Saved searches now require a keyword

[ukdevil]

I used to have one of the wholesale categories set up as a saved search just to save me navigating there each time, but now when I visit that search, it throws an error saying that a keyword must be included. Also I notice that if I browse to that category manually, I can't then save it as a new search. This only seems to affect certain categories, so I don't know if it's part of some experiment or testing, but it's annoying.

[mobile_feedback]

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@ukdevil wrote:

I used to have one of the wholesale categories set up as a saved search just to save me navigating there each time, but now when I visit that search, it throws an error saying that a keyword must be included. Also I notice that if I browse to that category manually, I can't then save it as a new search. This only seems to affect certain categories, so I don't know if it's part of some experiment or testing, but it's annoying.

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Can you let us know the specific category you are trying to do this on.

Thanks

[eburtonlab · Accepted solution]

@ukdevil 

If you need to use a search term to save a general category search, try this term:

(0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j,k,l,m,n,o,p,q,r,s,t,u,v,w,x,y,z)

That should match any number or single letter. If you choose "Include description" in your search as well, that should match almost any item that has a text description. Add a word from the category title inside the parentheses for even better coverage.

Using that search in "all categories" currently shows me over 72 million results.

If your category is specific enough, you might be able to use a single exclusion term as your only search term, like this:

-xyzxyz

That should match any item that does not include that string in the title or keywords, which should be all but one of them. Using that term without the minus sign to search finds exactly one item in eBay Motors where the seller has entered that string as the manufacturer's part number in the item keywords.

If your category is too broad, that exclusion search will return an error message:

"Let's try that again. This time add more details so we can search for better matches."