topic Re: Search - is anyone else finding it as useless as me? in Buying

topic Re: Search - is anyone else finding it as useless as me? in Buying https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Buying/Search-is-anyone-else-finding-it-as-useless-as-me/m-p/7960561#M80306 We should all want ebay to have the best search available, not expect people to jump through hoops to find what they want. If you are happy with the search results you are getting, just keep doing what you are doing. If you are not happy with the results and complaining that "the search is broken" allows you to cope, then, by all means, vent your frustration. Complaining that the search is broken is fine; but unless you have a way to translate that complaint into eBay actually changing the way the search works, just complaining won't get you any better search results. If you want to see better results, I can offer some suggestions. Whether that counts as "jumping through hoops" is for you to decide. You don't even have to stop complaining. You can multitask; complain to eBay, and still get some decent search results in the mean time. For example I mentioned that ebays search will omit all listings with an apostrophe in a word (or vice versa). That happens under very specific circumstances: when using advanced search commands (quotes, exclusions, Boolean OR statements) that disables eBay's keyword substitution feature. Most folks aren't searching using advanced search commands, so they don't run into that. For casual users just entering some keywords and searching, eBay will match plurals or possessives of most keywords. If you find a keyword that does not match a plural or possessive, reporting that to eBay is much more likely to result in something getting fixed than a blanket complaint that search is "broken". The user then stated that this is because im sorting by lowest or by ending soonest. I am glad to know this, but surely that is still broken. Here you are conflating different things. Sorting by "Price plus shipping: lowest first" is what causes the "streamlining" or filtering of results. There are several ways around that, notably choosing any other sort order avoids the filtering effect entirely. He said I need to narrow the search. How can I possibly narrow the search any more than "game name, console name"... There are many ways to narrow a search. Instead of me cataloging them all, how about you provide a specific example of something you are actually searching for that you are having problems finding or separating from unrelated items, and I can try to provide an example of a search that is more narrowed or targeted to what you want. You can decide whether it is worth jumping through hoops or if you would rather put up with weeding out unwanted results by scrolling past them instead. Thu, 20 Nov 2025 22:30:35 GMT eburtonlab 2025-11-20T22:30:35Z