Another example of BROKEN SEARCH FUNCTION

[anjie234]

I have 7 listings for Porcelain Storybook dolls (example:  10" Porcelain Storybook Doll ~ TINKERBELL ~ 1998 Royalton ~ NEW in BOX w/ COA)

These used to be BIG, BIG sellers for me, especially over the holiday season. Only 4 sold in last 90 days around Christmas. I know, for a fact, that searching for "storybook" or "storybook dolls" would result in my listings being shown. So....

I conducted the following search from the main search bar: (and have repeated it with same results several times over the last month)

• Search words: “storybook dolls”;  Results: 1,500+  
• The results are a full 15 PAGES of ALL “Nancy Ann Storybook Dolls”; ALL 3,400+ shown are NANCY ANN
      (and, yes, I did painstakingly look through all 15 pages!).
• My dolls are “Royalton Storybook Dolls”; And there are actually many other manufacturers of storybook dolls not shown.
• My listings are NOWHERE within these 15 pages; NOT SHOWN at all!  WHY?!?!?
  
  

   I then conducted the following search: (ADDING a search word)

• Search words: “Royalton Storybook dolls”; Results: 32 
  • All 7 of my listings are there (a couple of them show more than once, although I only have them listed once).
  • Also showing in these results are listings that are NOT storybook dolls at all:
         - polly pocket figurines blue jewel under the sea sea princess
         - Lot of 3 Vintage Dolls Figurines Various Random Plastic Wooden Porcelain Ceramic
         - 2003 MCDONALD'S MADAME ALEXANDER DOLLS LOT OF 23 
         - NIB "MADELINE Doll Dress Up Trunk Set & GENEVIEVE" #49865 Madame Alexander
         -      and a few Nancy Ann’s thrown in there!
•  Then I clicked on “SOLD” listings, and it shows 2 that sold in February. 
        They are both my listings, but they sold in December; (AND I actually sold 4 in December!) 

  CONCLUSION: 

• Nobody finds my storybook doll listings because they are NOT SHOWN with the keyword “storybook dolls” … PERIOD! 
• Buyers will most likely not search for ‘Royalton’ specifically, because it is not a well-known name.
        BUT, I've sold 100's of these dolls in the past, when search worked better (& cuz they are beautiful dolls at a great price!).
•  WHY is the search defaulting to ONLY ‘Nancy Ann’ dolls?

If I've missed/overlooked something, please do tell. Your input is welcome, and greatly appreciated.

[anjie234]

While I'm at it, 

OTHER WELL-KNOWN (and frequently reported) SEARCH ISSUES:

• Auto-correction - The Search Function frequently (incorrectly) ‘corrects’ the search words entered, and/or the category chosen, producing incorrect results.
  
  
• The need to ADD search criteria to get additional results (which is counter-intuitive; Normally additional words are used to narrow the results.)
• Example: A buyer wants to find red apples (forgive me, I can’t think of a real-world example at the moment!)
• Enter “apples” in the search bar; Result: 0 listings
• Enter “red apples” in the search bar; Results are shown
  
  
• Search returning totally invalid results that do not match the search criteria
  
  
• The inability to find one’s own listings from within Seller Hub (even when using the EXACT wording in listing titles!)

There are MORE. These examples are most prevalent.

The first 3 above are absolutely preventing buyers from finding the listings they are looking for. It makes sense that these buyers are going elsewhere, because they believe ebay does not have what they are looking for.

The vast majority of them
- WILL NOT think of adding words to a search that produced zero results.

- WILL NOT think of putting quotes around their search words (which is the workaround for those ‘in the know’)

- WILL NOT think to look and see if the search narrowed their results to an incorrect category!

THIS STUFF NEEDS FIXIN’!  ...and FAST!!!

[heckofagame]

I typed in storybook doll Tinkerbell, then clicked the porcelain item specific to the left and yours was at the top of the list. 

[ebooksdiva]

I found several of your listings by searching 10" Porcelain Storybook Doll, yours come up starting in the 12th row down with 54 results in search

10" Porcelain Storybook Doll for sale | eBay

[anjie234]

Okay, well that's good! Really. Thank-you.

However, it isn't really an answer to the main search issue described.

"Storybook Doll" should return all storybook dolls, not just Nancy Ann storybook dolls.

[heckofagame]

Storybook Doll returns 3300+ listings

[ebooksdiva]

Duck House Heirloom Porcelain Doll turned up 873 results in search. 

3,500+ results for Storybook Doll

So I guess it 's all how you word the search for what you're looking for.

[inhawaii]

You used TWO WORDS to look for an item with over 3,000 results?

Perhaps you should narrow your search just a little bit?

How about "porcelain storybook doll"?

Your items are all searchable for me.

[eburtonlab]

I do see your dolls when searching storybook.

I do not see your dolls when searching storybook dolls. Although your listings do contain the keywords storybook dolls in the item-specifics, your title uses the singular term storybook doll rather than the plural dolls.

Although I believe your items should appear in a search for storybook dolls, since they seem not to be shown at the moment, you may want to change your item title to include storybook dolls to see if that affects visibility for you when searching using that term. Perhaps change one item title as a test and see how that goes.

eBay's search has never been perfect, and lately there seem to be more problems than usual, but there may still be things you can do to make it easier for potential buyers to see your items while waiting for eBay to fix things.

[chapeau-noir]

Try running those exact same searches incognito and see what you come up with - there may be personalisation factoring in, but it would be good to know.

Also, the autocorrect on searches is extremely annoying, I agree - how I struggled to research a popular and common brand name "Misslook" and they kept 'correcting' it to "Misook".  Same thing with Kline equipment - kept returning Klein. I finally had to use quotes - shouldn't have to do that with single word searches.

[monica-sells]

Whenever you are testing 'anything', you need to eliminate variables that might affect your results.

When researching search results, the minimum requirement is to search with a cookie-free browser....(anonymous, incognito, whatever)

to make your results more random, you should also test through a VPN

searching is not a defined science.....results are determined by the source you are searching through...they all try to improve by using AI algo to "personalize" your search results based on your "history" or "past interests"....

that totally skews results as to what someone else might see with the SAME search terms....

[shar_27]

I simply don't get the idea of buyers need to be taught how to search ?
You need to put quotes on search terms, need to add "Doll" in your search, need to add "Fan" when search radiator ..... etc?
Where are these rules coming from?
And how are we sellers supposed to teach each and every buyer since we have no idea where they would be ?

Search should be simple and accurate .. period!
Any cookies, Personalisation should bring convenience, not issues.

-

[anjie234]

Great! Thank-you!

BUT, If a buyer is looking for "STORYBOOK DOLLS"....

    OUT OF 15 PAGES, MINE ARE NOT SHOWING.

The point is:  You shouldn't have to add "porcelain" or "10 inch".

That is not how a conventional search works. 

[anjie234]

@heckofagame 

       Storybook Doll returns 3300+ listings

YES!  And NONE of them are  Royalton dolls. If you look at the results, they are ALL

Nancy Ann dolls.

That's not right. The results should include all storybook dolls that are currently listed.

Thank-you for your time.

[anjie234]

@ebooksdiva 

Duck House Heirloom Porcelain Doll turned up 873 results in search. 

3,500+ results for Storybook Doll

So I guess it 's all how you word the search for what you're looking for.

How does "Duck Heirloom Porcelain Doll" have anything at all to do with this?

Where did that come from? It's not even a storybook doll.