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eBay is moving to a new finding platform worldwide, Jamie Iannone, Vice President of Global Search, told AuctionBytes on Thursday. It is rolling out the new platform this week in the UK.

eBay has been rolling out various changes on various international sites as it tests search features, but aside from some local preferences, it will eventually be the same finding platform globally. "Consistency is good," Iannone said, and referred to the fact that some shoppers search multiple sites.

eBay.com users can try out the new search technology by visiting playground.ebay.com. Something they are testing on eBay Italy is a Slide-like gallery feature that displays listings horizontally at the top of the page, displaying listings by time ending soonest, with the regular listings below, sorted with Best Match.

Ianonne also talked about a feature that brings back results relevant to searches even if the seller hasn't included the keyword search terms in their listing. He used the example of "birthstone for January," and typed the term into the Playground search box. It brought back listings for garnet rings, even if the word birthstone or January was not in the listing.

Iannone went on to explain the four factors that influence eBay's new Best Match search technology. Factors do vary by category, he said.

The four factors are Item Information - including category, title, attribute, and information about listings; Seller Information - including seller DSR scores, and other bad seller metrics; Demand Data - what are buyers doing on the site; and, he said, "Time Ending Soonest" plays a role.

The reason eBay does not publish further specifics about the factors that go into Best Match, Iannone said, is that "For every query and category, there are different implications." As an example, there are some categories in which a lot of sellers do not qualify for DSR thresholds, while in other categories, there are lots of sellers with good DSRs. eBay also uses real-time buyer demand data, clarifying that it is aggregate data from all buyers, not specific to the one conducting the search.

In addition, "we want sellers to have incentives to do better." He recommended sellers describe items accurately and put them in the right category.

When asked if Best Match would spawn "search engine optimization" specialists as those for website owners trying to rank highly on Google, Iannone said "We've tried to make it so people don't waste their time trying to game the system. It's unproductive."

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About the author:

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com.

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