Why is eBay hiding descriptions again?

[gear-house]

Seems eBay is hiding descriptions again and making buyers click a 'Show More' button to see it. Can anyone explain what the benefit of hiding the seller's description might be? We just go through the effort of making that so they don't see it? It's already bad enough that so many people don't read anyway.

They experimented with this before and I thought it resulted in problems. 

[shipscript]

@gear-house 

I was seeing the same thing on listings today. eBay must be rolling out a trial that only some buyers can see.  When I look at your listing, see the same thing you show in your screenshot.  Most eBay listings are a few lines of text. Listings with HTML appear to display what you are showing.

For instance, here are some test listings of mine:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/223271911350  (html - requires scrolling - show more )

https://www.ebay.com/itm/384951647014 (html - fits within window, fades some - no button to show more)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/385464980374 ( text only, but starts to fade out on third line - no button).

[chapeau-noir]

Sometimes I'm presented with the quick-view, sometimes I'm able to just click into the listing itself - more often I can just click into the view itself, but I have definitely seen the quick-view that @gear-house describes. 

[wastingtime101]

This is not the quick view pop up. It's a change to the description area of the full listing view.

[shipscript]

@chapeau-noir 

This is your listing:

[slippinjimmy]

@shipscript 

FWIW

I checked the three links for test listings you posted, all three looked fine, i checked with both Firefox and chrome.

eBay must be rolling out a trial that only some buyers can see.

Definitely seems that way!

[moondogblues]

My Purchase History page has changed also.  I have to click on various links to see things that used to be all on one page.  I hate it.

[iamalwaysright]

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@inhawaii wrote:

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@gear-house wrote:

LOL, I know what I'm looking at, I've been on eBay for over 20 years and wouldn't be complaining about this if it wasn't the listing page. Here's a screenshot of the page/ link you just sent me.  Maybe you just aren't seeing it, it's possible they are using some accounts as tests for this new feature they are trying.  It looks this way for every page I visit on eBay, not just my own.

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Then my apologies.

I've looked at that listing from 2 different computers and 2 different accounts.

Mine shows everything and DOES NOT have that "show more" link.

Anybody else?

Does anybody else see that "show more" link if you go to this URL?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/275570351552

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@wastingtime101 I did a few tests about this and this is what I found out. I used two different accounts.

iPhone 12, iOS 14.6

Safari and Chrome with both accounts did not run into this "show more" issue. I made sure to open the desktop classic sites and not mobile.

iPad Pro iOS 15.7

Safari and Chrome with both accounts DID run into this "show more" issue.

Laptop PC Win10

Firefox110 and Chrome 111 on both accounts DID run into this "show more" issue.

When you click on the "show more", you see the listing expand itself and the "show more" button turns into a "show less". When you click the "show less", the description truncates itself back to how it was at default. One other thing I noticed is that with both accounts, some listings still got truncated BUT there was no "show more" button found. Rather than have that button, you see a scrollbar on the far right margin of the description. Shown below for a random listing I found https://www.ebay.com/itm/394437457769 .

Do you guys see the same thing for this listing? Unfortunately for this seller's listing, a size chart is shown below where it says "unisex sizing" that I'm sure most buyers will be even more less likely to see because you have to scroll down using that scrollbar.

Also it gets worse for the iPad because there isn't even a scrollbar being shown. So for this listing on an iPad, no "show more" button, and no scrollbar. Yet the size chart is still down there.

[siamjane8]

     These ridiculous tests of obviously bad ideas are why ebay has such a huge problem with seller and buyer retention. It annoying to be in a constant state of flux.  All we want to do is buy and sell- not be continually trying to figure out how to find descriptions.

    "See more" buttons are NEVER a good idea- they require more work to access info- that is what is called a roadblock to efficiency.  That is what happened to the new listing tool and with all the feedback has slowly reverted back away from all the see more popup boxes......because they suck!

     At this point- there are no new innovations to web design.......the industry is well established and knows what works best- all they have to do is listen and stop trying to reinvent the wheel.

     It shows what the state of the company is in- they think that changing from scroll bars to see more buttons instead of just showing the information will improve sales??- but the obvious and plain as the nose on your face answer is just fix the search engine to show people what they type in the search box!   Ebay is just ignoring the biggest problem they have- over manipulated, irrelevant search that effectively hides listings from view when searched.  We cant buy what we cant find.-  still must use google to see active ebay listings.  I am confused by this logic

[shag182]

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@siamjane8 wrote:

     These ridiculous tests of obviously bad ideas are why ebay has such a huge problem with seller and buyer retention. It annoying to be in a constant state of flux.  All we want to do is buy and sell- not be continually trying to figure out how to find descriptions.

    "See more" buttons are NEVER a good idea- they require more work to access info- that is what is called a roadblock to efficiency.  That is what happened to the new listing tool and with all the feedback has slowly reverted back away from all the see more popup boxes......because they suck!

     At this point- there are no new innovations to web design.......the industry is well established and knows what works best- all they have to do is listen and stop trying to reinvent the wheel.

     It shows what the state of the company is in- they think that changing from scroll bars to see more buttons instead of just showing the information will improve sales??- but the obvious and plain as the nose on your face answer is just fix the search engine to show people what they type in the search box!   Ebay is just ignoring the biggest problem they have- over manipulated, irrelevant search that effectively hides listings from view when searched.  We cant buy what we cant find.-  still must use google to see active ebay listings.  I am confused by this logic

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YEP!  Everyday you see some kind of mind numbing changes, tweaks. 

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The "SHOW MORE" in the description come and goes.  Also, the NEW feedback page jumps you to the feedback page with a few FBs, and you have to click to show the FB normal page, the buyer's purchases page does NOT show feedback icons anymore, and on and on of tweaks, changes.  

Instead of the KISS principle, it's the MAKE IT DIFFICULT and cumbersome for BOTH the buyers and sellers.

But if revenue, users, buyers, sellers starts to drop like flies. eBay will raise their fees, add fees; just like the government raise taxes, add new taxes, when revenue is needed.

This is the typical buyer, seller user looking at the tweaks, changes on ebay:

[chapeau-noir]

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@shipscript wrote:

@chapeau-noir 

This is your listing:

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I'm seeing something different to that.  It's a completely missing description with "Show More".

I agree that ebay is running tests.

[frodobagginskennedy]

when I follow that link I still see the show more button.  It is happening to all of the items I looked at for the past several days.  I run on Chrome

[partfinds]

@wastingtime101 “

iPad Pro iOS 15.7

Safari and Chrome with both accounts DID run into this "show more" issue.”

I have Ipad PRO 12” and mine is running padOS (16.3.1)  not ios and this is what it looks like 

[partfinds]

And I have to verify myself and go through captchas when i want to look at buyer profile and feedback.

[windigard]

I'm here because I saw the same thing and googled "ebay show more button" and quickly found this thread. Add me to the list of people that HATE this new feature. There's also a convenient "tell us what you think!" button on each page. I clicked it, gave 1/5 stars, and told them to get rid of this "show more" button. I don't need more clicks to see things. I have a scroll wheel for this.

[wastingtime101]

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@partfinds wrote:

@wastingtime101 “

iPad Pro iOS 15.7

Safari and Chrome with both accounts DID run into this "show more" issue.”

I have Ipad PRO 12” and mine is running padOS (16.3.1)  not ios and this is what it looks like 

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You were crystal clear you have no interest in anything I have to say so I don't know why you tagged me.

I was the first person on this thread to validate what the OP said and confirm there was a good chance it was a test. On the other thread about this topic an eBay rep confirmed they are testing a few different description views.