Reposted in buying

[autolmc]

Resposted in buying

[fargvs]

You need to give some information about the problem within the posting body before anyone can offer some assistance to help you ... 

Press the Reply button below to give us some idea of what the issue is  ??.

[m25jet]

@autolmc, if I remember correctly, you said something along the lines of wanting to buy a Ford Zephyr or a Ford Zephyr engine but the word "Zephyr" was throwing the search results and you couldnt' find what you were looking for.  Although your question didn't show up in the thread when I clicked on it originally, it did show up underneath the title of the thread on the page where all of the questions in the Selling category are listed.  However, I could not find your query anywhere else in the forums when I returned to this post and saw the phrase "Reposted in buying", despite having also searched amongst the Buying queries.

Once I had read your query I went back to the My eBay page, set the search bar to "All Categories" and typed the words "Ford Zephyr" (albeit without the speech marks) into the search bar.  The results showed up quite a few vehicles with the words "Ford Zephyr" in the title, as well as some listings that included the term "Ford Zodiac" (if I remember correctly from what my father told me as a kid, the Ford Zodiac was basically just a different version of the Ford Zephyr, albeit with a larger engine than that found in the Ford Zephyr), so if you try running a search for using the term "Ford Zephyr", and maybe even include the term "Ford Zodiac", or "Ford Zodiac/Zephyr" or vice versa, then perhaps you will be able to find what you are looking for.

[autolmc · Accepted solution]

Solved see bottom

Here is the original question that I posted.

I think it's in the wrong section though, I gave up eventually because this forum is very confusing and the question is trivial to most because they don't understand the problem.

I should add I'm an eBay search veteran, I literally search every free moment I have almost like research on all things I need to achieve.  A lot of it is motoring related but everything really.

I want to buy an engine or a whole Ford zephyr car. 

Search is very confused by this concept. 

If I search for "zephyr" in classic cars I get 165 results most of which do not contain this word whatsoever

If i search for the zephyr's close relative the "zodiac" in classic cars I get 5 results, all Ford zodiacs.

If i search "zephyr engine" in all categories I get 680000 irrelevant results. 

If i search "zodiac engine" in all categories I get 154 relavant results.

It's making my life very difficult indeed. 

Anybody know why search is broken by the word zephyr?

There seems no place to report inconsistent search actions, it's like eBay simply presumes it works fine.

I appreciate the reply but I'm telling you there is something about the word that breaks the search algorithm.  Search something common, corsa for example (type of vauxhall car) and it will reliably show you vauxhall corsa stuff.

Search something very obscure and it will still usually show you reliable stuff.  Eg. I just tried "singer engine" General search: 243 results all relevant.   Zephyr engine 680000 results!  Zephyr breaks search like nothing else I can try.  Find another if you can.

I FIGURED IT OUT... 

Ebay must search not only the word but the meaning of the word.  Zephyr is a "soft gentle breeze" aparantly.  Most of the results of zephyr engine are air ducting and air intake products with the word 'air' in the title.

Also all the cars in classic cars that appear ARE actually zephyr's OR have 'air ride' or 'bel air' or 'air suspension' in THE title or description.

So it's because someone at eBay has given the same weighting to the word air to the word zephyr!

I tested it both ways to be sure... 

If you search "zephyr" or "air" in classic cars you get virtually the same results. 

Phew I can sleep easy now, just without zephyr parts.