Search results are becoming hugely problematic

[vistavision]

I’ve recently noticed that if I search for something (it can be very specific) the results that come back include a plethora of items that have absolutely no correlation. It’s been a thing for a while now. I see from searching through the community that this has been a problem before over the last few years. I only started experiencing this recently. It’s very frustrating. 

[vistavision]

A good example: I searched for a record called “New Sounds in Electronic Music”. There were less than 5 of that actual record and yet there were over 600 results that came back none of which included every one of the words in my search. 

[eburtonlab]

When you search using keywords, by default you are asking eBay to find listings that contain those individual keywords anywhere in the title or item specifics, in any order.

When those keywords are very common words such as new sounds in electronic music, there will be many listings that contain all those keywords scattered throughout the title and item-specifics.

If you want to only find listings with a specific phrase -- where the words only occur in order with no intervening words -- you can try searching using the Advanced Search page, and select "Exact words, exact order", and you will get the following results:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=new+sounds+in+electronic+music&_in_kw=3

If you look at how the keywords are displayed in the search results search field, you can see that the keyword phrase is surrounded by quotes. You can also try putting quotes around a phrase you want to search for when searching directly without actually going to the Advanced Search page.

[bookasan]

This was an issue a couple months back and after 12 calls to customer service and just as many excuses as to why it was happening, they fixed it. Then a week or so ago the same problem was back. They have acknowledged this is a technical issue on their end and they are aware of it. In a new call to customer service last week I was told they were adding me to the ticket along with the hundreds (probably thousands by now) that have reported it, but it was showing an estimated date to be looked at of over 2 months. They obviously know what the issue is and how to fix it because they had it fixed last time. 

In case anyone reading this doesn't exactly understand the issue, type Aphex 188 in the search. 11 results come up and none are the Aphex 188. Now look below at "More To Consider" and the Aphex 188 shows up there. 

Now search Aphex 1788A and there are 23 results, which only 1 is the correct item and shows up last. Strangely the Aphex 188 comes up as the first item in the search. 

This is a huge issue for a buyer searching an item and in turn deeply affects sales. A buyer searching will either not see the item they are looking for and assume none are for sale, or in some cases have to look through thousands of search results of unrelated items to pick out the correct item. 

I list these items on another non-Ebay site and the search works flawlessly. I have also been a seller on Ebay since 1999 and have never had this issue up until a couple of months ago. 

[eburtonlab]

In case anyone reading this doesn't exactly understand the issue, type Aphex 188 in the search. 11 results come up and none are the Aphex 188.

When I try that search, I get three results, all Aphex 188's:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=aphex+188&_sacat=0&_sop=10

No results for Aphex 188A.

If you are getting different results, try a different sort order, particularly if you are using Best Match or Lowest First.

If a search that has worked well previously suddenly starts behaving badly, sometimes the problem has something to do with a faulty keyword substitution or an inappropriate automatic category navigation issue.

You can bypass many of these sorts of search issues by putting one of your keywords in quotes. This forces eBay to bypass the "smart" features and to search for the literal keywords without any substitution or category switching. You may have to manually specify your category once again.

[eburtonlab]

I do see a result for a 1788A that you sold recently, however.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=aphex+1788a&_sacat=0&rt=nc&LH_Sold=1&LH_Complete=1

[urban_picker]

From what I understand, they have let Ai take over search. It is a complete mess but is supposed to be a learning tool that gets better over time. I have yet to see an improvement and brings up so many items that has nothing to do with the search and most of the does not show what one is searching for. I don't understand how they let this mess keep happening.

[bookasan]

What is strange is when I click on your link I see 3 Aphex 188s. When I go to Ebay and do a search for Aphex 188 on my own, it doesn't come up

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2323012.m570.l1313&_nkw=aphex+188&_sacat=0

[bookasan]

Tried to edit my last response to this but it wouldn't let me. You are correct that when you change from Best match to lowest price it does show 3 results that are all correct and thanks for the workaround.

This however is still a huge issue in my opinion since it defaults to Best Match.  Shouldn't the best match for Aphex 188 be an Aphex 188? It does not show up at all under best match. 

If I log on to Ebay to buy something, type in a search and nothing comes up, I would assume that changing best match to lowest price would yield the same result and not bother. 

This has only recently become an issue and I have never seen this issue on other sites I use like Reverb.

[eburtonlab]

The "Price plus shipping: lowest first" sort order provides filtered results -- often drastically filtered. And the option to "see more results" may not always be shown as it should. The filtering may vary depending on the keywords used.

If you encounter a drastically filtered result for a keyword search using a desktop browser, you should be able to use the "Feedback" link in the lower right corner of the search results to provide feedback on your search to eBay developers. The more users provide info, the more likely something is to be done about the over-filtration problem.

Best Match is different, and may show more results.

You can avoid that problem entirely by using a different sort order, such as Newly Listed or Ending Soonest.

If you have few results, and you want to sort by price, try sorting by "Highest First", then starting at the end of the results, scroll up instead of down. This also avoids the problem of variation listings with low-cost variations appearing at the top of the lowest-first sort.

If you have a bookmarked or saved lowest-first search that you use a lot, you can avoid the filtration by adding the following to the end of the search URL, then saving the resulting search:

&_blrs=recall_filtering

If a search returns results that do not appear to contain your chosen keywords in the titles or item-specifics, try putting one of your search keywords in quotes.

Using quotes around one of your search keywords forces eBay to avoid any keyword substitutions or corrections and search for literal matches only.

[theinspiredstyle]

Thank you for responding! I came here to ask the same question. 

[theinspiredstyle]

This is been quite frankly infuriating as both a buyer and seller. I just searched for a Hugo Boss shirt. 192 results. I added ONE WORD to search to narrow the results and it populated 492 results!! **bleep** EBAY. 

I wonder how wide spread this is, and if it’s on apple/android/both.  I will definitely be reporting every problem I see from now on.

[bookasan]

Searching for an item should not have to be this difficult. You should simply be able to type in exactly what you are looking for in a search field and get results for what you are looking for like on any other website. 

[eburtonlab]

Searching for an item should not have to be this difficult.

Most users seem to be able to search and find things to buy.

Searching is easy. Anyone can search. Finding something to buy is easy.

Finding certain items, and finding only those items and nothing else, is harder.

You should simply be able to type in exactly what you are looking for in a search field and get results for what you are looking for like on any other website. 

eBay does not actually know "what you are looking for", though. eBay only knows what search terms you are entering into the site.

It is entirely possible for two users to enter the exact same search terms, and have drastically different ideas about what results should appear. eBay has to decide what results to show by default, and what results require further steps to obtain.

eBay makes some assumptions based on the keywords used, but the more assumptions eBay makes, the more exceptions eBay has to take into consideration, the more complicated eBay's search becomes, the more likely that an error can occur.

Sellers selling the same item may describe it in different ways, too.

A sufficiently savvy seller can list in such a way that an inexperienced buyer can still find the seller's listing.

And a sufficiently savvy buyer can find a listing even when the seller is inexperienced and lists in the "wrong" category, or uses the "wrong" keyword.

If both buyer and seller are inexperienced, though, then the only way they find each other is if eBay is sufficiently clever about designing the default search behavior or default listing options.

It is usually better to be savvy yourself than to rely on others to be savvy on your behalf.