Looks like they finally broke the search function :(

[3islanders]

Something I always really liked about searching for things on eBay was their great "AND" search, which brought results with only ALL the keywords. Unlike Amazon, Walmart, wherever else I've searched for things where you get so many useless unrelated results. A while back I noticed that .com seemed to have lost its nice search capability. Now, it's finally happened on .ca too. I wonder when; haven't been on here for a bit. But I thought I'd help a fellow doll collector find an appropriate price for a doll -- looking at sold-item prices. So I searched for "Pullip Henri" ... and got a **bleep**load of "Louis Henri" men's sweaters. Augh!!!
Another example is when you want to look for a batch or lot of items. The search now brings tons of single items, instead of listings including the word "lot".

You could previously exclude words with a minus sign ("NOT" search function).  Now you get results with words you tried to exclude.
And so on.
So now we have an "OR" search... the results don't have to contain all your keywords, just one. So I suppose the more keywords you use, trying to be specific, the more useless unrelated results you'll get.

C'mon, eBay. WHYYYYY? This will NOT make me buy more things.
Any likelihood of repairing this broken algorithm and changing it back to "AND" instead of "OR"?

[eburtonlab]

So I searched for "Pullip Henri" ... and got a **bleep**load of "Louis Henri" men's sweaters.

There seems to be only one listing that matches that search term at the moment. When there are few listings that are returned by a search, eBay will often widen the search by dropping a search keyword or trying alternative keywords that return additional results. Sometimes this can be helpful, but sometimes it is not.

If you do not want to see any substitutions or corrections, try putting one of your search keywords in quotes, like this:

https://www.ebay.ca/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=%22Pullip%22+Henri&_sacat=0

That should force eBay to return only exact, literal matches for all your search terms.

Another example is when you want to look for a batch or lot of items. The search now brings tons of single items, instead of listings including the word "lot".

https://www.ebay.ca/sch/175672/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=%22lot%22+laptop

You could previously exclude words with a minus sign ("NOT" search function). Now you get results with words you tried to exclude.

Putting a minus sign in front of a keyword you do not want to see should still work as it has in the past.

https://www.ebay.ca/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=%22henri%22+-louis+-bendel+-lou+-lloyd+-bendels+-mclau...

[3islanders]

It's not the same as the previous "search results matching fewer keywords".

I use quote searches on Google; I'll try it here.  I did a few minus-sign searches before posting and they didn't work.

Still, we wouldn't need to do that if the search was an "and".  Whoda thunk a basic boolean search would be so much to ask for?  😂

[eburtonlab]

I did a few minus-sign searches before posting and they didn't work.

Can you provide a link to a search that is not working?

I have seen a couple of odd keywords that are difficult to exclude under certain circumstances -- possibly because eBay is doing some sort of odd keyword grouping and treating multiple keywords as a unique keyword distinct from the individual keywords comprising it. If you can figure out the grouped keywords, you may still be able to exclude them as a group.

Still, we wouldn't need to do that if the search was an "and".

If you enter multiple keywords, the results you see should contain all those keywords in the title or item-specifics.

Most of the time, that is the case.

There are some exceptions, though, as I indicated. For instance, if the search returns few (or no) results, or if a slight variation in a keyword's spelling produces many more results (which is good for catching keyword typos, but sometimes can backfire if a keyword is obscure or an intentional misspelling of a more popular keyword, such as certain brand names -- like "Cheeze" or "Nexys").

Most of eBay's "smart" search features -- like keyword substitution and automatic category navigation -- can be bypassed by using quotes, exclusions, or by putting multiple keywords in parentheses separated by commas to provide a Boolean "OR" search.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@eburtonlab wrote:

I did a few minus-sign searches before posting and they didn't work.

Can you provide a link to a search that is not working?

I have seen a couple of odd keywords that are difficult to exclude under certain circumstances -- possibly because eBay is doing some sort of odd keyword grouping and treating multiple keywords as a unique keyword distinct from the individual keywords comprising it. If you can figure out the grouped keywords, you may still be able to exclude them as a group.

Still, we wouldn't need to do that if the search was an "and".

If you enter multiple keywords, the results you see should contain all those keywords in the title or item-specifics.

Most of the time, that is the case.

There are some exceptions, though, as I indicated. For instance, if the search returns few (or no) results, or if a slight variation in a keyword's spelling produces many more results (which is good for catching keyword typos, but sometimes can backfire if a keyword is obscure or an intentional misspelling of a more popular keyword, such as certain brand names -- like "Cheeze" or "Nexys").

Most of eBay's "smart" search features -- like keyword substitution and automatic category navigation -- can be bypassed by using quotes, exclusions, or by putting multiple keywords in parentheses separated by commas to provide a Boolean "OR" search.

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@eburtonlab 

Problem being is the majority of buyers will not know that is what THEY will have to do get  "accurate" search results. It was never this difficult in the past to do a basic search. Once all the tinkering kicked in with specifics several years ago all the normal rules went out the window. These changes have made it harder for buyers to find and sellers to sell.

-Lotz

[eburtonlab]

Problem being is the majority of buyers will not know that is what THEY will have to do get "accurate" search results.

My guess is that for every buyer that wants "accurate" search results that are rigorous, consistent and logically complete, there are probably a hundred buyers that just want to be able to enter a couple of "intuitive" keywords into the eBay app and find something to buy without having to know any details of search syntax or filter options.

I don't have any real data to back that up, but I would be willing to bet that eBay does. eBay has lots and lots of data about how users actually search, and which searches result in sales and which do not.

And at almost every turn, eBay changes things to make it easier for the average "intuitive" marginal app user to find something to buy, and the minority of power users that want rigorous, consistent and logically complete "accurate" results have to jump through more and more hoops to avoid keyword substitutions or corrections, automatic category navigation, and "streamlined" lowest-first searches that often leave out a majority of the actual results.

eBay will let users search either way, but only one way can be the default, and eBay has chosen "intutitive" over "accurate".

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@eburtonlab 

Total agreement with you!! My biggest pita is the fact they have done sooo much tinkering and mucking under the hood with categories, lots of items just aren't where they should be. Doing research on items is much more time consuming.  Meaning stuff that used to be able to be found within "normal" search words has become a getting worse by the month needle in a haystack or like trying to find real Waldo at a Waldo lookalike convention. eBay's idea of intuitive just gives me and many others headaches. 

Search used to be one of eBay's best features. Now it is getting closer to most annoying!!

[3islanders]

I agree with Lotz -- it's just become harder.
Do you really think that buyers just want to put in a couple of words and will be happy with getting a whole pile of totally unrelated results? Guess I can't speak for anyone else but I'm not looking for "just something to buy"; I'll be looking for something specific. Why change the search to be more vague?
I mean, if you want to buy a red shirt, you should be able to type in "red shirt" and get -- red shirts. Not red dresses, red hats, red scarves, and shirts of every other colour. This is an over-simplified example, but this is what the search does now.
Sorry I do not have time to make up minus-sign searches and post examples. Just try it yourself -- put in some keywords, put in something that might be related with a minus sign (like, maybe "red shirt -black") and see what you get.
I don't think we need word salads of "intuitive" vs. "logically complete" searches... just a search that returns listings with ALL the keywords.  I'm not a programmer but how hard can this be?  And it used to work this way.
>>If you enter multiple keywords, the results you see should contain all those keywords in the title or item-specifics.<<
Well, like I said, and the reason I posted in the first place -- this is not the case.
eBay search results are approaching Amazon's for irrelevance.  😞

[eburtonlab]

I don't think we need word salads of "intuitive" vs. "logically complete" searches... just a search that returns listings with ALL the keywords. I'm not a programmer but how hard can this be? And it used to work this way.
>>If you enter multiple keywords, the results you see should contain all those keywords in the title or item-specifics.<<
Well, like I said, and the reason I posted in the first place -- this is not the case.

My advice if you want to avoid all the "smart" and "intuitive" search features, is to pick your keywords with care, put one of your keywords in quotes, generally avoid "Price plus shipping: lowest first" and "Best match" sort orders and you should find results that have all your exact keywords in the title or item-specifics. From there, you may want to narrow the category and use a filter or two to weed out unwanted results that may have the same keywords you are looking for.

If that does not work, post a link to your search and explain how it's not working for you.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@eburtonlab wrote:

I don't think we need word salads of "intuitive" vs. "logically complete" searches... just a search that returns listings with ALL the keywords. I'm not a programmer but how hard can this be? And it used to work this way.
>>If you enter multiple keywords, the results you see should contain all those keywords in the title or item-specifics.<<
Well, like I said, and the reason I posted in the first place -- this is not the case.

My advice if you want to avoid all the "smart" and "intuitive" search features, is to pick your keywords with care, put one of your keywords in quotes, generally avoid "Price plus shipping: lowest first" and "Best match" sort orders and you should find results that have all your exact keywords in the title or item-specifics. From there, you may want to narrow the category and use a filter or two to weed out unwanted results that may have the same keywords you are looking for.

If that does not work, post a link to your search and explain how it's not working for you.

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@eburtonlab 

@3islanders 

As strange as it sounds you have a better chance finding a specific item by going to google first and adding in eBay vs going directly to eBay. The waters within eBay got very muddled when Promoted became the monster it is now.  

If nothing comes up close with a google search I will choose something as close to similar from the promoted options. Click on it and it brings you to other promoted listings that ARE close to your match. As strange as that sounds it works majority of the time. 

Entirely depends on what eBay is doing under the hood affects what I see for my traffic. It has flipflopped so many times in the past few years it's enough to make a head spin. My current report below. Basically 3:2 eBay:Google etc.   3 years ago it hovered around 5:2. When it was in that range my sales were much more consistant (= regular) than how they are now. In speaking to other Canadian sellers they have made similar observations for their own listings.

Like the Stones used to sing and relevant to eBay....You can't always have what you want....but  (if you are lucky) you find what you need!!! Hopefully???

-Lotz

[3islanders]

When I have found eBay results on Google they have typically been expired items. I suppose that’s worth a try too. Why the heck would sort order mess up the search or bring different results? That makes the algorithm sound like even more of a mess. I suppose “promoted“ is a whole other debate. Maybe the focus on “promotion“ is why I have zero views on most of my listings.

[eburtonlab]

When I have found eBay results on Google they have typically been expired items.

That is primarily because Google uses things like longevity and popularity to rank pages, so the pages that rank highly have been around a long time and are often already sold, and newly listed eBay items rarely rank very highly.

That being said, it can still be useful to search for something using Google; that can be one way to find additional keywords or part numbers that can then be plugged into an eBay search of active listings, or to find information about older items that have already sold and may no longer appear on eBay's site.

Why the heck would sort order mess up the search or bring different results?

Primarily that affects the "Price plus shipping: lowest first" sort order; likely eBay calculates that when someone searches for a widget, they want to see actual working widgets rather than all the widget plans, widget parts, widget accessories and broken widgets that would appear before any actual working widgets would ever appear in that sort, otherwise.

Lately "Best match" has also been showing different numbers of results for some searches, but so far sorting by "Ending soonest", "Newly listed", "Distance" and "Price plus shipping: highest first" all show results consistent with each other and with no apparent filtering.