search is not working correctly

[ghstudio]

Search:  Yamaha TF1 FM  (that's a one)....today you see 2 items

Search: Yamaha TF1 (that's a one)....today you see 20 items

The problem is that searching:  yamaha TF1 DOES NOT FIND the 2 items in Yamaha TF1 FM.  It should show 22 items and include those 2 items.

No filters are set and I've reproduced on two IPADs with Safari and Google as well as windows 10 with Edge and Google

THIS IS LIKELY A MAJOR SITEWIDE ISSUE EFFECTING ALL USERS!!!

[eburtonlab]

This behavior is a result of eBay's implicit category search. The more general a search is, the more likely it is to be limited to some default category chosen by eBay.

A search for "Yamah TF1" (without quotes) defaults to the "Live & Studio Mixers" category, and finds 20 results.

A search for "Yamaha TF1 FM" (without quotes) defaults to "All Categories", and finds 2 results, both of which happen to be outside of the mixer category (which is why they were not found in the first search).

If you want to bypass the implicit category search, you can run the search, and then manually choose "All Categories" and run the search again, or you can try adding a nonsense exclusion term to your search such as "Yamaha TF1 -xyzxyz" (without quotes) which returns 60 results in "All Categories".

[ghstudio]

This may be great for search engine optimization and load balancing, but it's a terrible model for those rational people that assume that a more global search will give a more global answer. Given this EBAY "improvement", I'll never list an item with a listing fee again. Buyers won't find what they are looking for. In the situation mentioned, A search for manufacturer and model number should always show results when someone searches using just those words, irrespective of where it's posted.

BTW...I spent five years designing/implementing Search Engines for a major corportation. I know of what I speak 🙂

[berserkerplanet]

>>This may be great for search engine optimization and load balancing...

More likely it's part of eBay's quest to cater to the lowest common denominator buyer that gets confused by choices. Show them only 2 results and maybe they will poke a button on their phone and make the purchase without having a brain meltdown or being traumatized by TMI. ("Thinking is hard and I'm much too busy to have to deal")

I agree with your sentiment, but eburtonlab told you what is happening. It is the reality and isn't going to change due to reasoned arguments from users like us (it will change when the sales numbers tank more, and the next kneejerk, stupid idea is rolled out, which will likely be worse.)