eBay Search Is Broken

by: Frank Abagnale

Hi Ina, is it possible to search your archives because I thought this headline was from 5 years ago?

by: Donkey

Yes, Search has been broken since at least Friday.  Sales have been non-existent this week.
People are just tired of dealing with this ebay mess.

by: Ina

Hi Frank, There is a search box on the top right side of every page.

by: Scotty

This is just one big experiment at our expense.  Do the staff at ebay suffer MASSIVE swings in their paychecks due to ebay playing these games....No, they do not....just the sellers (customers).  If they had skin in the game like we do, this would not be happening.

by: Frank Abagnale

Thanks. I was off by one year.

http://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/letters/blog.pl?/comments
/2012/9/1347022958.html

by: The End

Search is broken ?
Stuff is over priced by 700% so, what's the difference ?

by: David Steiner

"Search is broken ?
Stuff is over priced by 700% so, what's the difference ?"

Don't you think there might be a correlation there? Certainly, if I was a merchant, and I thought that people weren't seeing my listings in search like they used to, I would make sure I put a healthy BIN or reserve on my item to ensure that it wasn't sold at a loss.

As late as 2007, I would start my auctions at $4.99 (and these were valuable items) and let them fly because they invariably reached market prices or above. I wouldn't trust that anymore.

So a broken, or manipulated search essentially brings the whole laissez faire aspect of eBay to a halt.

Not rocket science.

by: toolguy

I sold 8 items Friday and 4 yesterday.

If search is broken how did these people find my items for sale?

by: leathermermaid8

Add me to the long list of frustrated users.  If search was bad before, it's impossible now.

I searched for Red.Leather.Shoes.  Not books, sofas or cosplay outfits.

After plugging in my usual parameters and minus signs I got next to NO shoe results and loads  of everything the "-" was supposed to weed out, including cheesy plastic stripper platform shoes from shipping China and DOLL's shoes. Oh and an F-150.

Doesn't a mess like this show a corresponding drop in sales (as in FEES for eBay)?  Probably the only way to get their attention.

There were a couple of posting on the eBay boards, so I know it wasn't just me.

by: toolguy

Yep, eBay has messed up search!

I search for: "scribe rite"

I always get 2 results and both are jewelry and if I'm lucky I'll find the tool I'm looking for just like I did a minute ago.

But the search results brought back 99 hits when there should've only been 3.

EBAY'S LOST THEIR MINDS AGAIN!

by: RL15

ebay's artificial intelligence.

do not show the buyers what they want, show them what ebay wants you to buy.

and i'm sure things on ebay will get worse, except for toolboy

by: 27tcle

In my case i'm getting stuff i searced for previously mixed in with the target search... Along with a bunch of irrelevant crap. What a mess.

by: akik

This has also been happening to one of my accounts, but on ebay UK. Ebay US works just fine.

What I noticed is that the ''include description'' box is missing from its usual place (upper right, below the search button).

It could be another test, who knows with the geniuses at ebay...

by: White Rabbit

you can bet it is an AI test.. of course it is a LIVE test and at the seller's expense for loss of sales.

by: White Rabbit

I did test my saved searches.. seems ok and I tried a new search - seems ok so maybe it is fixed? hopefully.

by: JLight

I had this problem until this morning.  I do all of my regular searching on my desktop using Chrome.  Out of curiosity, this morning, I tried using my Kindle Fire HD which uses their Silk browser.  I first dumped my cache including my cookies and had absolutely no problems.

Please refer to your blog post of Monday August 22: ''eBay Unleashes Machine Learning Search Pages'' and I quote: ''We are also applying statistical learning to optimize the whole page: reacting to the users' actions we can reorder and prioritize the content in the search page, providing search guidance or access to top deals and top products in appropriate context while minimizing distractions.''

eBay cannot ''react to the users' actions'' if they do not recognize who you are!  Until they correct this problem, you must dump your cookies before you search!

I regularly dump my cache on my desktop but never dump cookies.  Did so this morning, and searches are now normal.  I'm guessing I might have to do this each morning before I search at least for now.  

by: White Rabbit

interesting, i did use ccleaner very recently before trying search out so the cookies were dumped also about 600 of them between firefox and chrome

by: Rexford

Frank Abagnale, you are likely seeing this headline again because search is broken, and has been broken for a very long time.

According to the posts above it is even MORE broken than it was the last time a reader may have asked Ina this question, so it is definitely relative.

eBay is likely tinkering again. They've been bragging about the impending "artificial intelligence" they will implement to impress Wall Street.

It's kind of like Young Frankenstein putting in Abby Normal's brain due to Igor's fug up.  Think of eBay management as Igor.

by: Rexford

And I meant that it is relevant, not relative.  :)

by: Russ

What is ''rocket science'' is trying to figure out why anyone attempts to sell by navigating this rusting scow of an ecommerce site....

Still enjoy reading the trials and tribulations of all the hardcore eBay sellers....jumping through the new hoops and longing for the past...a kinder, gentler eBay ....

Good luck, all...

Back to my day job....now that's science!