eBay

alwayswong · ‎03-14-2023

I've been noticing a search glitch over the past couple of hours. When I search for something and click on the second (or nth) page of results, I am shown the same results as the first page. The same results keep repeating no matter what the search parameters are.

I have tried clearing website data, logging in/out, and have used multiple browsers. The problem still persists.

Has anyone else been experiencing this?

wardo99 · ‎03-14-2023

Yes, I am experiencing the same. Try to go to the next page and it takes me back to the first page.

eburtonlab · ‎03-14-2023

I am using Firefox 111 on a Windows 10 PC, and I am not having any problems navigating search pages using the page numbers or arrow keys at the bottom of the page.

How many items per page is your search set to display? Any difference if you try another number?

Any difference if you clear your browser cache and manually erase eBay cookies? I recently deleted eBay cookies when the main page was not loading for me.

valueaddedresource · ‎03-14-2023

@eburtonlab wrote:
I am using Firefox 111 on a Windows 10 PC, and I am not having any problems navigating search pages using the page numbers or arrow keys at the bottom of the page.

How many items per page is your search set to display? Any difference if you try another number?

Any difference if you clear your browser cache and manually erase eBay cookies? I recently deleted eBay cookies when the main page was not loading for me.

@eburtonlab I'm seeing it in both chrome and firefox incognito.

It does change the page number, but the listings are all still the same on every page - last 2 results just for example but just doing a quick visual check all 60 results on all pages were the same when I searched for "water bottle".

eburtonlab · ‎03-14-2023

I was able to recreate your water bottle search and see the same results on multiple pages, even though the page numbers appeared to change. Changing page numbers manually by editing the page address does not seem to help in this case; the page number in the address seems to be ignored by eBay when serving results, even though the number appears to change at the bottom of the page.

If I search for water "bottle" though, with the quotes, I am able to change pages correctly and see different items on different pages.

So the problem appears to be tied to the "smart search" features, which are bypassed when using complex search commands like quotes or exclusion terms.

devon@ebay

More search issues tied to the "smart search" feature preventing eBay from delivering proper search results.

devon@ebay · ‎03-14-2023

@eburtonlab wrote:

I was able to recreate your water bottle search and see the same results on multiple pages, even though the page numbers appeared to change. Changing page numbers manually by editing the page address does not seem to help in this case; the page number in the address seems to be ignored by eBay when serving results, even though the number appears to change at the bottom of the page.

If I search for water "bottle" though, with the quotes, I am able to change pages correctly and see different items on different pages.

So the problem appears to be tied to the "smart search" features, which are bypassed when using complex search commands like quotes or exclusion terms.

devon@ebay

More search issues tied to the "smart search" feature preventing eBay from delivering proper search results.

Hey @eburtonlab! Thank you for letting me know about this. I will get this over to the correct team and have them look into it. If this ends up becoming a known sitewide issue I will see if there is an alert ticket that I can have shared on our tech board.

Devon,

eburtonlab · ‎03-14-2023

Thanks, devon@ebay !

valueaddedresource · ‎03-14-2023

Don't know if it's relevant but when I search for motor mount, I'm encountering this issue but not when searching for a specific motor mount part number.

results for motor mount:

Results for 9247

Not sure if maybe there is a difference with how search handles part numbers being in item specifics vs just general key words?

eburtonlab · ‎03-14-2023

Not sure if maybe there is a difference with how search handles part numbers being in item specifics vs just general key words?

It may depend on whether those keywords have recognized substitutes or synonyms programmed into eBay's search. The more common the keywords, the more likely there are substitutes that are also searched; obscure keywords or part numbers may not have any substitutes and may not trigger the "smart search" features which seem to be so problematic lately.

eburtonlab · ‎03-15-2023

The original water bottle search now seems to be working for me. I can navigate to page two and beyond without seeing repeated results.

Not sure if eBay has fixed the problem entirely or if they are adjusting individual keywords, so if anyone is still having this problem or if anyone finds any additional search keywords that cause similar problems, please follow up with an example so others can try it.

valueaddedresource · ‎03-15-2023

@eburtonlab the searches I saw with the issue yesterday are working correctly today. I've also tried a few other keywords today and am not seeing the issue.

So hopefully that means eBay has fixed the problem. 🤞