Search - is anyone else finding it as useless as me?

[ian_w42]

In the past few months I have found the search function to become nearly useless.

I often search for specific computer hardware components, I usually use the exact model number, brand name, memory size etc in the search. An example would be "NVIDIA RTX 3060 12GB " but applies to every search I make.

Nearly all of the results will be irrelevant and not related to the search terms at all. Different brands, different models etc. Most of the results will not contain any of the keywords I searched for.

You can of course refine results using the filter checkboxes but it's annoying and doesn't even cover every thing you might be searching for, the options are quite out of date.

I know ebay is "streamlining" search results but this is beyond that, it also does not seem to listen to quotes to force inclusion of certain keywords.

[eburtonlab]

@nigel_paul_wright7557 

Try this search:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=cardboard+boxes+50+9x6x6&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&_sop=10

Most of the results are variation listings with different sizes and quantities, so you may still have to open a few and check the options, then set a price range to weed out some of the other listings or to sort by price. There are only a handful of listings that are not variation listings.

I used to have a nice script that could be used to suppress price-variation listings in search results, but it no longer works and the person who created it is no longer around. I can find the few non-variation listings by using my browser's search to find and highlight all instances of " to " on the page, then looking for gaps on the scroll bar where listings without that appear.

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

Thanks, will give it a try.

[555njp]

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@eburtonlab wrote:

I see you put screwdriver in quotes to get all results, but I guess most buyers won’t do that.

Most buyers probably don't want to see every listing with screwdriver in the title or item-specifics in every category; but that is what you specifically asked for, so I was showing you how to get it.

Thanks but I only did it as a test when I was trying to find my own listings (I was selling loads of old tools from clearing my father in law’s garage). Appreciate most wouldn’t want to see all but searching Vintage Stanley Screwdriver should have thinned the search to reflect what a typical buyer was looking for (It didn’t).

I was selling a 1950s vintage Stanley, wooden handled screwdriver. No matter what combination of key words I put in (without quotes though) I couldn’t find the listing…! And unsurprisingly it had no views or interest, even though other similar ones were selling and mine was cheaper!

I literally had to mirror my description to find the listing.

You may have listed in the wrong category for your keywords. Hard to say now, as I do not see that listing among current or active listings in your account, or in your feedback.

It was on my private account, not this one. It’s worrying you say something can be listed in a wrong category relative to key words? That suggests an exclusion of results possibly in the wrong category. With respect I have been selling on eBay for 20 years so I don’t think I’ve put items in the wrong category, especially on this account.

On this account, sometimes I get loads of views and an item sells within hours of uploading, but then I might sell similar using the exact same template but get no views/interest and the item hangs about for weeks…!

That may have had more to do with the actual demand for such items than it had to do with search, though. Perhaps there was one very interested buyer who bought your first item, then the next buyers in line were not quite as interested as the first. Or perhaps those buyers found substitutes for your item.

Sometimes yes of course demand dictates or pricing elsewhere, but doesn’t explain why an item with 20+ watchers can sell out in a couple of days then relisting it yields absolutely nothing, no interest at all even with no competition.

Hard to say without a specific example to search for.

If a seller is clever, the seller can find a way to make it easy for buyers to find the seller's item, even if the buyers are not very clever.

Majority of buyers just want a quick purchase and don’t have time or inclination to be clever enough to beat the search, especially for everyday items. If it doesn’t come up with 1 or 2 quick searches they’ll go elsewhere or resort to a google search.

As a seller, I would suggest searching for your own items the way you think a potential buyer might search -- using general keywords rather than copying your entire title into the search field. See how many results turn up in that general search, and where (or if) your item turns up in the sort when sorting various ways. See how your listing stacks up against other listings when viewed in the search results. Then look at sold results for the last ninety days and figure out how long it should take for your item to be sold if all the items priced less than yours sell first at the same selling rate as the sold items, and if no new items are listed.

That’s exactly how we check listings. In the screws example buyers search either TurboGold if they want that premium brand followed by wood screws and size.

My listings (only a few on here now) are usually on page one, often ahead of promoted items and whilst not high turnaround sales do ok and usually go within 30-60 days.

Obviously a more generic wood screw search, even by size brings up thousands of options but as others have said it also throws stuff in that has nothing to do with the search. These items must be the heavily promoted items that eBay has to put somewhere.

The only reason for copying in my whole title btw was to find my particular item in the test that was otherwise hidden. This has happened with listings before, they go invisible for a few days then views/watchers suddenly pick up.

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[eburtonlab]

It’s worrying you say something can be listed in a wrong category relative to key words? That suggests an exclusion of results possibly in the wrong category. With respect I have been selling on eBay for 20 years so I don’t think I’ve put items in the wrong category, especially on this account.

When searching on eBay, eBay will often steer the search into a particular category based on the keywords used. Most of the time it is pretty straightforward: if you search using the keyword iPhone, your search is sent to the Mobile Phone category. But there are cases where an item could reasonable be listed in more than one category such as either Hand Tools or else Antiques.

If an item cannot be found by searching keywords in the title, but can be found when using the entire title in the search, it is often because the item was listed in the "wrong" category for the keywords used in the first search, and because the second search reaches "all categories".

[eburtonlab]

@helva56 

among my futile searches I have one simply defined "Two Man Chainsaw", so on a daily basis it tells me it has found "new items" relative to my search,,, then shows an action man kids doll, and other unconnected items, it repeats this every day claiming it has yet again found "new items".

if I ignore that and type "two man chainsaw" into the search bar, it comes up with over a 1000 items, none of which are two man chainsaws. including items such as ,,postcards, stickers,badges,sweatshirts, bedding sets,keyfobs, mostly from china sellers, filtering to UK only removes all but 405 of these but still nothing that is a two man chainsaw.

Try a search like this as a starting point:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=two-man+chainsaw&_sacat=0&_sop=10&rt=nc&LH_PrefLoc=98

[eburtonlab]

@smarts-gaming 

I will try and implement what you have said as long as it doesnt consume too much of my time setting up all the extra parameters.

If a quick search gets you the results you want, that's fine. That's how most people search and find things to buy. 

If, on the other hand, you find yourself having to wade through lots of irrelevant results, and you complain that you spend much more time looking at things you are not interest in rather than things you are interested in, that is a sign that you may want to spend a bit more time crafting a narrower search so you can spend much less time looking at irrelevant results.

The issue remains though that 99% of ebay searchers are not going to know of or utilise any of these and neither should they have to.

They don't need to, since they are already finding things to buy without needing any advanced search techniques.

And the streamlined results must be broken, because I even had it again just a moment ago where a search for a very specific game and system said "we have streamlined your results" and then included thousands of irrelevant ones.

It is entirely possible for a search to be too general and cover too many categories, and still be "streamlined" or filtered by eBay. Streamlining can be entirely avoided by choosing a different sort order other than "lowest first", or by a few other relatively simple techniques. In many cases there is a "show more results" option, though it may not always appear when it should.

[smarts-gaming]

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They don't need to, since they are already finding things to buy without needing any advanced search techniques.

Clearly that isnt the case as evidenced by this thread lol. 

[helva56]

not much help I'm afraid, that just found a few bits of paper with two man saws printed on them in the usa, and then when I specified uk only gave the usual multitude of anything that was not what I asked for.

lets face it, anything that is ai,bots, and the like is never going to work as its lacking any basis in reality, it has no knowledge of anything other than that which it can cream from the web,  and much of that is just more incorrect information, I often think it creates a situation whereby it almost looks like it's arguing or contradicting itself.

with the propensity for so much fake stuff and ai generated content it has no way of discerning fact from fakes, but just spews it out anyway.

It isn't just relative to ebay but the entire internet/media.

I'll probably give up soon as it's getting somewhat ridiculous having to churn through a list of supposed "new items" on the search list, most of which it's already shown me for the last week and often nothing remotely connected to what I'm looking for.

[eburtonlab]

: They don't need to [use advanced search techniques], since they are already finding things to buy

: without needing any advanced search techniques.

Clearly that isnt the case as evidenced by this thread lol.

The fact that some users posting to this thread are having problems searching does not mean that most users are having the same problems. Users that are not having problems rarely come to the community pages to discuss that fact. So one should expect that users having problems are far more concentrated here and better represented here in this particular year-old thread than users that are not.

Many users, when presented with search results that are not satisfactory to them, refine their searches until the results are more suitable. 

Any user having problems searching that comes across this thread can find some useful tips to refine a search and get better results. 

[eburtonlab]

not much help I'm afraid, that just found a few bits of paper with two man saws printed on them in the usa, and then when I specified uk only gave the usual multitude of anything that was not what I asked for.

Are there actually any two-man chainsaws listed on eBay at the moment using that term? If not, the fact that search does not turn any up is not the fault of eBay or the search.

[helva56]

If I go into a garage to buy a car, and the proprietor doesn't have one that fits my needs, he doesn't usually try and sell me a boat, or a childs doll.

unless of course he's a robot who has no idea of the difference.

[date80211]

Will you please stop blaming Members for eBay's failures?

Do you truly not understand how irrelevant and patronising was your 'They don't need to, since they are already finding things to buy without needing any advanced search techniques…'?

My guess is that if you'd got it, you would never have Posted anything so insulting which, to me for one and I guess to most Members here, suggests that no, you simply didn't get it.

Everyone who thinks I'm mistaken, please speak up right now!

Can you really not grasp that what Members are already finding has, by definition, no place here?

Like you, most Members here know that having to wade through lots of irrelevant results is often - perhaps more often than not -  because they… we… I have failed to grasp the niceties of eBay's search methods, procedures, protocols or whatever.

Who here thinks eburtonlab got that wrong, please say so now!

Who here thinks eburtonlab got that right, but it was wholly irrelevant, please say so now!

I suggest - and I invite everyone here, including eburtonlab, to shoot me down: the problem is not that Members have failed to grasp something simple, but more simply that eBay failed to make any simple explanation available. 

Who here, including eburtonlab, doubts me?

Who here can guess why eburtonlab finds that hard to see?

Was it smarts-gaming who so rightly said 'The issue remains though that 99% of ebay searchers are not going to know of or utilise any of these and neither should they have to…'?

Would you rather spend your own time trying to show many individual Members the errors of their ways, or usefully pointing out to eBay Command that a more simple, more widely available introduction to eBay's search methods, procedures, protocols or whatever than exists now, would at least get most of us out of your own hair?

Will you accept that rather than Members guessing what search terms to use, a clear and simple guide would be better for everyone?

[eburtonlab]

@date80211 

Will you please stop blaming Members for eBay's failures?

Where exactly did I blame members for eBay's failures? Does assigning blame get you better search results? If not, don't waste your time on it.

If you are searching and not finding what you are looking for, and you are finding other things that you are not looking for, there can be many, many reasons for that. Regardless whether the fault lies with eBay's search, the way that sellers are listing their items, or particular keywords being chosen to search with, there are probably some relatively simple changes that you or any other user searching can make when searching to get better, less frustrating results. 

Folks getting good enough results already may not care about such advanced search techniques. Folks that have already given up on eBay and have found other ways to buy things probably won't care either. But, for the most part, those are not the people reading and posting on this particular thread right now.

Unless I am mistaken, most people reading and posting in this thread have not given up on eBay and are not entirely satisfied with the search results they are getting (or were getting when this thread was started). This, therefore, seems to be a good place to provide some suggestions for users that may be interested in getting better search results.

Are you so personally invested in the way that you are searching right now that any suggestion of searching in a different way is seen as a criticism requiring you to lash out?

eBay's search is what it is. It is not perfect. It is a compromise between many competing interests. Despite that, many people use eBay and still find thing to buy -- you among them, judging by your feedback as a buyer.

Despite much criticism of eBay's search -- much entirely valid -- eBay is unlikely to change things just because someone complains, even if a lot of people complain. You are, of course, entirely welcome to make your case that eBay should change things. Perhaps eBay will even change things to be more to your liking eventually. At the same time, while you are waiting for those changes to be made, you may want to make use of some of the tools that eBay already provides to get better search results right now.

Will you accept that rather than Members guessing what search terms to use, a clear and simple guide would be better for everyone?

That's fine. If you know how get eBay to provide such a guide, or if you want to produce one yourself, be my guest. I can offer some tips that could be included in such a guide. If such a guide existed, this thread would be a good place to provide a link to it.

In the mean time I will still be here making clear and simple suggestions about how users can modify the searches they are making that provide results that, for any reason, fall short of their expectations.