There is something massively wrong with search!

[popblox]

I tried to list a doll this morning, and, while researching comparisons, I noticed that the total items shown didn't match the total search results. It showed there were 6 results, but only 1 was shown:

I thought maybe it was a "clear your cache", etc. issue, so I did all that and got the same result. Then I tried searching from a private window, where the same search yielded accurate results. Incidentally, I had several items to list and this happened with every item I searched, so it wasn't a one-off.

Another member posted here about how ad blockers are preventing promoted listings from appearing in search, and the results were accurate after I disabled AdBlock.

However, all my listings are promoted, I've used chrome with AdBlock as an extension for years, I research comps routinely, and sponsored listings have never been "hidden" like this, nor have the number of results been noticeably different from the number of listings shown.

I don't know if this is a change with AdBlock and/or chrome and/or eBay, but I do know that my sales have been down dramatically for about 2 months. I've previously accepted this fate as just part of the business, but if promoted items aren't appearing in searches for people who use ad blockers (literally everyone I know), it's safe to say that's going to affect sales.

velvet@ebay:

This certainly seems like an issue that eBay needs to address immediately, especially with the constant emphasis on promoted listings. Sales for everyone using promoted listings are being lost every single second.

[popblox]

velvet@ebay adsteam@ebay brian@ebay 

My listings, along with many other sellers, are not being shown in eBay search results to users who have an ad blocker active in their browser.

*If this post is still somewhat accurate, then approximately 65% of buyers on eBay make their purchases from an internet browser. That's about 103 million users.

*Of those 103 million buyers, about 43% actively use an ad blocker. That's approximately 44.5 Million buyers on eBay who do not see my listings if/when they search for an item I sell.

*These results are the same whether the listings are promoted or not, as there's no indication that an active promotion on a listing is the trigger that causes a listing to be hidden. Rather, it appears to be seller account specific - all my categories are affected, even my auctions aren't visible in search.

I realize there have been "ad blocker" discussions that went unresolved previously, but this is a fairly recent issue for me. I've never had any problem seeing my listings in search results until now.

My sales have dropped dramatically (60-80%) in the past 2 months. All 931 of my items are being hidden from 44.5 million buyers on eBay. Why?

[popblox]

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@optimus.prime wrote:

How have your impressions and views been effected these last two months?

Personally, mine have both dropped about 20% in March. And another 20% in April, so 40% since January/February.

---

Down in views 44% since Feb, which is absurd - I sell dolls/toys, so Easter has always been crazy busy for me. Until this year.

[optimus.prime]

Eerily similar.  

[2ndhand_mediaman]

As very strange as it seems, if you are running an adblock program (I have AdblockPlus), turn it off for pages that are not acting the way they should on Ebay. 

Hope this works for everyone.

[gottasellemall69]

Agreed, they have none whatsoever, but if this is due to a recent filter update then would it hurt to at least notify them that this is happening and to maybe roll back that particular update or disable that filter until eBay gets off their ass and fixes it?
Is this an AdBlock specific filter update too I wonder? I do not use AdBlock, but I do use AdGuard, and I don't believe listings are being filtered with AdGuard?

When I perform @popblox 's search this is what returns for me on Chrome, with AdGuard enabled, non-intrusive ads NOT allowed. A total of 10 listings appear however, so ./shrug?

[optimus.prime]

I just tested this myself.

I use UBlock Origin on my main desktop. My listings are fully visible.

I went on a laptop and installed the 2 most popular ad blockers for Chrome AdBlock Plus (it’s free) and AdBlock. And I could not locate a single one of my listings. Other sellers appeared, but mine were gone. 

I believe this confirms your theory that this is account specific. How is that possible? Extremely unfair. And the funny thing is, if I have to guess, something in eBay’s coding on our accounts is triggering this. And I’d have to guess it’s a positive code ebay adds to good sellers. For example something along the lines of “put this listing at the top because they are a good seller” is triggering this.

The good sellers are being punished unintentionally, if I had to take a guess.

Even listings where I am the only one selling the product, will not show. This is ridiculous.

[eburtonlab]

Is this an AdBlock specific filter update too I wonder? I do not use AdBlock, but I do use AdGuard, and I don't believe listings are being filtered with AdGuard?

The problem appears to lie with the abp-filters-anti-cv anti-circumvention filter rules.

Under Ad Block Plus those are enabled by default as "ABP filters". I believe the same filters are used by Ad Block and listed as "Anti-circumvention filters". Disabling those should allow the missing listings to appear.

I have posted a message about this problem on the abp-filters-anti-cv github forum yesterday, but so far no response there:

https://github.com/abp-filters/abp-filters-anti-cv/issues/946

[wastingtime101]

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@popblox wrote:

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I don't have AdBlock Plus - that's the paid service, correct? 

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Free @popblox 

[popblox]

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@optimus.prime wrote:

I just tested this myself.

I use UBlock Origin on my main desktop. My listings are fully visible.

I went on a laptop and installed the 2 most popular ad blockers for Chrome AdBlock Plus (it’s free) and AdBlock. And I could not locate a single one of my listings. Other sellers appeared, but mine were gone. 

I believe this confirms your theory that this is account specific. How is that possible? Extremely unfair. And the funny thing is, if I have to guess, something in eBay’s coding on our accounts is triggering this. And I’d have to guess it’s a positive code ebay adds to good sellers. For example something along the lines of “put this listing at the top because they are a good seller” is triggering this.

---

You're on to something - my sales are missing from my 'best matches' (eBay's search default). Items that are in demand, unique, consistently best sellers until now. I agree that it's an eBay coding issue. I've used AdBlock for years and have never had my listings hidden like this.

For my brand of listings in dolls, I've been #1 in impressions on the listings quality report, every month for 2+ years until now - I've now dropped to #11. There aren't even that many sellers, I have more of these dolls listed than any other seller in this category, which (I guess) is why my items usually appear at the top of 'best match'.

I ran tests on all my categories with AdBlock enabled, here are the results - ranked from (what used to be) my highest selling items to lowest:

1. Dolls & Bears>Dolls, Clothing & Accessories>Dolls & Doll Playsets

All listings hidden 

2. Toys & Hobbies>Preschool Toys & Pretend Play>Play-Doh, Modeling Clay

All listings hidden 

3. Toys & Hobbies>Action Figures & Accessories>Action Figures
Brand: Roblox, Jazwares, Minecraft, Disney
All listings hidden if sorted by best match
All listings shown if sorted any other way

4. Collectibles>Pinbacks, Bobbles, Lunchboxes>Bobbleheads, Nodders>Modern (1970-Now)>Funko

All listings hidden if sorted by best match
All listings shown if sorted any other way

5. Toys & Hobbies>Action Figures & Accessories>Action Figures
Brand: Tokidoki
All listings shown

6. Toys & Hobbies>Action Figures & Accessories>Action Figures
Brand: Piggy

All listings shown

7. Toys & Hobbies>Stuffed Animals>Other Stuffed Animals

All listings shown

[backpacktreasures]

How would you propose to explain this solution to all the millions of potential buyers looking for our items and not finding them? The issue is not to find a solution for sellers to see their own items. It is to find the solution for buyers using ad blockers to see our items.

[backpacktreasures]

I wish I could help pinpoint when this started happening to me.

[optimus.prime]

Thank you for doing this. The Dev team seems like they are active and fix open issues. 

I’m not a user of GitHub. You might also want to link this thread to the issue post? This one has seemed to create the most traction. Would it be helpful for all of us to comment on the issue you created on GitHub? 

[popblox]

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@eburtonlab wrote:

Is this an AdBlock specific filter update too I wonder? I do not use AdBlock, but I do use AdGuard, and I don't believe listings are being filtered with AdGuard?

The problem appears to lie with the abp-filters-anti-cv anti-circumvention filter rules.

Under Ad Block Plus those are enabled by default as "ABP filters". I believe the same filters are used by Ad Block and listed as "Anti-circumvention filters". Disabling those should allow the missing listings to appear.

---

But aren't ABP filters designed, in this case, to hide "Sponsored" listings? All my listings, as well as @optimus.prime listings (and who knows how many others), are being blocked, including non-promoted listings and auctions. 

I have sponsored listings on my other selling account and I can see all those listings in a search with AdBlock enabled. If this was an AdBlock issue, I shouldn't be able to see those, right?

I guess what I'm saying is that it seems impossible that AdBlock has anything to do with selectively choosing to hide a specific seller's listings from search results, especially if those listings aren't even promoted.

[optimus.prime]

I just went into Advanced Settings on AdBlock Plus and turned off the ABP Filters option. My listings then show, even on sponsored listings. Try it yourself.

I think @eburtonlab has really looked into this. And I greatly appreciate it.

[eburtonlab]

At one time it was possible to block the sponsored versions of sponsored listings using a fairly straightforward blocking rule. Most ad blockers could (and did) do that with the default filter rules.

At the time, eBay was displaying the sponsored listings twice in the search results -- once as the standard "organic" listing, and once more as the sponsored listing. The organic listing would sort just as all other listings should, but the sponsored listing appeared at a favored spot in the results and was marked as a sponsored listing.

Blocking the sponsored listing only removed the sponsored version; the organic version still appeared. Folks could use ad blockers to avoid the version that did not sort correctly, but still see the version that did.

At some point eBay decided that in the Best Match sort, only one version of each listing would appear -- whichever appeared higher in the results remained, and the other would be removed by eBay so each item only appeared once in any Best Match sort. That lead to issues with some listings not being visible at all to some users; eBay would remove the organic listing if the sponsored listing appeared higher in the results, and the users' ad blocker would remove the sponsored listing.

Also around that time, eBay changed the way that sponsored listings were designated. It became no longer possible to filter out those listings easily by searching for the "SPONSORED" string. eBay did this by inserting extra non-displayed characters between the letters of the word "SPONSORED" to circumvent the ad blocking. A new rule was implemented to find the new sponsored listings, but eBay changed the way those were designated again to avoid being blocked.

Ad blockers have rules in place to catch various kinds of ads that take steps to hide the fact that they are ads -- those are the anti-circumvention filters.

It seems that those anti-circumvention filters are now blocking some eBay listings that are not sponsored at all, hiding those listings from appearing in eBay search results for any user using that ad blocker in the default configuration.