Who broke the search engine?

[somethingroyal]

It now seems to pay little to no attention to the words in the search bar or the narrowed parameters (size, price, condition) used.

This seems to be a growing problem.  A couple of weeks ago it would occasionally ignore a word or two, but now it seems to ignore all of them. 

For example, just now I typed the following in for all categories:  Naturalizer Java 7.5.  it is a specific size and model of the shoe brand.  What I got was hundreds of Natural Pearls, none of which had Java in the title.  When I narrowed the categories to clothing/shoes and got a handful of boots, none with Java or the size.  No "using fewer words" mentioned, just totally ignoring what was typed.

[eburtonlab]

@somethingroyal 

Search is indeed broken in many ways, but the real reason you are not finding what you are looking for is that there are no size 7.5 Naturalizer Javas listed on eBay at the moment. The closest I can find at the moment is a size 7 javas sandal.

If you try a more general search for "Naturalizer Javas" (without the quotes, and note the spelling) there are nine results found.

naturalizer javas

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.A0.H0.Xnaturalizer+ja...

In general, when a search appears to be ignoring one of your key words or is sending you to a particular category you do not want to be limited to, it is usually because eBay's "smart search" feature has been engaged. One way to bypass the "smart search" is to add a nonsense exclusion term to your search, like this:

naturalizer javas -octopus

That does not have any effect in this particular search, though.

[somethingroyal · Accepted solution]

Trying that gave me zero results though I know there are some available. So the choice is a list of totally irrelevant items or none, which I'd get if I didn't shop eBay at all. Seems that is the best option of all: Shop elsewhere.

This "smart search" is the dumbest thing outside the whitehouse.

[adamxrose]

so i put in a search for all categories
pucci shirt..tells me that there are 147 items..shows me 17
where are the other 130?
the search engine needs a tune up. in fact throw it out and get a new engine. ..this should be done by preferably a licensed mechanic. omg. such a mess. this site should start over. the stock price would reflect the optimism! lets all buy one share and show up at the shareholders meeting. cant loose all that much money on the stock price. its pretty low now..maybe we should wait a few more weeks. it may go lower! ;(

[eburtonlab]

@adamxrose 

so i put in a search for all categories
pucci shirt..tells me that there are 147 items..shows me 17
where are the other 130?

Are you using any size filters or other limits on your search?

Currently I see 396 results that can ship to my location when I search pucci shirt in all categories:

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

There are a couple of things that can cause the number of "results found" to differ from the actual listings on the search results page. If you are sorting your results by "lowest first", eBay often includes the following message: "We removed some search results to show you the most relevant listings. View all results" -- if you want to see all the results, you need to use that link.

Another thing that can affect the number of listings shown is if some of those listings are multiple variation items -- different sizes, styles or colors. In that case one listing can count as many results: one for each variation that qualifies for your search.

[adamxrose]

hi thanks for responding

no i am not filtering size price anything..seriously i mostly know what i am doing and just put in pucci shirt its says 147 as i said and only about under 20 show up without having to go back and actually count them up . this may not happen to everyone but if it happens to buyers theres a problem.if you cant find it you wont buy it.

 i sell and just wanted to see where my item popped up if at all because of another search i did with different parameters on with the same title. 

they have issues that they are not addressing. i had a major issue a few years ago when items did not populate through the bulk re lister. it took 2 years not joking of calling in and only got fixed when the corporate guys realize that 17 percent of my listings were lost. NOT JOKING..suddenly that got fixed. (they realized how much money was being lost) that was two and half or so years ago. there are others that posted the issue that year too. overall i am sick of this platform that is confused and with no understanding of the amount of work one off items take to revise. i have spent the day going back and forth with customer service asking me to send them the screenshots THAT I ALREADY SENT in quadruplicate to four different support groups and devin@ebay.com

unless he changed his email address. they know about it. they are just playing mind games in my opinion about fixing things.also in my opinion they are not doing anything different than donahoe which was nothing. i keep asking about the search engine issue and have since the beginning of january to top customer care phone support..they acted shocked but they knew about the issues. when i type in a word on my search bar..ie the word plenty for title..two hundred other items come up. its broken. 

they even went so far as to blame that whole thing on the fact that i use a MAC computer..steve jobs is rolling .. 

thanks for trying to help..the day was upsetting at the very least with someone asking me for a screenshot i already sent them? where is it?? i sent again and copies to corporate. if they want a paper trail they have it. no one is doing anything just talk..talk is cheap..other sites are far less complicated i found out.

[eburtonlab]

@adamxrose 

i sell and just wanted to see where my item popped up if at all because of another search i did with different parameters on with the same title.

I checked through the results of the search I linked to, and your listing does appear in those results when I perform that search.

Sorry to hear that you are having problems and the folks doing phone support are not being helpful.

There are definitely some current issues with eBay's search; sometimes results are returned that do not match the keywords. There are various techniques for dealing with that, notably adding an exclusion term to disable the "search expansion" feature. But that does not appear to be happening for me when I search using the terms pucci shirt.

[adamxrose]

hi

yes my shirt comes up but i want to do a compare and i cant. who knows what the buyers see..ie: i accepted and offer and no payment. the buyer was not notified they won. thats in the time it took for you to answer. if i didnt email and ask i would have had to open a case for non payment. nice move? 

honestly..they told me to start over and relist with another name to see if i have the same issues. it told them i could list the stuff on another site with less headaches and if they want to come over and help they were welcome. i will even buy dinner!

i recently have looked at the posting boards to see if others have my issues and surprise they do..not everyone is affected. are you on a pc? 

i just think the mac comment went over the top for me. how many people shop with iphones? the search engines are way off..i dont remember the keywords but they have it all in their notes if they took them down correctly. they hate me in customer care because i make noise. the noise makes them money..they would not have fixed the drop listings if i didnt speak to someone in corporate. honestly if they hadnt called me i would be at the beach today instead of suffering with all the customer care emails. i dont expect a whole lot from them at all but at least they can acknowledge that they get the emails. they pretend not to get them. i have been emailing from my regular email and the emails started in june. it took until last week for a response with no answer..just how can we help when they had the question in front of the. no accountability ;( ..more help from people like you..so thank you..

[adamxrose]

ran out of space. i have a lot of patience. i can stand there and take knots out of string but my patience has worn thin on the poor(overstated) service to a top rated seller. cant imagine what new people are going through trying to navigate to buy a shirt. the one i referrenced is unique and shows up on the web search so its the shirt bringing customers to ebay not the other way around. hate to let them know this. might deflate their egos but its true that keywords work. they already stripped keywords off photos so they dont show in websearches which they do on other sites in order to control sales and the bit themselves in the foot on that one. dont get me going.oh..yes the restrictions on sales last year remember that fiasco. oh another years ago that probably no one remember when you couldnt revise an item when it was on sale..that was a joke...you could sell something on sale with misinformation and not be able to change it. BARELY LIVED through all of their unthought through changes. its a miracle they are actually here..in spite of themselves. its why the competition is gaining..sad to say.

[eburtonlab]

@adamxrose 

To answer your question, I am on a PC. I am not a seller, so I cannot speak to listing issues, but I have a pretty good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of eBay's search. If you have any questions about the search results you are seeing I will try to answer if I can.

[bitbeat]

Why even TRY to search for your listings and hits?  

Either no one is looking at any of my 1100 items or I get turned off now in clumps of hours.

I leave 'active listings' open on my pc - yesterday I saw very few changes in views #s for the 'most recent' listings.  This morning, after opening another window to compare the #s of views, I was happy to see many of the fist 200 had a few more views than last night.

I left for work - came back 5 hours later and not one of the first 200 had a view #change.  

This never happens unless there is a glitch.  Hey Ebay - there's a glitch.

[selsa84]

Try searching for auto parts and you get 70% non-auto items. best match seams to mean they are directing you to WHO they want you to buy from and not what your actually looking for. every week it seems its getting worse

[selsa84]

they are directing you to who they want you to buy from

[im-poor]

How true!