Best Match search algorithm is going haywire. Who else has noticed?

[manatee_music]

Hello fellow eBay sellers,

I'm sure a lot of people have noticed that the results for a best match search have not been behaving like they're supposed to.  Top selling Items of mine that previously topped a best match search for a long time have ended up buried on page 2 or 3 of the search, even though they've got sales (and more sales than other CD items of mine that rate higher in the search despite selling much less well, if at all).

For a while today, this nonsense stopped and my top selling item landed where it was supposed to in the search.  Then it went bad again.  I asked online customer assistance, but they couldn't help.

I see many other threads telling similar stories.  It's been happening since about 20th June.  I have switched all my listing to the Top Rated Plus conditions, and that hasn't helped at all.

There is something really screwy going on with the algorithm, where previous healthy sales for a particular item are virtually forgotten by the system and seem to count for nothing.

Apparently many other sellers have complained about it, but most people report denials from eBay that there is even a problem.  To anyone like me who analyses best match searches, it's obviously not right.  But I think sellers who are constantly watching it understand how the algorithm works (and what it is intended to do - sort by merit, generally speaking) better than eBay's own staff do.

This is really really bad!  It doesn't happen with all my best sellers, only some.  Why?

Any thoughts from other sellers would be interesting to hear.

[jfmgray]

I can make no sense at all of how best match is now working.  If I view my own listings using best match to sort, there is no logic that I can work out to explain the top items.  It used to make sense - TRS status + sales history would count for heaps - add a bit for free post and there you have it.  But now - my items with sales history are not at the top oif my list, nor is free post.  I have a few items that will meet the TRS+ standard on 1 August and they are nowhere to be found against my other listings.  In saying that, I still am getting good exposure when I check my items against other sellers.

[3415len]

this is a simular problem I have been receiving for the last month or 2 our best selling items have stopped selling , I contacted ebay they said you should change your stock , whqat a joke I have been selling my specialiest products for 12 years now some smarty from ebay said to charge your stock , I believe the problem is that the large Chinese ebay users list 300,000 items and use best match computer systems to hog all the space, when a customer is searching for your product, one of my regular customers was trying to search one of our specialty items but was not able to find it, even when he search only Australian base items

ebay could not or would nopt answer why this has happened, but I believe we have been hijacked

[fourandsixpants]

I researched this problem in depth and posted all my findings on discussion boards BEFORE the discussion board changes/over hauls on ebay.com.au in June this year(2013).

I searched and followed discussion boards on both the ebay.co.uk site - on the Business Sellers boards discussions.....and also in the Technical Issues topics board on the ebay.com (USA) site.........outcome was that both UK and USA and CANADIAN based sellers are/were experiencing SAME PROBLEMS as discussed here.

USA search issues ongoing since June 2012....and UK search issues since about October 2012

Cassini introduction is one debated major problem.

Ebay in Oct 2012 as documented in media reports admitted shutting down 400+ of its total 53,000+ servers........to save its shareholders big $'s......causing huge search engine issue related problems.

[fourandsixpants]

for those interested.....if you care to scroll through to comments in 2013......you will read similar probs in USA ebay:

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Technical-Issues/Ebay-has-seriouse-server-problems-and-they-are-not-tel...

Message 2661 of 2,872 is worth a read

[fourandsixpants]

http://dse.ebay.com/  

http://dse.ebay.com/sites/default/files/eBay-DSE-130305.pdf

both worth a read

[fourandsixpants]

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Technical-Issues/Ebay-has-seriouse-server-problems-and-they-are-not-tel... 

comment # 2,847

‎posted: 07-23-201306:00 PM

[emeraldtarpon]

The watch numbers are false.

I listed an item,checked it within 5 minutes of listing it,and when i did a banner explained that 4 people an hour were watching my item (after only 5 minutes of being listed).

Again,the watch numbers are false....this proves it!