, you can see your search string on the next page with the results, and the syntax should match the instructions you quoted as far as I can see.

[berserkerplanet]

>>Well you're the only one then...what's the secret?

Use Redirector addon to force searches to the old DSC not SCH variety, and to add URL parameters to smack search into behaving (?nordt=true&orig_cvip=true to kibosh redirects to similar items for example), custom bookmarklets and bookmarked search templates using other URL parameters to stop implicit category navigation and other hijinks.

I've posted all that here in dozens of threads and pretty much everyone ignores it. Whatever. My searching works.

[berserkerplanet]

>>The boolean operators are: AND, OR, and NOT.

That's just being pedantic. eBay does Boolean searching with a modified syntax with AND being implied.

Classic Boolean search   all and saints not dress    is    all saints -dress   or   all +saints -dress   in Cassini speak.

eBay completely broke wildcarding and partial matching years ago, so  all +saints -(dress,dresses)   is more effective.

[monster-deals]

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@berserkerplanet wrote:


Use Redirector addon to force searches to the old DSC not SCH variety, and to add URL parameters to smack search into behaving (?nordt=true&orig_cvip=true to kibosh redirects to similar items for example), custom bookmarklets and bookmarked search templates using other URL parameters to stop implicit category navigation and other hijinks.

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What does that mean in English?