Another example of broken search

[dtexley3]

Searched for both current and sold listings for "dept 56 snow village christmas puppies"  (sans quotes)  Got NO MATCHES.  Checked Teradata and multiple sold with those words in the title in the last 6 weeks.

Searched for "department 56 snow village christmas puppies" and the THIRD listing returned was "dept 56 snow village christmas puppies"  EXACTLY matching the ORIGINAL search term.

Search is BROKEN.  How many times do we need to report the complete failure of Cassinni to return listings where the title exactly matches the search term WORD FOR WORD?  It's simply not an acceptable result for buyers OR sellers.

tyler@ebay 

[nobody*s_perfect]

When I search for dept 56 snow village christmas puppies (no quotes) i get 36 Results.

[berserkerplanet]

I get 1405 results (US only) when I search for "dept 56 snow village christmas puppies" with no quotes.

[pburn]

I get 1,414 listings when I search active listings for:

dept 56 snow village christmas puppies

I get 692 listings when I search active listings for:

department 56 snow village christmas puppies

[dtexley3]

snip

[dtexley3]

---

@berserkerplanet wrote:
I get 1405 results (US only) when I search for "dept 56 snow village christmas puppies" with no quotes.

---

But how many of those are actually the item being searched????? For me when searching by lowest price NONE of the first page have anything to do with the search term.  Searching by Best Match, you have to go half way down the first page before the items that MATCH THE TERMS EXACTLY start showing.  Not trying to yell at anyone here, just frustrated.

With all due respect to all three of you responding, what help is it to say "Look it returned xxxxx matches", when the point of the post is that EXACT matches ARE NOT appearing at the top of the list.   What good are 1405+ matches if what you are looking for is buried on page 3?

[nobody*s_perfect]

The point of telling you how many results we got was to give you some observations about how the search is working. Clearly, "whimsical" is one polite way to put it.  

The 36 results I got nearly all had all of the search words in their titles; one even had "Department" rather than dept. In my case, the search seems to be working as intended, so the question becomes why does it sometimes work just fine but other times not at all?

[eburtonlab]

@nobody*s_perfect 

In my case, the search seems to be working as intended, so the question becomes why does it sometimes work just fine but other times not at all?

I seem to be getting differing numbers of results depending on which computer I use; sometimes different browsers on the same computer give different numbers of results.

In some cases it appears that the search is either dropping search terms entirely or allowing inappropriate keyword substitutions. When I get 1400 results, it seems that most lack the key term "puppies".

In one case where the search gives me 37 results, dropping the "dept" term and running the search again gives me only 32 results, even though a search with fewer terms should be matching the same or more titles.

[dtexley3]

---

@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

The point of telling you how many results we got was to give you some observations about how the search is working. Clearly, "whimsical" is one polite way to put it.  

The 36 results I got nearly all had all of the search words in their titles; one even had "Department" rather than dept. In my case, the search seems to be working as intended, so the question becomes why does it sometimes work just fine but other times not at all?

---

I don't know why you get 36 results with all 6 key words.  My  results matched the other two responders, over 1000 responses with most not having all 6 terms.  Whether I search by Best Match or Lowest Price, those 36 or so that you see should be at the TOP of both lists, followed by the "results below for fewer matches" section with the rest of the 1000+ non-matches.

[celidilec]

I'm in the same experiment as @nobody*s_perfect. With all six keywords, I get 39 results for active listings. Sold & Completed return 7. No quotes around keywords. I'm not seeing any expansions under results.

[linus.hux72fe]

I agree.  When searching with no quotes 1441 came up.  I was down to 300+ before even one came up with a dog of any type.  At 400 I quit looking for puppies having had no success.  (Best match, no quotes.)

One did come up as not a match at the end.  It had the exact title I searched for.

I went to a competing site.  2 came up without having to use quotes or search over and over without special terms or detailed search characters and no click after click after click.  One of those sold overnight.

As a buyer I can't find what I'm searching for so I can't buy.

[dtexley3]

---

@celidilec wrote:

I'm in the same experiment as @nobody*s_perfect. With all six keywords, I get 39 results for active listings. Sold & Completed return 7. No quotes around keywords. I'm not seeing any expansions under results.

---

Had a couple of friends try as well.  NONE get just the ~39 matches.  Today ONE exact match shows in the first 50, at position ~47.  Like a buyer is going to scroll down that far.  Interestingly if I search for "Dept 56 Snow Village Christmas Puppies -can" (to remove all the christmas trashcan listings) it INSTANTLY returns 18 results ALL of which are exact matches for the 6 keywords... where are the other ~21?  And what buyer is going to search that way.

brian@ebay 

[eburtonlab]

@dtexley3 

Interestingly if I search for "Dept 56 Snow Village Christmas Puppies -can" (to remove all the christmas trashcan listings) it INSTANTLY returns 18 results ALL of which are exact matches for the 6 keywords... where are the other ~21?

Adding an exclusion term to your search disables the "search expansion" features related to "keyword to category" substitutions. Any exclusion term will have that effect. Incidentally, that is also a good way to defeat "implicit category navigation" if you want to search "all categories" instead of just the one category that eBay thinks you should look at.

Some of the original results you were seeing were located in a "Department 56" category, but did not actually have "dept 56" in the item title, and adding an exclusion term would cause them to be dropped from the search in favor of only items that have your keywords in the title.

Here is some of the old documentation about "search expansion" from the Canadian eBay site:

https://www.ebay.ca/pages/help/search/expanding.html

[dtexley3]

---

@eburtonlab wrote:

@dtexley3 

Interestingly if I search for "Dept 56 Snow Village Christmas Puppies -can" (to remove all the christmas trashcan listings) it INSTANTLY returns 18 results ALL of which are exact matches for the 6 keywords... where are the other ~21?

Adding an exclusion term to your search disables the "search expansion" features related to "keyword to category" substitutions. Any exclusion term will have that effect. Incidentally, that is also a good way to defeat "implicit category navigation" if you want to search "all categories" instead of just the one category that eBay thinks you should look at.

Some of the original results you were seeing were located in a "Department 56" category, but did not actually have "dept 56" in the item title, and adding an exclusion term would cause them to be dropped from the search in favor of only items that have your keywords in the title.

Here is some of the old documentation about "search expansion" from the Canadian eBay site:

https://www.ebay.ca/pages/help/search/expanding.html

---

Thanks, that's interesting.  I did notice that it didn't matter what the exclusion term was (I tried -xxyyzz with the same result).  

The "search expansion" seems to have changed recently as there are several posts similar to mine where the exact matches to the search terms are buried.  This is NOT GOOD for buyers and sellers.  If buyers don't see what they are searching for near the top most are going to assume it's not available and move on to the next site.

[buyselljack2016]

wanted to post this on the weekly chat, but as it was a busy day.........  I missed the chat.

My experience with a search. (broken search):

Seems to be a search problem.
How do buyers find things when this is the result?
How do sellers sell things when this is the result?
__________
in the search I typed cut & paste>>>>> 2001 escape high brake 3rd
__________
Condition check mark --- used
__________
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=2001+escape+high+brake+3rd&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&LH...
___________
When I searched I got 93 results. This was on Monday afternoon. Results now may vary.
Only 4 of the first 20 (20%)/5 of the first 50(10%) listing returns were for the item searched.
___________
1-2) The first 2 are for an Escape.
3) The 3rd item is for a Honda Odyssey
4) The 4th resultis the "sponsored" repeat of the 1st listing.
5) That is followed by a Volvo.
6) A Nissan Exterra.
7-8) 2 Dodge Rams.
9) A Grand Cherokee
10) Almost back on track ---- an 02 Mountaineer & 08 Escape
11-12) Then 2 more Dodge Rams.
13) An 01 Escape.
14) A Ram.
15) An Explorer.
16-17) Then 2 "Sponsored" NEW bulb listings.
18) A Ram.
19) A Grand Cherokee wiring harness.
20) An 01 Escape.
21) Explorer Sport Trac.
22) Honda Civic
23) Grand Cherokee
24) Silverado
25-26) 2 more "Sponsored" NEW bulb listings
27) Dodge Ram
28) Silverado
29) Grand Cherokee
30 Durango
31) Sierra
32) Acura MDX
33) Dodge Truck 1500
34) Voyager
35) 08-12 Escape
36) Jaguar S-type
37) Nissan Sentra
38) Toyota RAV4
39) Caravan
40-41) "Sponsored" New bulb listing
42) Dodge Ram
43) Altima "delete panel"
44) Volvo V70 Wagon
45) Yukon
46) Lincoln Town Car
47) Montero
48) 01-07 Escape
49) Xterra
50) S40

....................... and on, and on with 6 more actual items searched for.