Has Ability to Re-name Saved Searches Returned? (May 2018)

[lizardman-5352]

I am a long-time (since 1999) eBay member (located in the USA).  Contributing significantly to eBay’s rise to become a premier online marketplace was its “saved-searches” function.  A user could save up to 100 finely-tuned item searches under individual, convenient, and meaningful names.  Some years ago that very helpful search-naming function was removed*, hampering eBay’s overall usefulness and convenience, IMO.

This is to report that as of 05/19/2018 I was (partially/temporarily?) allowed to rename my saved-searches.

Steps:

1. Go to your saved searches. (E.g., sign into eBay and from your “My eBay Summary” page select “Saved Searches.”)
2. On the “My eBay: Saved searches” page your searches should be listed under column headings: “Search Name,” “Keyword,” “Email Settings,” and “Actions.”
3. Choose a search to rename. Under the “Actions” column select either “View Items” or “Edit Search.”  (Surprisingly, either seems to work.)
4. Since your search is obviously already saved, on the next screen you should see a small blue heart next to the word “Saved.”** Click on “Saved.”  A box should appear that includes “Name” and “Notification Preferences.”
5. Change the name as you want.
6. When complete, I chose to click on the little “Alert over email” square at least once to ensure that my name change would be saved. Leave the alert-by-email square either checked or unchecked (your choice), but click on it at least once.
7. You should see a “Changes saved” message at the top of the box. Close the editing box (or not) and return to your previous saved-searches page.  You should see that the search name has now been changed. 

Now for the bad news.

• I have seen this name-changing function come and go in recent months, so it may be temporary. Quickly take advantage of it while you can to at least correct your most incomprehensible saved-search names.

• One convenient offshoot of naming searches used to be the ability to group similar, related searches together within the “Saved searches” table. That ability still appears to be partially lost. Even after renaming my saved-searches to be more user-friendly, my “Saved searches” table only reorders itself (alphabetically; ascending/descending) based on the “Keyword” (i.e., search parameter) column (and not the “Search name” column).
  
  So unhelpful (but functionally-important) search-parameter punctuation and excluded words may still play a part in alphabetical ordering and cause separation of otherwise related searches within the saved-searched list.

• If I repeat the steps to rename a search, the name in the editing box returns to the search parameters. Annoying and worrisome.

Thanks to all who have previously commented on and offered solutions to problems with eBay saved-searches.

________

* Replaced by often awkward search parameters as a search name.

 ** However, for one of my otherwise saved searches the heart was just an empty outline (indicating that the search was not saved?).  To fix this apparent glitch I just deleted the search and re-created it.

[mccamira]

I have also seen this feature come and go in recent month. The ability to rename the searches was very helpful to me, as I have a number of searches that used the same search terms but are in different categories and some on the UK site as well as US site. In other words, I can't tell the searches apart in my list unless I can rename them differently.

So I am trying to use the name to distinguish the searches, while you are trying to group similar searches together. But I agree that the feature is very useful. I do most of my online shopping on ebay (since 2001), and the Saved Searches feature is essential to that. I hate it when ebay makes it less functional.

[lizardman-5352]

Thanks for your reply.

After I renamed my searches I started trying to group the searches using, not the new names specifically, but the "Keyword" column (i.e., the search parameters).

This takes some thought as punctuation like parentheses and quotation marks get searches listed first (alphabetically).  So consider three fictitious searches like this:

 beatles books -ringo -pete

(beatles, "rolling stones") (dvd, dvds)

"beatles memorobillia" (1956, 1957, 1958)

No matter what the search name, they might NOT necessarily be grouped close to each other alphabetically (by keyword).  So I edit them to be like this:

 ("beatles") books -ringo -pete

("beatles", "rolling stones") (dvd, dvds)

("beatles memorobillia") (1956, 1957, 1958)

That way those three searches will be grouped close to one another alphabetically.

In other words, I make sure ALL searches start with the lowest alphabetical common denominator--i.e., parentheses and quotation marks--even if they are not otherwise needed. 

So far that seems to be working for my searches.  It is stupid and time consuming, but necessary under current circumstances to group effectively.

In the "old days" searches could be grouped by search name.  The current situation seems silly.

[lizardman-5352]

Followup (5/21/18):

After renaming them, I have managed to more-or-less group my saved searches alphabetically.  You can too.

• If all your search keyword parameters start with just words (no punctuation), then you are good to go. Use appropriately descriptive words (e.g., item name, manufacturer’s name, etc.) first in the “Keyword” search parameters, choose corresponding “Search Names” accordingly, and your searches should be grouped alphabetically.

• But if any of your search parameters start with parentheses, quotation marks, or other punctuation (as some of mine do), those marks can disturb the otherwise a-to-z alphabetic order.

• For example, consider these (fictitious and duplicative) keyword searches:
  
  beatles books     (named Beatles Books search 1)
  (beatles) books     (named Beatles Books search 2)
  “beatles” books     (named Beatles Books search 3)
  -kinks beatles books     (named Beatles Books search 4)
  “rolling stones” books     (named Rolling Stones Books)
  
  They would be ordered alphabetically by eBay as follows:
  
  “beatles” books     (Beatles Books search 3)
  “rolling stones” books     (Rolling Stones Books)
  (beatles) books     (Beatles Books search 2)
  -kinks beatles books     (Beatles Books search 4)
  beatles books     (Beatles Books search 1)
  
  Any keyword search that started with a to z would be placed after any search that started with a “, (, or – sign. So the Saved Search names would probably be non-alphabetic, also.  See?  It’s somewhat non-intuitive and confusing, I know.  But it is because the alphabetizing is done using the Keywords parameters and NOT the Search Names.  (Why, eBay, why?)

• First off, few search parameters probably start with a – sign. But if they do, just move any excluded words to the end of the search parameters.

• Some of my more complicated searches start with parentheses or quotation signs, or the combination: (“. In my case, that punctuation combination is my search parameter “lowest common denominator.”

• So by starting ALL my searches with (“, then a descriptive word that was already in the search, the punctuation marks no longer affect the outcome and I have my search list more-or-less ordered alphabetically again.

• So using the phony search list example above, the new search parameters would be:
  
  (“beatles”) books     (encompasses Beatles Books searches 1, 2, and 3)
  (“beatles”) books -kinks     (Beatles Books search 4)
  (“rolling stones”) books     (Rolling Stones Books)
  
  The parentheses (and quotation marks around the word beatles) are in these cases unimportant from a search standpoint, but very important from an ordering standpoint.

All this effort is obviously unnecessary if you only have a few searches.  But if like me you consistently maintain active lists of from 75 to 100 searches, ordering them can be VERY helpful and convenient.

Are you listening, eBay?

[lizardman-5352]

06/21/2018 Update:  The ability to name saved searches has, once again, disappeared.  Counter-intuitive and unhelpful, eBay.

Perhaps the ability will return again at some future point?

[nc-daydreamer]

I agree - a very useful tool. I hope it makes a full come-back.

[lizardman-5352]

6-30-18

Still no return to the ability to rename saved searches.

One has to wonder what is causing this error in judgement (by eBay).  Some possibilities:

1. The code needed to manage and organize saved searches naming is too much trouble to maintain.

Possible, but it seems like the code needed to allow naming of saved searches would be a small part of the overall code necessary just to establish and manage saved searches.

2. Naming saved searches somehow cause headaches for eBay.

Seems highly unlikely.  Compared to the expense of maintaning personnel to deal with seller and buyer conflicts, I can't imagine that naming saved searches causes any significant problems.

3. Naming saved searches costs eBay money.

OK, this might logically explain it; but how?  You would think that allowing buyers to better search for items to purchase would ultimately be a good thing for eBay coffers.

4. Some (junior) eBay software enineer just keeps mucking around with the webpage code (because, like an online hacker, he can) and just likes to mess with members heads.

Naw.  But maybe some ambitious type is trying to show the bosses what she can do and they have granted her carte blanche for now (while waiting for long-term revenue reports)?

Perhaps, but wouldn't all significant changes to the eBay webpage be overseen by (middle-level) managers?  Maybe the saved searches function is not considered significant?  Can we even automatically assume that eBay upper managers are aware of or micro-manage enough to approve (counterintuitive) changes to the eBay webpage (e.g., to the member saved search function)?  Maybe not.

I don't know.  I am at a loss to explain this.  The problem with dealing with giant, otherwise successful corporations like eBay or PayPal through their webpages is that you can't really know what is going on, you often can't effect change (no matter how sensible), and there is no one to talk to about it.  (We all know how effective it is to call on their help lines.)

Oh well,

Anyone got any better ideas?

[aaronsinkler1]

I want this feature back too and really don't understand why to remove it in the first place?! I have two saved searches made about the same time. One has nice, custom name; another does not. Ugly and makes now sense.

[eburtonlab]

@aaronsinkler1 

It is possible to rename a search using the app by un-saving and then re-saving. You may have to reset the alert settings.

[zarchy]

I just tried it, but when I click on the “Saved” next to the heart, nothing happens.

[eburtonlab]

@zarchy 

It's currently working for me using the Android app on my phone.

I am going to the list of saved searches (under "saved"), and selecting one of those searches, which loads the results of the search. From the results page, I can use the heart icon to unsave the search. When I touch the heart icon again to save the search, I get a "Save this search" popup which lets me rename the search and change the alert status.

Checking my saved searches on a PC shows that the name of the search has actually been changed.

[iamthebullfrog]

What a great find. That's such a HUGE help. Thank you so much, eburtonlab.

[bladework]

@eburtonlab Edits from Android! Whodathunk? Worked for me. Thank you!

[pow_2k]

Having found this after a Google search I just wanted to put out there that as of today (January 8th, 2020) this is still not available in eBay via website but is available via the Android app. Assuming on the Apple device app as well, but I can't confirm. A search I had saved for a book ISBN/UPC is now human readable in the list! Huzzah!