eBay Advanced Search not working after apparent update

[intuitive]

I noticed today that the eBay Advanced Search page has changed.   I also noticed that all of a sudden I am  getting 0 search results for the items I am looking for.  

The searches I have been trying are in the Books and Magazines category.   Title searches for simple terms like "farm" and "sea" produce 0 results.   The message I get says "We found 0 results for "sea" in Books and Magazines, so here are some other search results" -- and all the results are in clothing and makeup. 

I then tried to and three-word title/description searches in the Books and Magazines category (relating to books I confirmed are listed on the site prior to my attempt) -- for example, "george washington."  Again, 0 results.

I talked to eBay customer service and the representative was able to reproduce the same results.   Had no explanation why it was happening, but promised to report the problem.

In the meantime, I can't find items I want to buy and I suspect buyers can't find the items I am selling due to the same problem.   I would further guess that it's not just happening to me.

It seems that whatever update/upgrade was made to the Search engine has messed it up in a big way.    I noticed earlier this week that hundreds of my search bookmarks that I have been using for the last 5 years suddenly stopped working.   Instead of search results, I get a message saying "eBay redirected too many times."   Obviously eBay has changed something. 

The eBay Search Engine is the most important function on the site for both buyers and sellers.   If the Search Engine is on the fritz, it is going to hurt everyone.    I don't know about anybody else, but I can't afford to lose even a day of sales.

[intuitive]

I have also noticed that the Advanced Search page is automatically loading with filters I never selected.  It should load with all filters set to default.   Instead, I find the box for "Items ending within 1 hour" is pre-checked.   Also the box for "Items within 10 miles of zip code" is checked.    I have never used either of these filters.    Had I not scrolled all the way down the page to see this, I may not have even noticed.    There can be no question that this glitch is also contributing to diminished search results, because any item that is not within 10 miles of me, or ending within 1 hour, won't be shown.

[beerhere]

Same here. 

Why change something that wasn't broken?

[eburtonlab]

If I use the Advanced link from my search results, whatever search parameters are in use in the search are transferred to the Advanced Search page for me.

If I use the Advanced link from a non-search page, there are no parameters preset; all are blank.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/ebayadvsearch

[eburtonlab]

Why change something that wasn't broken?

The alternative -- waiting until things break before making any changes -- is often a recipe for catastrophic failure that cannot be recovered from. There is a reason that races have pit stops.

By the time things are obviously broken, simple fixes may no longer be possible.

Many changes are dictated by circumstances out of anyone's individual control. Just because a user thinks a site is not broken does not necessarily mean that the site does not need to make changes to meet evolving security standards, for instance. A server may need to be upgraded. A hardware change may dictate a new operating system. Old code may not be compatible with the new system and may need to be rewritten. None of this may be obvious to users who only notice that an old feature no longer appears on the new page.

[i*find*u*flip]

I also noticed the advanced search does not work correctly. There is also NO advanced search thats category specific , for instance cars only, its trying to search everything , books , clothes etc. for search words. Also you cant type in a search "year range" as in 1964-1967 pontiac for instance .  You have to  type on one year only and when you choose "lowest price first

" and "completed auctions" it does nor even put cars in order of cheapest to most expensive.

THIS IS THE MOST USEFULL TOOL EBAY HAS FOR RESEARCHING COMPARABLE SOLD PRICES-JUST TERRIBLE.......EBAY HAS TO BE FULL STEAM AHEAD ON "LOSING MARKET SHARE"

[eburtonlab]

To search for vehicles in a date range, you may have better results starting from the Cars & Trucks category and using the "Find a Car or Truck" tool at the top to specify the date range:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/6001/i.html?_nkw=pontiac

Your specific search for lowest price, completed listings:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/Cars-Trucks/6001/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=pontiac&UF_single_selection=Make%3AP...

[saturdaystoys]

The search box on our store's home page has been malfunctioning for weeks now.  Somehow, select keywords are being blocked from search results.  However, we've found that when we place parentheses around the keywords... they work perfectly.  Unfortunately, no customer would know to try that.  Amazing that eBay has known about these flaws for weeks... and still there is no resolution.  And yes... sales are way down.

[jabecne0]

just happened to me and im trying to find out why, frustrating.

[jabecne0]

it was a rhetorical question, my gosh, why go on a pointless rant? To show great wisdom?

[diecastcurator]

Same thing here.  Searches on main page and sold items not working.  Search without your own dashboard and active items isn’t working either.  Very hard to list new stuff without being able to get search results. 

[intuitive]

Four days later and I am remain unable to perform a simple title search for the word "sea" in the Books and Magazines category.   It returns 0 results. 

71% of the world is covered by oceans, but the eBay search engine tells me eBay contains not a single book with "sea" in the title.

Meanwhile, when I click on "Advanced Search" from whatever eBay page I happen to be on at the moment, the form still loads with unwanted filters pre-checked -- namely the "Items ending within 1 hour" filter, "Items with 10 miles" filter, and, for some reason, "Only items by seller -----" and it prefills whatever name I happen to be signed in under.

If I didn't know to uncheck these boxes before searching, I would get zero results virtually every time I searched for items, because what are the odds that items I'm searching for will be 1. ending within one hour, 2., be located within 10 miles of me, and, oh yeah, 3) are also being sold by me?  

Four days of this.  

[eburtonlab]

@intuitive 

If a search that has worked well previously suddenly starts behaving badly, often 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.

Try this as a starting point:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=%22sea%22&_sacat=267&LH_TitleDesc=0

[ravensbeak]

Same here... I use the advanced search exclusively when searching for items, and now, whatever it was ebay techs did to it, the advanced search stinks BIG time! Not only is the new layout stupid, but when using the advanced search I select all the different things I want, such as what category, gallery view or list view, sold items, new or used, etc., and now when I backspace to the advanced search after doing a search, half of my selections are gone and I have to go right back and re-select them, before doing another search. This is time consuming and frustrating. Back spacing was never a problem before. Also, I'm getting some really doofy results with my searches, now, too! Like, yesterday I was looking for envelopes and there were things like motorcycle helmets and dishes and other weird items coming up in the results. I had more searching that I needed to do, but after an hour of this crap, I threw my hands up and quit.

[intuitive]

Thanks.  I am aware of the workaround, having read about it in one of the threads devoted to this current search engine affliction.

I am a seller as much as I am a buyer.    And as a seller, I know the average buyer isn't tuned into eBay the way I am after two decades of selling here.  The average buyer won't seek out workarounds, go searching for answers on discussion boards, or in many cases even wonder why fewer items than usual are being returned in the search results.   The relative handful that do probably won't  waste their time worrying about it.   They'll just move on to something else. 

When buyers can't find the items they're looking for because the search engine can't produce results for simple terms like sea in certain categories, that's a problem for sellers.    Who knows how many other as-yet unknown words and categories have dropped out of the search engine's vocabulary (so to speak)?  Who knows how many other members are getting unwanted pre-checked filters on the advanced search, further undercutting the search results?

This is bad all the way around.