Simply-the-best-for-you Volunteer Community Mentor
The sheer volume of this site is such that Search Filters are very often a requirement if you want a manageable number of results on eBay. When I search for clothing anyway, I almost always have to use them, even though I typically am not a 'filter user'. This may vary greatly from other sites, based on the fact that most others have a lot less overall listings in comparison.
Additionally, the API allows access to the user's search criteria? Am I the only one who finds that odd? I've never used eBay's API, so IDK, but I know that search behavior on eBay is considered some sort of great secret, so I would be very surprised if that info was accessible via the API.
As for the results, it's hard to know b/c eBay considers it so secret. But, I would suspect that significantly more users use Filters than the data above shows b/c eBay put a lot of time, money & effort into creating IS's, spefically for those who use left side drill down searches. I dont think they would have done that if 97% of people would never use it. BTW, my definition of filters INCLUDES things like size, color, brand, etc. Those are the ones people pretty much HAVE to use on eBay in crowded categories. As for the Filters you quoted above, I believe that most people don't use those. Occasionally, if I don't see what I want in results, I may change the Sort order.
I also believe that the majority do not change the order of results. Even I don't & I was in IT my whole life & know Search quite well. I just typically choose the quick, easy way & I am not surprised that most others do too.
From a software standpoint, allowing people to change sort order, no big deal. Allowing filters for sale items or FS or TRS, no big deal. Creating the new architecture to define filters that never existed before for fields that never existed before (Item Specifics) - really big deal.
@retro_entertainment_collectibles I know you're up on current languages, platforms, which I am not, since I was primarily involved with designing & diagnostics of legacy software (which despite popular opinion is still very much in use). So a question for you, would the API even have a user's search criteria in it? That strikes me as very odd, as I thought the API was simply an interface. I realize that it *could* have it, but with eBay having always treated search habits & frankly anything related to search, as a trade secret, it would seem odd to me that search criteria would be passed via the API, had this been eBay's API. But I'm thinking mainly of 3rd party tools that would never need that info as the main users of the API. Perhaps there's a whole class of API users that I'm not taking into consideration?
@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:@simply-the-best-for-you I just want to be clear: As I said, these stats are NOT ebay stats. They are from a competing site.
Yes, I read that & understand that.
@retro_entertainment_collectibles wrote:
@simply-the-best-for-you wrote:The sheer volume of this site is such that Search Filters are very often a requirement if you want a manageable number of results on eBay. When I search for clothing anyway, I almost always have to use them, even though I typically am not a 'filter user'. This may vary greatly from other sites, based on the fact that most others have a lot less overall listings in comparison.
Additionally, the API allows access to the user's search criteria? Am I the only one who finds that odd? I've never used eBay's API, so IDK, but I know that search behavior on eBay is considered some sort of great secret, so I would be very surprised if that info was accessible via the API.
As for the results, it's hard to know b/c eBay considers it so secret. But, I would suspect that significantly more users use Filters than the data above shows b/c eBay put a lot of time, money & effort into creating IS's, spefically for those who use left side drill down searches. I dont think they would have done that if 97% of people would never use it. BTW, my definition of filters INCLUDES things like size, color, brand, etc. Those are the ones people pretty much HAVE to use on eBay in crowded categories. As for the Filters you quoted above, I believe that most people don't use those. Occasionally, if I don't see what I want in results, I may change the Sort order.
I also believe that the majority do not change the order of results. Even I don't & I was in IT my whole life & know Search quite well. I just typically choose the quick, easy way & I am not surprised that most others do too.
From a software standpoint, allowing people to change sort order, no big deal. Allowing filters for sale items or FS or TRS, no big deal. Creating the new architecture to define filters that never existed before for fields that never existed before (Item Specifics) - really big deal.
Companies have private API's, Partner API's and what's generally public facing with the associated keys. That way external firms hired to do various statistics, this, that and other thing can attain data towards the task.
As I noted upstairs in the thread sellers are going to be far more akin to drilling down searches and good input criteria when shopping then that of the average Joe/sephine which is where AI can come in.
Searching enterprise data sets ain't no fun!
@retro_entertainment_collectibles Thank you, that makes sense. So maybe the 3rd party firm was given specific access to this data for this purpose. Or maybe the company in question, does not consider the methods of searching as confidential as eBay does.
@retro_entertainment_collectibles wrote:
@simply-the-best-for-you wrote:@retro_entertainment_collectibles I know you're up on current languages, platforms, which I am not, since I was primarily involved with designing & diagnostics of legacy software (which despite popular opinion is still very much in use). So a question for you, would the API even have a user's search criteria in it? That strikes me as very odd, as I thought the API was simply an interface. I realize that it *could* have it, but with eBay having always treated search habits & frankly anything related to search, as a trade secret, it would seem odd to me that search criteria would be passed via the API, had this been eBay's API. But I'm thinking mainly of 3rd party tools that would never need that info as the main users of the API. Perhaps there's a whole class of API users that I'm not taking into consideration?
I've not really explored eBay's API's but it'd be extremely++ unlikely they'd have a statistical API public facing. But as I said many operations have focal API type accessors towards data mining both for internal and approved partner/sub contractor usages. I'm sure for example place like Amazon have a whole plethora of varied API's not publicly exposed and likely even automation for things such as re-stocking.
That's why I am engineering a mechanism whereby I can bury myself in the backyard in nothing more than a 55 gallon drum with a breathing straw and room for three months of Peanut Butter crackers and recycled urine... If there ever is a solar flare strong enough to take out considerable IT infrastructure I need be prepared in advance and booking the next UFO flight on Expedia likely not be an option.
@retro_entertainment_collectibles Nah, not gonna bury myself. I wanna see the Aurora from that one 😃
What you're saying about the API's makes total sense. Interfaces in legacy/enterprise software to 3rd party companies were a pretty rare thing, so there typically was only 1 interface, not a variety depending on usage/need. They were also far less structured & more 'on the fly'.
I was kinda questioning the whole thing b/c eBay would never release that info, so I was surprised that a competitor would. Though I honestly don't see what's so secretive about search behavior/criteria, I can see that when you're the industry leader, you're using the knowledge of those behaviors in aggregate to bolster your own competitve position.
In general, I believe that search criteria does not get nearly enough press or attention. Most sellers don't even think about it. Ever. eBay certainly does, it's what they mean when they say "relevancy". It is critically important to our job as sellers, yet is basically an unknown. It's nice to see some attention to search behaviors, but as the data shows, most searchers are very vanilla. Even those of us who know how to search in a cherry vanilla with chocolate sprinkles way, rarely do. Most users seem to use the KISS method and that is not a surprise. Oh & now I want some ice cream.
