Search algorithm changed? Very difficult to find products

[toytrekker]

I almost exclusively sell on e-Bay but the last few weeks i've been having great difficulty finding items when I search certain keywords, other things without those keywords will show up. For example i'm searching a certain skateboard and over half of the listings were shoes and t shirts that didn't even have my keyword search. Another example; I search Call of Duty Modern Warfare. It shows many listings of Call of Duty Advanced Warfare. The keyword search is very dysfunctional. In some cases my listings wouldn't even show up when I searched keywords in my title. This is probably what is happening to sales for Q4. Buyers are having trouble finding what they are looking for. Has anyone else experienced this?

[carolynnq]

It's happened to me. I'll try to recall what I was searching for the last time it happened, but at least half the found items didn't have the words I searched for. It was very frustration. I just gave up.

[eburtonlab]

If you are seeing items that do not appear to match your keywords, chances are that either eBay is matching a term in the item-specifics, or else eBay is doing some sort of keyword substitution.

In some cases, an item listing might turn up because the seller is "keyword spamming" -- including irrelevant keywords to ensure the item shows up in many searches. This is a policy violation and such things can be reported to eBay.

Depending on what problem you are encountering, there are ways to narrow your search results so you see more of the items you are interested in and fewer of the items you are not.

Some possible search alterations to consider:

Narrow your search to a particular category to eliminate items in other categories

Add additional keywords to your search

Use the search filters on the left side of the search results page, some of which are category dependent

Use quotes around a keyword or multiple keywords to search for a literal term such as a book title

Use an exclusion term -- a keyword directly preceded by a minus sign to eliminate results containing that keyword

Note that the last two techniques will prevent eBay's Search Expansion feature from working, so you would lose the keyword substitution and automatic category navigation.

More details about search commands and search expansion can be seen in this old document from eBay Ireland:

https://www.ebay.ie/pages/help/search/search-commands.html

What search terms are you using for that skateboard?

For Call of Duty Modern Warfare, start here, then select the filters on the left side of the page to narrow further to your particular platform or version of the game:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=%22call+of+duty%22+%22modern+warfare%22&_sacat=0&rt=n...

[pburn]

Oh, yeah. eBay messed up their search function big time. I used to think it was a great search program up until maybe four to six weeks ago--something like that. Now, frankly, I don't even bother to look for anything to purchase on eBay anymore. I have a few older "saved searches" that still generate results now and then via an  email from eBay when something new is listed, but that's the extent of my searching activity.

When the search feature becomes so complicated as to require the steps in the previous message, it just doesn't produce a good buying experience. eBay lost buyers last quarter--we'll see what they report for the 4th quarter of the year . . .

[coolections]

@toytrekker 

I just checked and set the listings to show 200. EVERY ONE had Call of Duty Modern warfare. Return to tell us the name of the skateboard you say shows shoes, shirts etc. We can help you.

[eburtonlab]

When the search feature becomes so complicated as to require the steps in the previous message, it just doesn't produce a good buying experience.

I would not say any of those steps are required to find items to purchase. Most items can be found by typing a few keywords into search and using the default "Best Match" sort. Perhaps changing the category might be called for if the right category is not automatically chosen.

Extra steps may be required if the results you seek are not appearing at all or if the results you want are buried among a lot of similarly named items, or if you are trying to make an exhaustive search of all possible matching results and also trying to avoid any false positives, rather than just looking for something to buy.

Finding a red widget to buy is easy: type red widget into search and look at the results. Anyone can do that with a phone. You may have to scroll a bit, but you will find one to buy.

If you want a complete list of every new red widget for sale within a thousand miles with free shipping, sorted by price from low to high, and you do not want to see any multi-color widgets or books about widgets or photographs of widgets in your search results, that takes more work.

[toytrekker]

Very strange, last night the results were so much different. I am still seeing advanced warfare in about 1/10 of the results. Same with the Skateboard HUF, now it's giving me good results, the clothes and shoes are HUF brand. I should have documented it further when it was happening to me. Could results also be account specific? Am I losing my marbles?

[this*old*attic]

@coolections 

I didn’t even have to hold my breath waiting for you to announce your perfect search results and imply user error…..

[chapeau-noir]

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@toytrekker wrote:

Very strange, last night the results were so much different. I am still seeing advanced warfare in about 1/10 of the results. Same with the Skateboard HUF, now it's giving me good results, the clothes and shoes are HUF brand. I should have documented it further when it was happening to me. Could results also be account specific? Am I losing my marbles?

---

Maybe you got hit with Thursday Night - eBay does a lot of tinkering behind the scenes on Thursdays and the site can be glitchier than usual. 

Best Match is something I would never use, though - you're looking for elephants and they're giving you car tires...and not even all the car tires. 

[asset_liquidators]

You an I may know how to refine searches as well as many other seasoned ebayers but the problem is, casual buyers are not going to jump through all these hoops to find what they are looking for. They are simply going to move on.

[iart]

This happens to us when searching OUR OWN INVENTORY!

Items show up that don't have the keywords anywhere on the item page.

[eburtonlab]

If you do a series of searches in a row, it is very easy to wind up in a different category or with a leftover filter setting from a previous search that can alter your results substantially. eBay also likes to substitute keywords if there is a more popular keyword that appears to be a close match, even when that is not appropriate. eBay often includes additional results after your formal search results from international sellers or items matching fewer words -- if you are scrolling quickly it is easy to miss the dividing line.

It is also entirely possible that eBay was just providing wacky results. eBay updates the site on Thursday nights, and that can often produce unexpected behavior.

[For a while one summer a search for any licensed character name in certain toy categories would return every other character name as a match. If you used the default "Best Match" sort the correct character would appear at the top of the results, but for many searches there were a thousand times more results than there should have been, and the good results were often buried in other sorts. eBay eventually corrected the issue, but it took a long time.]

If you are looking for decks or parts rather than complete boards or things listed under vintage:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/159073/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=huf&LH_TitleDesc=0

The advanced warfare listings in the search results may be the result of the search improperly linking the two titles as equivalent keywords since both are linked to Call of Duty. I did a search for advanced warfare modern warfare and got about 4000 advanced warfare results -- the ones I checked closely did not appear to have modern warfare in the item specifics at all, so eBay is apparently wrongly deciding to treat them as equivalent keywords at some level.

If you use quotes around the titles or use the Filter options to select the games, you should be able to avoid the improper keyword results.

Your marbles are most likely still intact.

[stainlessenginecovers]

I would think the algo picks up the words independently so 

call of duty warfare will also show call of duty advance warfare, since both have the same words. I don't think this is anything new.

I got back 23000 results in 'all gategories' and I'm sure if I would've chosen 'Video Games' or some of the other 'categories that it is under, I would have got back less. 

But, out of the top 30, probably 25 were NOT "advanced"

Also- I believe if you put the search you want in quotation, it will come out better

"call of duty warfare" for instance. 

[dogchow747]

@toytrekkersaid:

"For example i'm searching a certain skateboard and over half of the listings were shoes and t shirts that didn't even have my keyword search."

Agreed.

It has been getting worse with far too many unrelated items.

Welcome to Amazon.

I always change from "Best Match" to ending soonest or newly listed in the sort feature, but there has been a lot of questionable returns in with pretty standard search terms.

It also seems on new items volume sellers are more promoted than in the recent past.

I usually search in music and collectables.

No idea of how some searches for new products could  provide unbiased results.