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.

[thecatspjs]

Ebay are rolling out their new Cassini search platform.

If you google ebay and cassini there are several articles regarding Cassini, including on Terapeak site a summary of an ebay reps presentation on "its features".

[retrogeekaustralia]

Hi manatee, i have been having this exact issue on a few of my items since the start of April. Contact eBay several times as i have mentioned in my posts here:

http://community.ebay.com.au/topic/Selling/Ebay-Search-Engine/500163479

Every time i contact them i get a response from the technical department saying there is no issue and giving me advice on how to maintain better standing in the results. It's an utter joke and they are avoiding the issue completely.

If you don't mind me asking, what is the exact item and the search keywords you have used to notice this issue? I'd like to have a look for my self, because in a lot of cases you can still find out where your actual position should be. Which i have found to be the easiest way to get through to eBay's customer support staff to acknowledge that there is an actually glitch (even if the technical department still won't acknowledge it).

I, like you, watch the search engine like a hawk to better my sales, and so to me it's quite obvious there are bugs in the algorithm. Fingers crossed it's gets fixes soon, but i think the only thing we can do at the moment is to keep complaining to eBay.

[dylan11235813]

If you have Listing Analytics (under applications in your MyEbay) you should be able to see the exact ranking for particular search keywords. You may need a store to subscribe to it.

That said though I have always had issues with it not picking up my listings, sometimes it works a little, sometime a lot and other times not at all. I contacted Ebay about it and they said it was free and it basically was not their problem.

I have noticed when changes take place to their systems sales go down which I assume is related to search standings. I have also read that ebay have said that if accessing data from different servers of theirs it will change the ranking (yeh right)

I have no idea what the Cassini search platform is but it would be nice if ebay update their customers with stuff like that.

[phorum_junkie*]

As a buyer I never use Best Match and as a seller I rarely search for my own items using that or any other of the search options.

While my sales have been down slightly in my store the number of people viewing my items is in fact consistent with previous years so there is no way I can blame searches for the lower sales.

[manatee_music]

OK, here's an example of what I'm talking about.  Feel free to test the search, but please don't click through to the items (unless you want to buy them of course!)

Try searching for "seekers" on Best Match w/ 200 results per page.  My top-rating item in that search is "All Bound for Morningtown" 4CD (has a big yellow & black "4CD" on it).  I've never sold a single copy of this!

My best selling Seekers item "The Ultimate Collection" 2CD (with big yellow and black "2CD" on it) used to consistently top a Seekers search as I've sold plenty of it.  Now it languishes on page 3, despite having sold about 12 last month.

All other things about the listings are the same, re terms & conditions, etc.

Isn't that completely stupid?

It's happening on some of my top-selling items, which obviously kills them.  Other top-sellers are still doing fine.  Why?

And here's another thing.  Whether you set it for 25 or 200 results per page, "The Ultimate" shows up at the start of page 3 either way.  What the?

[retrogeekaustralia]

Ok i just had a search for your listing. It's a bit harder to tell on this item than with mine as my particular search on my item "n64 av" only brings up aprox 120 results, what i have noticed with mine is as long you can confine the results down to a single page then everything displays correctly (in my case 200 listings per page would only bring back a single page, in your case however this wouldn't work)

I have noticed something on your listing though, probably not the best way to figure out your standing but if you select "buy it now only" you automatically jump up to 3rd place, whereas even in the "all" listings view there is a load of buy it now listing before yours on page 3.

On the buy it now only view your item appears in position 3 between The Soul Seekers: Mystic by Alyson Noel BOOK... from angusrobertsonoutlet and One Piece doujinshi the Roger Pirates Tidely SEEKERS from happyhooper

However on the "all listings" view i have counted 23 buy it now listing before it gets to yours, which doesn't make sense when you should be the 3rd ranking buy it now listing. Happyhoopers listing is still showing up 3rd in this view and yours should be above his. The issue also seems to be effecting that angusandrobertson listing as well, who is being pushed back one page, whereas yours is being pushed back 2 pages.

[nirv_australia]

I am having a similar problem however this problem is affecting all of my listings, not just some. I have been having this problem for about 2 1/2 weeks. When I searched particular terms, for example "Core i7", I used to (for at least a year) have 2 or 3 listings in the top 10 results on page 1, with many more on the rest of page 1. I know have no listings appearing on the first 10 pages (probably more). If I use Listing Analytics to test various search words I get the following result:

0 of your listings found for gaming pc within the top 1000 search results

So my listings are not appearing within the first 1000 results. I have no idea whatsoever what is causing this. Absolutely nothing has changed with my listings or my account. I am still a TRS with 100% positive feedback.

As a result of this problem I am receiving zero sales. In the past few days I have created several auction listings in an attempt to get some sales but this hasn't amounted to anything yet.

This problem doesn't seem to be affecting any of my competitors. All the usual suspects are still appearing at the top of search results as normal.

Ebay need to fix this. It's destroying small businesses like ours.

[nirv_australia]

Update:  I have contracted Ebay 3 times over the past 2 weeks now using the email option on the customer support contact page. I have not had a single response from Ebay. Clearly they do not care and aren't interested in helping.

[boombooks2]

You are absolutely right.  I have newly listed items very close to the top, even though they have no sales.  And other good-selling items not within cooee.

One thing is certain;  direct approaches to any part of eBay will extract statements of denial and ignorance.