eBay search results vs Google THIS IS WRONG

[siamjane8]

A friend just sent me a screen shot with these eBay search results for a 1969 Mercury cyclone car part. This has been going on for months and has not been resolved. You can't tell me that eBay search is working as intended! No wonder sales are down. eBay hardly ever shows relevant results! Search was for c9gy-16164-a. A very common ford part numbering system. It is the same on phone app and desktop results. eBay needs to do something.... Anything at this point about it's search engine!

eBay results:

 

Google results:

 

 

 

[gdiesel70]

Never mind.
I see it now.

It’s the bewbs. 
Search for car parts and eBay gives you  big b00bie girls. 
K, that’s enough internet for today. 

[meme6253]

It is Astonishing what can be seen by the Click of a button!

[siamjane8]

@gdiesel70 

   Yep -its the b00bs lol........   Google does not show naked ladies when you search car parts- only ebay. Seems to me that ebay should be able to fix this but its been doing this for 6 months now after they changed a bunch of categories and other stuff.  What funny is- it looks like the moderators removed the ebay results pics that i posted in the first post because of the nudity........ but its A-Ok to show it on ebay.

Confusing.

[yuzuha]

Okay, now that I am at my computer rather than on my phone, out of curiosity I did a test search for "Mercury c9gy-16164-a." I got one result for the specific part in question and then all of the "Results matching fewer words" were... other parts for Ford Mercury cars.

This is literally a self-created problem and has nothing to do with the search.

[coolections]

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@siamjane8 wrote:

Search was for c9gy-16164-a.  

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There is your problem. Type what a normal person would type on Ebay to find your part and you will find it on Ebay. You are wasting your valuable time worrying for nothing. This is Ebay not google.

[stainlessenginecovers]

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@siamjane8 wrote:

I think all of this shows finally that the ebay search engine Cassini is just not effective.  

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How is it not effective if you input that part number and it shows you EXACTLY that part number?? Who Cares WHAT ELSE is shown? 

I search, I find, I buy. Site works as it should. 

This site has ALWAYS shown 'other items' if the search result comes back with a handful or less of results. Just so happens that the seller of the girly pictures happens to put his own 'item numbers' in the title. 

[chapeau-noir]

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@stainlessenginecovers wrote:

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@siamjane8 wrote:

I think all of this shows finally that the ebay search engine Cassini is just not effective.  

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How is it not effective if you input that part number and it shows you EXACTLY that part number?? Who Cares WHAT ELSE is shown? 

I search, I find, I buy. Site works as it should. 

This site has ALWAYS shown 'other items' if the search result comes back with a handful or less of results. Just so happens that the seller of the girly pictures happens to put his own 'item numbers' in the title. 

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Yes, and that tends to happen when plugs a string of seemingly random numbers and letters into search, without any language definition.  Google's search operates on different conventions and rules for a far larger amount of data than eBay's own search.

[a_c_green]

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@coolections wrote:

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@siamjane8 wrote:

Search was for c9gy-16164-a.  

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There is your problem. Type what a normal person would type on Ebay to find your part and you will find it on Ebay. You are wasting your valuable time worrying for nothing. This is Ebay not google.

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Well, if I knew the part number I was looking for, as the OP did, I wouldn't bother adding extraneous extra wording, because either the part number is listed or it isn't.

One could argue that adding extra terms (e.g. "Mercury") helps to weed out irrelevant entries and refine the search, which it does, but when you've got the specific, unique identifier for the part you're after (and "C9GY-16164-A" is a unique identifier; I worked for many years on the publishing systems for the Ford Parts and Ford Service manuals), you should be able to get a pinpoint hit on what you're looking for.

Where eBay's search seems  to go off the rails is when it seems to panic at a low search result number (one hit, in this case) and starts going further afield to pull in items that are only a partial match. That might work if you're searching for red cereal bowls, and it decides to also show you red soup bowls, or red-and-white cereal bowls, etc. But when the search term is a part number or other semi-random string of characters, then eBay's search utility goes off the deep end and starts pulling up results that seem truly random (though its wrong results are usually not quite that eye-popping).

It's hard to tell how the search engine decided to connect a Mercury body part number with, ah, bodies of another type, though I do notice that all the photos seemed to be from the same seller, not different sellers, so something that's common to that seller's listings is somehow tying them to that particular part number or character series.

[yuzuha]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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It's hard to tell how the search engine decided to connect a Mercury body part number with, ah, bodies of another type, though I do notice that all the photos seemed to be from the same seller, not different sellers, so something that's common to that seller's listings is somehow tying them to that particular part number or character series.

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All of said photos had identifiers in the titles that were written in a very similar fashion to that part number (e.g. "CX170-389"). It's not hard at all to see how the search engine made the leap to think that the two things were related.

[simply-the-best-for-you]

What @yuzuha said.  It was immediately apparent to me why those results were brought in.   

Now, if we could all just cease being offended by something that 100% of the population has (gasp, breasts), then this wouldn't really be a big deal.   I don't get the whole thing about children.  Mommy what's that - that's a woman or man without clothes on.  Period.  It's really that simple. 

I do find it pretty amusing if eBay censored them here, but doesn't censor them in search results. 

[chapeau-noir]

SEO/search here reads hyphens as 'spaces', and fetched whatever that discrete grouping was defined by hyphens, which in this case was a numbering system for NOT Mercury car parts.

[zamo-zuan]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@coolections wrote:

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@siamjane8 wrote:

Search was for c9gy-16164-a.  

---

There is your problem. Type what a normal person would type on Ebay to find your part and you will find it on Ebay. You are wasting your valuable time worrying for nothing. This is Ebay not google.

---

Well, if I knew the part number I was looking for, as the OP did, I wouldn't bother adding extraneous extra wording, because either the part number is listed or it isn't.

One could argue that adding extra terms (e.g. "Mercury") helps to weed out irrelevant entries and refine the search, which it does, but when you've got the specific, unique identifier for the part you're after (and "C9GY-16164-A" is a unique identifier; I worked for many years on the publishing systems for the Ford Parts and Ford Service manuals), you should be able to get a pinpoint hit on what you're looking for.

Where eBay's search seems  to go off the rails is when it seems to panic at a low search result number (one hit, in this case) and starts going further afield to pull in items that are only a partial match. That might work if you're searching for red cereal bowls, and it decides to also show you red soup bowls, or red-and-white cereal bowls, etc. But when the search term is a part number or other semi-random string of characters, then eBay's search utility goes off the deep end and starts pulling up results that seem truly random (though its wrong results are usually not quite that eye-popping).

It's hard to tell how the search engine decided to connect a Mercury body part number with, ah, bodies of another type, though I do notice that all the photos seemed to be from the same seller, not different sellers, so something that's common to that seller's listings is somehow tying them to that particular part number or character series.

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The problem with adding terms like Mercury is that will only expose you to even more irrelevant listings considering PLA targets specific keywords such as that. Anyone targeting that keyword could appear in results. 

The purpose of all the item specifics they've been having sellers focus on for years is to be able to have the system figure out items by product codes. Keywords throw a wrench in that whole idea and show you trash you don't want to see. 

[zamo-zuan]

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@simply-the-best-for-you wrote:

I do find it pretty amusing if eBay censored them here, but doesn't censor them in search results. 

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It gets worse than that. I've screenshots of them having inappropriate content HIGHLIGHTED on the front page of eBay! lol.

[stainlessenginecovers]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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Well, if I knew the part number I was looking for, as the OP did, I wouldn't bother adding extraneous extra wording, because either the part number is listed or it isn't.

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Many 'sellers' input the part numbers using dashes between portions, if that is how the part number is listed, and some sellers would not. So, you are limiting yourself to 'find a part' that may be listed a few different ways. Therefore, putting at LEAST the manufacturer of the part or vehicle can only help and may bring up a few more sellers/items that are available.

Many part numbers for vehicle parts have multiple 'partial numbers' that they share and therefore you HAVE to add 'extraneous wording' if you want to find the part you want. 

Try 555-093 or 555093 or 555112 or 555-512 or 555057 or 555-057 and you will see Freeze Plugs, Shocks etc. 

I want 'dorman freezeplugs only' so I put DORMAN 555-093 and/or DORMAN 555093 (to eliminate the 'shocks'- hone down that search. 

So, putting the part number along with a brand name is a common and/or smart way to search. 

[simply-the-best-for-you]

I must say.  I'm glad I don't sell auto parts.  It seems complicated LOL.