I completely concur Zinda, there is simply no rational business argument for a search engine that buries EXACT MATCHES. I get their arguments as far as providing buyers with reputable sellers first, but you simply are not serving the buyer the best way possible if the exact item they are looking for is hidden from view. I would absolutely relish the opportunity to debate this with ebay management, having been on corporate management levels myself. There is simply no argument to be made, business logic or otherwise, for that approach that I could not easily and effectively render inert in a business discussion. Its not thr first corporate approach Ive seen completely devoid of merit in pursuing and certainly wont be the last unfortunately, thats the business world. It remains a huge black eye on ebay in my personal view of the company but realistically speaking its not going to truly hurt them taking this approach.
I can easily make an effective argument they are leaving money on the table operating in that manner however they have established their operation so securely at this juncture it would take nearly impossible blunders and competition to take them down and I wish people were a little more grounded in that reality when posting to forums. Google could start returning results in crayon and would remain secure in their position as a search engine vs competitors and ebay is the same way.
Thats not to say these types of approaches wont hurt them, I think these behaviors have demonstrably shown to impede ebays ability to reach internal sales projections and growth for multiple quarters. Ebays refusal to acknowledge that and blame softer sales on other factors does them no good moving gorward either. Its not enough to take the company down though, despite the delusioned and uniform posts to the contrary. Management will undoubtedly continue to face disappointments meeting their projections and growth goals while operating in that manner, but thats realistically the only end result from it.
