Display of eBay search results are painfully slow in Firefox when Items per Page = 240

[walterr446]

Ever since eBay changed the format of their Search Results to show the Seller name and performance percentage on the third line of the results, Firefox has become completely unusable but only when "Items Per Page" is set to 240.  If you set "Items Per Page" to 60, the performance is fine.  When it's set to 240 and you do a search that returns thousands of items you are only able to scroll about 10 items before there is a multi-seconds pause while the screen refreshes.  The CPU meter jumps to about 40% or higher CPU consumption and every tab in the browser locks up while the processor works and the computer fan kicks to high speed.

To recreate this problem, type "sculpture" in the Search box and hit return.  150,000+ results will be displayed.  If "Items Per Page" is set to 60 you can scroll up and down the page freely using your mouse roller wheel or the page slider.    When set to 240, there are dramatic (3-15 seconds) pauses either partway through the scrolling or when you get to the bottom and try to move to the next page.

Scrolling speed was not a problem before the Search Results display format change so a bug was introduced then.

I've cleared my cache and updated to the latest Firefox version without effect.

Firefox 108.0.1 on an Acer Aspire 5.

[stainlessenginecovers]

Never seen, and still don't see

the buyers name and performance on the 3rd line. 

Are you able to screen shot and post?

[walterr446]

See the areas circled in green.  Seller name & feedback percentage used to be where red boxes are shown.  Bug got introduced (in Firefox only) when the page got reformatted and the information was moved to green area.   Happened about 2 weeks ago, I believe.

This URL will cause problem:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=sculpture&_sacat=0&_ipg=240

This URL is fine:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=sculpture&_sacat=0&_ipg=60

Both URLs work in Chrome & Edge.

I've also logged the bug directly through Bugzilla (Firefox technical support) but it's likely eBay software engineers are the only ones who can fix it.

Thanks.

[eburtonlab · Accepted solution]

Are you using Ad Block? Some users have reported search slow-downs that went away when temporarily disabling Ad Block.

Also try temporarily disabling Enhanced Tracking Protection on eBay using the shield icon to the left of the page address in the Firefox address bar.

I am using Firefox 107.0.1 and not experiencing any scrolling issues or slowdown at all when searching using 240 items per page.

[eburtonlab]

I still see the seller username and feedback in the old location (in your red box), so it is possible that eBay is rolling out a new search page in stages, or else you are part of a test of some kind.

I will try updating Firefox and signing out of eBay and see if I get the new page format or experience a slowdown.

[walterr446]

Thanks, everyone for your helpful and speedy suggestions.  Disabling AdBlock eliminates the slowdown.   It's interesting that I apparently am part of some test rollout since other people aren't seeing the new format showing the seller name and statistics.  It's been that way for about 2 weeks for me.

[eburtonlab]

There may be an alternative ad blocker that allows you to still block ads on eBay and search without slowing things down. Or possibly a change of settings -- try disabling the "anti-circumvention filters" option under Filter Lists and see if that works any better. Those filters have been linked to issues with sponsored listings when searching.

It is possible that whatever change eBay is testing is repeatedly triggering a particular filter rule and making the ad blocker take up extra CPU cycles.

[walterr446]

AdBlock Plus was the culprit.  Disabling AdBlock Plus on eBay URLs solves the problem.  AdBlock Ultimate works fine.  uBlock Origin also works fine.  I was unable to find any configuration setting for AdBlock Plus that allowed AdBlock Plus to be active but not interfere with "Items Per Page" = 240.  As far as I'm concerned this topic can be considered closed.  Thanks again to everyone for their great help and such speedy responses.

[stainlessenginecovers]

I have no ad blockers and have NEVER seen that on a search listing using Various Computers for the 10+ years. I always use Explorer (now Edge) and this is a 1 yr old computer still using Edge-and that is NOT shown (name and feedback) if I change it from 240 to 120 to 60.

Never shown. 

[eburtonlab]

Seller info (username and feedback) are options available when searching. Check your search customization menu from the search results page:

[stainlessenginecovers]

Interesting- I did not know you could do that. I always just 'searched' so was always on the 'default'.