Get Ready for eBay Search Refinements in 2024

by: COVID-19

"Have you had any issues with eBay's search engine?"

Have been for the last SEVERAL YEARS! eBay used to have one of the best search engines in ecommerce. Back then, you could type in a few keywords and find EXACTLY what you were looking for. But then that cASSini bleep was unleashed to run amock and just shoves all kinds of irrelevant items in buyers' faces. If the people wanted an Amazon experience, they'd just go to Amazon!

by: Sierra

I get more accurate results with eBay's search engine than with either Etsy or Amazon, both of which show me whatever the heck they want to show me. Amazon has claimed it's things they think I'm interested in, which is quite a joke!  

by: Snapped

“ Our Search team is consistently looking into..” (fill in the blank).

Ever since eBay began these unpredictably periodic town-hall type charade Q&A (-A) sessions, they’ve ’taken input’ with solemn promise to forward it to some ‘team’.  Which apparently toils beyond the event horizon of a black hole out there in the void somewhere, because nobody ever hears about it again.

Perhaps the ‘next time’ they wish to open the phone lines for another few minutes of wool pulling, they might invite some of those phantom ‘team’ members to attend and see for themselves the results of their “consistently looking into” escapades.  

And if there is any kickback due to festive seasonal schedule conflicts, perhaps convey to them more directly how their tinkering at this time of the year has monkey-wrenched everybody else’s yearly nut.

Oh, and those ‘moderators’ better be dusting off the ol’ rez if ‘we’ll kick it upstairs’ is the best they got.  Because there are boxes of electronic on/off switches than can do that Jedi mind trick job now.

Who knows, perhaps they already are.  Almost like magic….

by: Rexford

I honestly think that it is so broken that it can't be fixed.  Or should I say that it is so rigged that they don't want to fix it?

by: GetAGrip

SleazeBay is the only company on earth that can screw up their screw ups. It will only get worst.

by: Marty2020

When searching in my own store (have several thousand items) and I only want the items whose title contains both abc and xyz, the results include all titles which contain abc (but not xyz) and all titles which contain xyz (but not abc). Putting one or the other search word, or both, in quotation marks does not change anything!

This is beyond any human comprehension, how this company is still pretty much a top ecommerce site.

by: toolguy

I hope they don't mess this up because right now I'm 100% satisfied on how eBay search works.

I have no problem finding what I want and there's no other BS in my search.

When searching for Leatherman tools I never get any Craftsman in the search. . .

by: jantique

There are so many examples it is not worth trying to list. IT IS BAD. It has been bad for maybe 7 years or more.

More recently when searching my own listings, it will not bring up all my listings that contain a certain maker's name! In some areas/searches, it will bring up only 255 of my 288 listings.
jcr

by: LJW

They need to rollback changes not add more. I can tell from all the problems they have their platform is held together with spit and duct tape. They have very poor change management practices. The same problems come back time and time again. It's time top start Ebay 2.0 and leave this dumpster fire behind.  

by: lessthanthreerecords

eBay search has been bad for many years, but the past couple months has been by far the worst I've seen.  I frequently get massive numbers of specific types of items that have absolutely nothing to do with what I entered.  Frequent types of items that come up (when they shouldn't) include handbags, sports cards, Funko figures, and car parts.  Sometimes there may be one word from my search that matches, but none of the other words.  Other times, there's not even a single matching word.  Some searches I do regularly had maybe 50 results a few months ago, now the same search has well over 10,000!  I have been in communication with eBay about the issue.  A month ago, I was told they were aware of it and were working on it (not holding my breath, but still hoping for the best).  Just last night, I was told that there is no issue... this is exactly the way they want it to work!  I've been selling online for a living since 2010, and this is BY FAR the slowest holiday season I've had.  It's not only slower compared to other years, but has even been getting slower month to month, at a time of year when sales should by skyrocketing!  To be honest, I don't know how I'm making the few sales I've made with search this bad.

by: Jim Y

Are they missing the other point in search results in Google?  Now you have to pay extra just to be seen.

by: notfunanymore

Yikes! Does anyone remember the pre-cassini days? Ebay search has suffered since the inception of its beloved cassini... Do they still use cassini?  

by: Rexford

notfunanymore, agree. That was the beginning of screwed up search.

Due to their greed and the way that they rig it for their greed it will never work as it once did.

by: Fruitylovesyou

Refinements. Is that code for changing the algorithm to disadvantage you? I feel sorry for all those buyers thinking they are seeing some kind of organic search. I get my stuff elsewhere

by: pace306

All this because eBay couldnt "leave well enough alone" and use Google's search engine when offered to them.

Cassini (as said so well above) was specifically designed to show buyers/browsers the sellers and makers of the things THEY want them to see, and not the things the buyers wanted to see.

Pay for play - like any good MAFIOSO organization - pay us and you will be seen, if not well ........ Id say "break your legs" but they almost tried that with the Steiners so ... its not a stretch.

Like product placement in a supermarket, Coke & Pepsi get the end caps (search) and the average seller gets ...... top shelf all the way in the back.

Thats not to say eBay doesnt deserve other revenue streams - they do - just not ones that block out hard working sellers just because they arent wealthy.

Hard working sellers deserve the recognition, they deserve respect, and yes they deserve to have ALL of their items seen ALL the time - especially if you pay for a "store" (extortion)(what do you REALLY get out of it (except some free listings that cost eBay nothing anyway) ????

Maybe they can fix search and find those missing million or so buyers that left the platform .... or maybe those million sellers who left for Posh and Mercari.

by: Weirdbooks

@toolguy

Actually, your LEATHERMAN search is broken too.

Search Leatherman 832532.  Should give only a Wave+ model.  The first result is the correct Wave model, after that it is a random selection of Leatherman results.  As stated above, you need to use quotes to get eBay to search using a model number, otherwise it shows everything.

When your results are not what you expect, then you begin to question are you even seeing all the 832532's?  Are there more that are not showing up for whatever reason?  Who knows.  But we all know you can't sell it if the buyer can't find it.

by: Snapped

Take two identical devices and do a simultaneous search on the same term with identical attribute filters.  Betcha never get the two to match.  And that should tell you all you need to know about eBay’s ‘manipulations’.

eBay’s search returns are like snowflakes, each one different from any other.  

by: toolguy

@Weirdbooks

As a hard core collector I would never search for a Wave with the model number!

I would search for: Leatherman Wave

1st search is in all categories, 2nd search is in Multi Tools.

I'm no rookie when it comes to finding and buying rare Leathermans on eBay.

My biggest competition is a guy from North Hills Ca., we message back and forth on facebook "Did you get that one?". . . . .90% of the time it's him of me getting the rare tools. He uses mobile with alerts and I sit here refreshing the page 100-200 times a day on my desktop.

by: toolguy

@Snapped, I get people to match my search all the time.

Most of the time it's identical.

Wanna play?

by: toastedmutt

Hope for the best but always get the broken down can't seem to fix it so you get garbage cobbled together ''new and improved'' model.

Holiday shopping using the current eBay search is filled with numerous results that have nothing to do with what you are trying to find.

Sad to say but I have about given up buying anything on eBay.