Reporting unrelated search items

[moonlight-rhapsody]

Does anyone ever report items that appear at the top of search results but are completely unrelated to the search terms?  I could send them screenshots of loads of instances, but what would happen?  Would they take any notice or get back to me?  Would I get punished instead for malicious reporting or whatever?  Are we just supposed to put up with nonsensical search results?

I raised the matter in the Community Chat a few weeks ago and was told to try deleting cookies.  (Shouldn’t have to do that, but…)  I tried a fresh browser with a fully clean history and got the same nonsensical results.  I’m not normally around on a Wednesday afternoon so difficult for me to get back to them about it.  Hence I wondered about reporting individual items (with screenshots) that appear at the top of the results but have nothing whatsoever to do with the search terms.  Does anyone do this?

[style_wise]

The eBay algorithm is a mysterious thing to normal buyers. It helps to remember that it's function is not to give perfect search results, but results that lead to a sale, any sale. Also the top slot is reserved for priority listing promotions. So being caught between these two features of the algorithm and priority promotions is like being caught between Scylla and Charybdis, there is nothing you can do but try to sail on and find what you were actually looking for. That said, reporting glitches in the system to eBay can be helpful too. It all depends on how much time you want to spend.

[thepillenwerfer]

What constitutes "Best Match," the default, is known only unto e-Bay.  I mainly use cheapest first and sometimes ending soonest or newly listed.

[lucy_farmer]

'I mainly use cheapest first and sometimes ending soonest or newly listed.'

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Nearest first  is a good try... keeps everything that actually *is* posted from China (as opposed to chinese tat in UK warehouses, which at least gets to you quicker...)  at the end of the list. 

[suelel1968]

They don't care though. Sellers have a vested interest in it, buyers get really irritated by it, but ebay don't care about it. I reported some fake cashmere with screenshots of image search showing the stock photos used on the wholesalers website and listed as acrylic. But the bot said it's ok and so did the human. Would it have to do with the hundreds of refunds eBay might have to make if they admitted it. Sorry hijacking...what I meant to say is, no it won't be worth your while just like it wasn't worth mine.

[moonlight-rhapsody]

Thanks for your replies.

I raised the matter again at last week’s Community Chat.  I’d used a clean browser, as they had previously recommended, but still got absurd search results.  Again I used the example of a search for an "original watercolour painting seascape”, sorted by Lowest Price + P&P.  Out of 5,300 results, ebay thought the “best listings” for a Seascape were Trees, Calligraphy and the Grand Canyon (see screenshot).  Only a few further down were more forests.  The team said they would "send it for review”.  I asked if someone would get back to me, but no.

I’ve just repeated the search and the Calligraphy is no longer for sale but the Grand Canyon and Trees are still there.  I don’t get it.  Surely it’s in ebay’s interests to give buyers what they’re looking for, instead of completely random results.  Is it that the technology is so broken that it can’t actually be fixed?

 

[moonlight-rhapsody]

Well it seems that there's likely to be a simple explanation after all for absurd items appearing at the top of search results.  In the listing referred to above, the anomaly is probably caused by the fact that “seascape” is included in the *Subject line* on each of the affected listings - ie the Grand Canyon, the forests, and the other nonsensical results that came top of the search for a “seascape” when sorted by Price Low-High inc P&P.  Probably because the seller had used a template and not adjusted the Subject line to make it relevant.

It begs the question, if this issue was sent to “the team” as I was told in the Community Chat, as to whether "the team” knew that this was the likely cause of the absurd results.  You would  expect a competent team of experts to know what was skewing the results, but why don’t they do something about it.  This obviously isn’t the only search result that is affected, and it’s likely that it’s a mis-described Subject line that is skewing other results, caused by sellers not adjusting templates.  Surely all they need to do is tweak the algorithm so that less, if any, weight is placed on the Subject line, and more weight is given to the Title, Description - and the image itself, since AI is able to interpret images.  

It only affects the “Price” sort as the “Best Match” sort is accurate, but I would imagine that most buyers sort by Price.  It’s in ebay’s own interests to get the search results accurate, and it baffles me that they don’t do anything about it.