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Search Engine Comments by eBay Express Employees
Posted Jan-21-07 19:09:24 PST Updated Jan-21-07 19:25:29 PST
eBay Express Brown Bag Lunch (May 5th, 12-1pm)
[email protected] May-05-06 12:22 PDT 33 of 125
Re: post #8
Hi biddy-biddy,
The eBay Express search engine looks at listings from eBay.com and puts them into eBay Express categories. Sometimes it puts a listing in multiple categories and sometimes it cannot find a suitable category. In the later case, the listing will show up in the Seller's Other Items but not in the general search.
We are working to make sure that eBay Express brings back the most relevant items to the buyer. The team is constantly reviewing cases where items are not being matched to a category and expanding the coverage of search results.
thanks,
Chung
[email protected] May-05-06 12:45 PDT 81 of 125
Re: post # 67 --
Hi woadieland,
All listings on Express are eBay.com listings. So, those listings will appear in searches on both Express and eBay.com.
Of course, where and how often a particular listing appears in search may differ between the two sites -- since the two search engines are different.
Hope that helps,
Elliot.
[email protected] May-05-06 12:47 PDT 88 of 125
Re: post #52
Hi biddy-biddy,
I can understand why it seems broken not to locate all listings from a category. As you pointed out, browsing eBay.com's brings back all items in an eBay.com category.
On eBay Express, we are trying to present the "best matching" items to buyers. A wide variety of factors from the listing, sellers and buyer are taken into account, including the category the item was listed. Sometimes an item does not meet those criteria, and as such, we have elected not to show those items in either search or browse.
thanks,
Chung
How are express items displayed in a random search?
[email protected] May-23-06 10:52 PDT 8 of 20
Hi blazebird,
Good question. As you infer correctly, there are a couple of big steps in figuring out how items are shown:
- figuring out what items to show
- figuring out what order to show those items:
(1) Figuring out what items to show
At a high level, here’s how we go about that:
• Match the buyer’s search to the most likely eBay Express results: if I do a search for “Apple 30GB video ipod”, the search engine assumes that I’m looking for a video iPod player (as opposed to iPod accessories) and automatically takes me to “Apple iPods & MP3 Players.”
• Interpret what the buyer is “really saying”: In the case of this search, the search engine interprets that what I want is an MP3 Player where the Brand = “Apple iPod”, Features = “Video Enabled”, Capacity = “30GB” and it displays ALL the relevant listings that match what I’m looking for, even if they don’t match the title exactly. The seller may have conveyed some of the key information (such as capacity) through item specifics or category structure, but the search engine indexes all that information, in addition to the title.
• Keep the category “clean”: The search engine excludes all items from the Apple iPod & MP3 Player category on eBay Express that don’t belong; i.e., arm bands, skins, etc. So a listing for “20GB iPod Video Case” selling for $4 won’t show up in my search results even though it would match a strict title search (and it may have been listed in the iPod category on eBay.com).
(2) Figuring what order to show those items
We then sort these items by "best matches" (default) or by "total cost".
The best match sort pulls in information from many areas to present shoppers with the most relevant results possible. Things we may look at include listing category, item title, item specifics, catalog information, search behavior by previous shoppers on the site, and the current shoppers search terms.
The total cost sort is based on the item price and the cost of the first shipping service that the seller provided.
eBay Express uses a different search technology from that on eBay.com. The reason for this is that we wanted to make it easier to find items on eBay Express for people who are not regular eBay buyers. We’ve heard lots of feedback for a long time about how it’s often difficult to find exactly what you’re looking for quickly on eBay.com.
There are pros and cons to that: some eBay buyers & sellers would say that the “thrill of the hunt” and the joy of discovery is part of the magic of eBay.com. And many of our passionate users have mastered complex search strings and Saved Searches that allow them to pinpoint exactly what they’re looking for in no time at all.
But eBay Express was designed to also attract people who are too overwhelmed or intimidated (or just plain busy) to sort through what they may see as irrelevant listings on eBay.com. So with this search engine, we want to
1) quickly get buyers to exactly what they’re looking for,
2) show them all the relevant items on the site, without having to know any fancy search strings, and
3) filter out listings that are not relevant.
We will continue to test and refine how search works on eBay Express throughout our preview period to ensure the best possible experience for our shoppers.
thanks,
Chung
[email protected] May-23-06 11:23 PDT 11 of 20
Re: post 9
Hi blazebird,
That's fair feedback. Right now, the search engine thinks that the "Carter Brown" books are the most relevant listings.
This would change over time, as the algorithm learns from buyer behavior and eBay continues to tweak the algorithm on how to sort items. An example of the former is when buyers who searches in Antiquarian & Collectibles Books ends buying other listings.
We haven't really marketed eBay Express to the buyers during the Preview period, and as such, you are not seeing great shifts in how items are sorted due to buyer feedback.
I'll also take this back to the team to see if we can moderate the skew in search results before eBay steps up marketing to the buyers.
thanks,
Chung
[email protected] May-23-06 11:31 PDT 12 of 20
Re: post 10
Hi chain_man,
When I search on "Apple 30GB video ipod" from the homepage, I'm taken to the "Apple iPod & MP3 Player Accessories" category. I'm also asked if that's not the right category with a short cut to "Apple iPods & MP3 Players".
http://search.express.ebay.com/__Apple-iPod-MP3-Player-Accessories_Apple-30GB-video-ipod_W0QQ_nkwZAppleQ2030GBQ20videoQ20ipodQQ_fxdZ1QQ_ptasZ1Q2cOtherQ5fMP3Q5fPlayersQ5e3
If I click through on that link, I'm taken to the MP3 category with the eBay Express intrepretation of the search (Brand = “Apple iPod”, Features = “Video Enabled”, Capacity = “30GB”).
http://search.express.ebay.com/__Apple-iPods-MP3-Players_Apple-30GB-video-ipod_W0QQ_nkwZAppleQ2030GBQ20videoQ20ipodQQ_fxdZ1QQ_stsZ1
BTW, the Express search engine recognizes that click as me saying that I wanted MP3 players instead of the MP3 accessories. It will use that as feedback in the future on what to show for similar searches.
thanks,
Chung
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