Search is not working Mr. Ireland

[postcardcountry]

"we improved retrieval and ranking functionality to more efficiently locate and present your most relevant listings to buyers"

Many of us know search is broken.  When I read that line in the announcement from Adam Ireland I started laughing.   To be fair, I ran a test.

I did a search for Laughlin Art  expecting the results to give me those items with both words in the title.  Nope, got 10,000+ items.  As long as ONE word is in the title, it comes up in search.

Go to the filters on the left side of the screen.  The initial categories apply to my search (or so I thought), then include baseball cards.  Sorry but unless the player's name is Art, these shouldn't be appearing. ( Laughlin +Art)

Redo search  as Laughlin Art China and get substantially less at 1,300 + . While in inclusion of china has eliminated all the sports cards, I still do not have a search where the three words I entered appear for all the items presented.  In the old days, not so so long ago, this particular search brought up at most 100 items.

So how in heaven's name, do I do a search that will bring up ONLY Laughlin Art China? AI doesn't seem to be smart enough to look at only 3 words and find items that have all 3 in them.

[dhbookds]

What do you mean by Laughlin  Art ? I know Homer Laughlin Pottery.....China.......but don't get the Art part......

[simply-the-best-for-you]

@postcardcountry  Those results are correct b/c Ebay's search ALSO looks at Item Specifcs.  I did the search and got the same results as you.  So I checked 5 or 6 items that didn't have both in the title & every single one had Art Pottery in one of the IS's, so that's where it's pulling the "art" from.  

If you put quotes around your search, it will search for the exact string.   

"laughlin art china" only got me 17 results.  It is an EXACT character string search though, so they'll have to be in a row.  You can combine exact character string searches with regular KW searches.  

ETA:  Just to be clear, you are incorrect that the Search is OR'ing the keywords.  It IS AND'ing them as it should be, but it is also using I/S data in that search.  This has been the case since the beginning of IS's.  

What you're experiencing is working exactly as Ebay designed it.  It's also standard search logic, with the exception of the IS part.  That's the only part that's custom by Ebay.  

[eburtonlab]

A search for Laughlin Art will find listings that contain both terms anywhere in the title or item-specifics. It may also find Laughlin items in a category with Art in the name, or listings that contain Laughlin and also a synonym for the keyword art.

If you want only listings that contain the keyword Lauglin and the keyword art, try putting one of your keywords in quotes, like this:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=%22laughlin%22+art&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0

If you want listings that contain both terms in order with no intervening keywords, try putting both keywords in quotes like this:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=%22laughlin+art%22&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0

If you want Laughlin Art China listings with those three exact terms in order with no intervening keywords:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=%22laughlin+art+china%22&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0

[simply-the-best-for-you]

@eburtonlab   I was hoping you'd chime in, though that's not much more than I can offer her.  Do you know if there's any way to expressly exclude the I/S or synonym?  I don't think there is, but I figured if anyone would know, it's you.  I doubt it, since it's coded into the Ebay Search, as are there synonyms & it's what they intend for it to search, but there are times that the inclusion of the IS's can cause more problems than it helps. 

[eburtonlab]

Do you know if there's any way to expressly exclude the I/S or synonym?

The synonyms can be excluded by using quotes, but as far as I can tell there is no way to exclude the item-specifics and only search title keywords.

[simply-the-best-for-you]

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@eburtonlab wrote:

Do you know if there's any way to expressly exclude the I/S or synonym?

The synonyms can be excluded by using quotes, but as far as I can tell there is no way to exclude the item-specifics and only search title keywords.

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@eburtonlab  Thank you, that's exactly what I thought & in OP's case, the vast majority are going to be b/c of IS's, since most of have the Art Pottery IS.  

@postcardcountry  It should be noted that in general this is a good thing, as it means that a buyer searching for a red dress, will see my item, even if I don't put red in the title.  It gives buyers more comprehensive results.