eBay

drucecat · ‎05-30-2013

I am hoping that it is just me, but is anyone else frustrated with the Search Engine algorithms that eBay is now using?

Quite frankly, I frequently can't effectively find the item I'm looking for without wading through a whole bunch of listings that are not relevant, but have a similar word or words in their titles. I have been a member since 1998 and have purchased and sold thousands of items on eBay, but I can't believe the amount of my personal business that Amazon is getting in the last six months, because finding what I'm looking for, at a competitive price on eBay is too much work.

I'll offer an example. I am looking to purchase a new movie release entitled "Dragon" with a 2013 release date. I enter Dragon into the Search Engine, for the DVD/Movies category and I get (at the time I'm writing this) 7,297 results on .ca. But, I have to go to page 6, to get my first actual correct hit.

Now, try to compare prices for similar correct hits.

Incidentally, on .com, I get 8,703 results, but I "only" have to go to page 3, to get a correct hit.

Yes, I know things improve drastically if I search for Dragon 2013. But, the point is, why should a buyer have to jump through hoops to find what they are looking for? And, if I were a seller of this movie, I'd be screaming blue-murder. This appears to be just plain unfair to both buyers and sellers.

How could any buyer think of putting this movie up for auction, my personal preference for both purchasing and selling, when their exposure is so limited?

Incidentally, when you search Amazon , both .ca and .com for "Dragon", in the Movies / TV category - the first result you get is for "Dragon". What a concept! They'll be broke in no time.

I am a Top-rated seller and I have had to pull auctions because I can't find my item. I have even phoned customer support and asked them to find my item in a normal search and sometimes they can't do it.

Is there a point to the apparent dumbing down of the sight? Or, am I becoming do so obtuse that I no longer know how to do a proper search?

ypdc_dennis · ‎05-31-2013

I am hoping that it is just me, but is anyone else frustrated with the Search Engine algorithms that eBay is now using?

Search for Battle Angel in DVDs & Movies on eBay.ca and you get 163 hits -- the majority of the results are for Battle: Los Angeles -- burying the actual 6 listings.

One would think that the exact match should get the top spots and then follow up with the near misses -- rather than blending them together.

And with the new larger images to slow down page display, it's becoming just a bit too time consuming to search and find stuff on eBay. X-(

Although if some one can point me toward an eBay display setting the allows me to go back to the old small size search thumbnails I'd be grateful.

sheepgal54 · ‎05-31-2013

I KNEW there was something different again. I usually sell to the US and 90% of my now meager sales are Canadian. Something is definitely wrong here.

drucecat · ‎05-31-2013

One would think that the exact match should get the top spots and then follow up with the near misses -- rather than blending them together.

I believe that you are absolutely correct! This is how we all envision a search to work, or at least I would argue that this is how a search should work.

What is the point of frustrating buyers and angering sellers doing the search any other way?

beautiful_times · ‎05-31-2013

I KNEW there was something different again. I usually sell to the US and 90% of my now meager sales are Canadian. Something is definitely wrong here.

I agree with you. I normally sell at least 1 item a day and 90% of the time it is the the US. This week from both of my accounts, I had 4 sales.1 to Canada, 1 went to Australia and very very early this morning (only after putting on a 25% off sale) did I finally get 2 US sales.

rafael.xavier · ‎05-31-2013

Try Google, just use word Ebay before your search and Google finds most relevant ones.

inuk_the_polar_bear · ‎05-31-2013

Yer browser makes a big difference as well. I get completely different eBay "advanced" page using Firefox as opposed to IE.

barbsplace66 · ‎05-31-2013

I totally agree with you, even using key words when looking for a certain item does not bring up what you are looking for, today I was looking for a specific post card using city and town name and blue tailgate lights showed up yet i never used the word blue or anything close to those words, very frustrating for buyers and sellers, perhaps this is why business has slowed down for many sellers cause their items are not appearing in the right area even with key words.