What happened to the search feature? It's horrible now!

[emmarose1999]

I used to praise eBay's search feature compared to that of Amazon's which was seriously lacking.  EBay's search used to be fantastic, but not anymore.  When I'm looking for something specific, that's what I want the search to show me.  Now when I search, not only do I get similar items that I don't want, I get tons of unrelated items popping up which do not even contain words of the item I'm searching for in the title.  I noticed this happening the past few months. What the heck is going on here?

[eburtonlab]

I would like to ask how would I be able to go into ebay motors and type in a year and make and only get results with that year and make in the title.

If I start at the general search, enter car as a keyword and search, I wind up here:

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

From there I can choose a make or model and range of years to search for vehicles.

There are other ways, but that is pretty straightforward and reproducible.

[kista19]

I have noticed recently my friends can find stuff easier than me and when I search for the same it doesn't show up for me. I've noticed when I change the sorting from Best Match to Price Lowest First that the number of results always change. I went back to look at motherboard kits that I had purchased before from a specific seller and they have 5 to choose from but eBay's search will show all of them using Best Match but when I change to sort by the Price it only shows 3 of them, the others are down below where it says items matching fewer words but they have the same criteria in the title that I am searching for. I've also found where they omit certain search results to help you out is totally useless and it takes away a lot of the good ones so I'm always clicking that to show all results.

I don't understand why the number or results have to change when all you do is simply change how you want it to sort them for you, also would be nice if eBay were to allow you to choose a default sorting option so you don't have to keep changing it everytime. 

[eburtonlab]

@kista19 

I don't understand why the number or results have to change when all you do is simply change how you want it to sort them for you

The Lowest Price sort by default only shows a limited number of results that eBay considers relevant. To see all the results you must click on the "see more results" link that appears at the top of the results.

also would be nice if eBay were to allow you to choose a default sorting option so you don't have to keep changing it everytime.

You can set your default sort method and other things using the "Customize" option that appears at the top of the search results when using a desktop browser located where you can choose between list or gallery view:

[kinglerch]

A big problem right now seems to be that phrases no longer work. A Test Pressing is a specific type of record, it goes by no other name...it is a Test Pressing. Period. Searching for "test pressing" used to work fine, I would only get items with THESE words in THIS order.

But now, If I search for "test pressing" I get anything with the word test, tested, pressed, press and in ANY order...it is USELESS! These words are so common, that when they are found in any order like this, there is no way to find "test pressings" anymore.

This is just one example of why the search has been broken.

[eburtonlab]

Searching for "test pressing" used to work fine, I would only get items with THESE words in THIS order.

That is how it works for me when I search the following:

"test pressing"

I get 7300 results in the Vinyl Records category, and all the results on the first page include the exact phrase test pressing in the item title or item specifics.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=%22test+pressing%22&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0

Putting quotes around any of your keywords should prevent any keyword substitutions and find exact matches for your keywords or phrase.

[mr_lincoln]

@eburtonlab   Hmmmmm ... coincidence?  After a few complaints about bad Search results I just got a Survey about my recent Browsing ...

                                  

Mr. L

[kh-vince]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.