searches

[holostean]

PLEASE tell ebay to quit automatically refining my search categories.  It is a tremendous pain to have to change category to all after every single search.  An example - I look for shirts and other ephemera related to moonpie products.  I start the search in all categories (typically about 50 items most days), ebay automatically changed the search to the dresses category (1 item).  WHY?  This does not help buyers or sellers at all and in fact makes searching less efficient, less accurate and almost useless.  Someone who can actually communicate with ebay brass PLEASE tell them to stop this.

[eburtonlab]

Use the "Tell us what you think" link or the "Feedback" / "Comment" / "?" link in the lower right of the search results to let eBay know of your dissatisfaction.

There are several ways around eBay's automatic category navigation.

One way is to pick your keywords first, then search, then select the category from the category tree on the left side of the search results. Once you have the search set up the way you like it, bookmark or save the search so you can use it again without having to go through all that again. Once you have a search saved or bookmarked, you can use it as a starting point for further searches.

You can also try adding an exclusion term to your search keywords, or putting one of your keywords in quotes. That will force the search to be run in all categories by default, but it also has the effect of disabling keyword substitutions. Using any advanced commands (exclusions, quotes or putting multiple keywords in parentheses separated by commas to perform an "OR" search that matches any of those keywords) will cause eBay to bypass "smart" search features and return only exact, literal matches of your search terms.

Different people search in different ways; something that seems to make things harder for you may actually make it easier for someone else. There is more than one way to perform just about any search, so if one way is not working for you, try another way that works better.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=moonpie+shirt&_sacat=11450&LH_TitleDesc=0&_sop=10

[holostean]

Thank you for explaining how eaby automatic search modifiers can create more work for potential buyers to find what they want.  I still argue the feature is worthless.  When searching for moonpie items, especially t shirts, I get 54 in all categories.  eBay automatically changes search to dresses category and switches that to 1 item.  How does any algorithm decide that a category with more than 2 dozen shirts should be replaced by a category with one item?  Why would any seller want eBay to actively limit the returns on a search?  Every time eBay modifies a search it reduces the number of hits.  Is that what sellers want, for their items to reach a smaller audience?

And 'smart' search is a funny name.  I search for signed copies of children's books about cats.  At least once I choose the book category eBay leaves that alone.  But I get all books by authors named Guy and all books with 'man'  in the title.  In what century was 'cat' commonly used for guy or man?  last I saw that was on the Dobie Gillis show.  So a straight forward search becomes cluttered by almost as many hits with an outdated and forgotten slang term.

 I would like to complain directly to eBay, but they make it impossible.  Dozens of pre-answered questions before you get to talk to rep and then you get AI answers, nobody in sight who you can explain anything to.  They are saving money at the cost of service.  It will kill the platform.

[eburtonlab]

I would like to complain directly to eBay, but they make it impossible.

Every search results page has either a "Tell us what you think" link or else a "?" / "Comment" / "Feedback" link you can use to provide your opinion directly to eBay page developers.

Why would any seller want eBay to actively limit the returns on a search? Every time eBay modifies a search it reduces the number of hits. Is that what sellers want, for their items to reach a smaller audience?

Sellers might not want that. Some sellers seem to want their item listings to appear in every possible search, regardless of relevancy to judge by the keyword spamming some sellers engage in.

But many buyers would prefer a smaller number of more relevant results rather than a greater number of less relevant results. Whether eBay's search always delivers that effectively is another matter, but that is the intention behind it. 

eBay's automatic category navigation does not have to be perfect every time -- and it is clearly not -- it just has to lead to more sales overall compared to the alternative, even if it sometimes makes searching harder for you and me until we figure out how to get around it.

Now that you know how to disable eBay's "smart" search, it never has to trouble you again when you search.

I search for signed copies of children's books about cats. At least once I choose the book category eBay leaves that alone. But I get all books by authors named Guy and all books with 'man' in the title. In what century was 'cat' commonly used for guy or man? last I saw that was on the Dobie Gillis show. So a straight forward search becomes cluttered by almost as many hits with an outdated and forgotten slang term.

Try putting cat in quotes for exact, literal matches with no substitutions. Like this:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/261186/i.html?_fsrp=1&rt=nc&_nkw=%22cat%22+signed&_sacat=261186&Intended%25...