eBay Listens to Customers, Retires Old Search Engine

eBay (EBAY) announced that it is retiring its old search technology in April 2009 in favor of the new search technology introduced last year. Currently 90% of users are now using the new search engine and the company is aiming for 100% conversion. Jeff King, Senior Director of Finding, states that the new engine is cleaner and faster and will deliver better results. He stated that eBay incorporated user suggestions to make the search engine better – so yes, management is apparently listening to users.

King said:

In a nutshell, it looks at a multitude of details in listings to deliver more of the results you want. It makes it easy to browse and narrow your selection, and lets you choose how you want to see the results. With the new auto-complete feature it even 'anticipates' what you're typing in the search box.

eBay also stated that there are several new features in store.

"These features include but are not limited to:

• Adding the "Get More results in Other eBay areas" you can see currently at the bottom of the classic search pages as well as the Tools Section

• Upgrading the Category selector on the Advanced search pages to reflect any subcategories you may have used in your browse path

• Including a new customize your preference function so that you have more control over what you see in the left navigation

• Updating the drop downs to change your sort and view to make them easier to use

• Creating a more user-friendly experience when your search returns 0 items.

• Supporting the ability to do a negative search in a lower level category
Last but not least, we wanted to let you know that we will continue our ongoing efforts to incrementally increase the site speed.”

I have long held that search is extremely poor on eBay and the function should be outsourced to either Google (GOOG) or Yahoo (YHOO), who specializes in search. Even with the new search engine in place, I continue to believe that search needs significant improvement. I am willing to give the new engine the benefit of doubt for about another six months to see if it is a material improvement or is at least comparable to Amazon (AMZN).

Remember that Amazon acquired specialized search knowledge through the development of A9.com, which itself was a failure from a commercial perspective. However, the knowledge learned was invaluable for Amazon and has been leveraged across the Amazon.com sites.

At least eBay’s management is for once admitting that they are listening to users.

Comments

[Angie]

I'm not convinced that they are listening, the new search is atrocious though many folks may not realise just how the searches are manipulated. Increasingly sellers are discovering new (and more economically viable) places to sell just as more potential buyers are using Google / Yahoo to find what they want on the web, not many choose to look on eBay first now as savvy buyers have also realised there are places to buy at lower cost and pay for their purchases using something other than Paypal - often Google Checkout.

2009 Feb 23 08:00 AM

[fatseal]

Isn't the "new search" just Best Match, which everyone hates and tries to default out of? If they actually read comments on these articles, or even glanced at the forums, they'd realize how much buyer's and seller's alike hate the new search, the new page format, the new forums.

As a matter of fact, most changes make by ebay are hated! They may say it was done because they were "listening" to us, but trust me, go read a few forums and comments and see just how little ebay is listening, or caring what their users think.

2009 Feb 23 08:07 AM

[leapingcat]

It seems that Ebay are distorting the English language as well as their search algorithms. A 'Director of Finding' ! Since the changes have come in I seem to spend more time searching and less time finding those obscure things that I am looking for; and as for browsing, that is obviously a word that isn't even in their dictionary.
Perhaps they should appoint a 'Director of Searching' to actually work with buyers to see what they really want to find, rather than seeing what a bunch of big box sellers want them to find.

2009 Feb 23 08:38 AM

[areyoufrigginkidding]

You have got to be kidding... the idiotic best match - which doesn't do a best match for anything... is a joke. EBAY is obviously trying to pump up average time on site... that is all... The management of this company is in a race with itself to see if greed or stupidity will kill it first. Watch their GMV plummet this quarter.

2009 Feb 23 09:15 AM

[Gadz]

If you really want to be able to search EBay effectively and quickly, try the website called GetItNext.com.

Its a website thats sole purpose is to make searching for items much easier. Try it out, I guarentee you will not be dissappointed.

2009 Feb 23 09:37 AM

[Allan kraig]

YOU TALKED, WE LISTENED? eBay's most famous words!! the new search is just plain out JUNK .. it just doesn't work well, it was engineered to serve 2% of eBays sellers, The DIAMOND sellers who only have a sell through rate of 1%-3% also using the worst of the best match funtion that killed so many sellers already on eBay .. but this is another issue or feature that eBay is once again cramming down it's poor users throats .. They have stuck many unsuspecting users into their beta program they couldn't opt out of for the new search & then they never let newer users even know that they could opt out of the "NEW & IMPROVED SEARCH" .. So now they call it the official & prefered search .. Given a head to head choice most users run from the new search like rats from a sinking ship .. You would THINK HONESTLY they would slow down all their new & improved features because the "NOISE" over their "NEW & IMPROVED" "MYeBay" is still deafening and is fresh on the minds of so many un-happy users .. I myself have well over 200 searches that turn into junk with the new search :( .

All these "NEW & IMPROVED" features are more for window dressing for the stock holders to give the impression that the CEO & his minions are actually trying to do something over their current down turning finacial situation & loosing market share to Amazon rather than to do something to really ease the pain & help the actual users & sellers on eBay, improve the viability & reduce their frustraition of using the site .. Now known as one of the most complicated sites to use & also now the slowest loading of all the e-commerce site LOL .. They won't ever learn .. its the KISS method they should embrace .. aim at making the site more usable to the greater number of people .. Its something the more successful newspaper learned long ago, Write your articals at a fifth grade reading level so the greater number of people can actually read it .. you'll notice the post & star have a greater circulation than the WSJ .. Craigslist blows ebay's kigigi or what ever its name is, why? its easy to use, no frills and Craigslist ain't trying to impress its stock holders!!

It's funny, eBay has no inventory, has nothing to sell but space and their sellers make up the majority of the cash flow that ebay has but yet!! BUT Yet, eBay treats their sellers like 2nd class citizens rather than a valued commodity .. JD's main interest is to impress the stock holders rather than to aid the sellers that make up the real cash cow of the business .. It's crazy that the CEO bases the value of the company on the stock price & stock holders happyness rather than the value of the satisfaction of the real buyers & sellers on the site .. meg didn't learn it & now JD is following the same route .. they should have looked at when eBay had it's biggest growth!! It grew it's most when people were happy with the site, not when they went public & had stock prices to base success on but look at the charts when Pierre actually developed ebay as a community & it really meant something to be there .. If they concentraited on customer service, Making the sellers happy & returning eBay back to a community then it will grow on its own, Not with trickery & fudging the numbers & game playing it uses now .. eBay now it is just a shell of it's former self with no soul .. Allan kraig

2009 Feb 23 09:41 AM

[SleepyTime]

I searched for Pfaltzgraff dinnerware last night. There were 15 pages of the design I was looking at. On the 15th page, I found the well-known, multi-million dollar replacement company for dinnerware. One day and a few hours left to go on their auction and they were on the last page.

If a large company like that can't impress Best Match, how is the small seller supposed to do it?

2009 Feb 23 09:48 AM

[Yankee Trader]

If eBay would listen they would not be retiring the "old technology". Everyone uses best match because eBay forces the change and you have had to opt out of the 'new search' if you want to stay using the old search. Just another way they have shot themselves in the foot.

2009 Feb 23 10:28 AM

[Wake-Up!]

"You asked - we listened. We've lowered listing fees and "Adjusted" Final Value fees."

"eBay listens to it's customers" = "eBay listens it's diamond powersellers"

More lies and spin. The Best Match search engine is a FAILURE for ALL but the diamond powersellers that you've been courting to replace the veteran sellers who made eBay the giant it once was.

Your attempt at deceit is a failure as well. WE know the TRUTH. This new Best Match that you're so eager to say "we" wanted, only shows potential buyers what YOU want them to see and only what will yield the most profit via higher volume sellers, while the smaller lower volume sellers get shafted to the back, but continue to PAY HIGHER LISTING FEES to have their listings buried in the abyss.

To deceive the listening ears with you rhetoric and BS comes as no surprise to the real sellers and buyers - you've been portraying this "nothing less than angelic" bull crap for years now, while quickly censoring and deleting the truth from the forums and discussion for boards, like "Seller Central".

Like all other "blinded by greed" corporations before you, the end will come. Look at your stocks and don't forget to tell the shareholders how much we love eBay's "Best Match" a.k.a. Worst Match.

JMO

2009 Feb 23 10:52 AM

[Wake-Up!]

@Gadz

.....If you really want to be able to search eBay effectively and quickly, try the website called GetItNext dot com....."

Nice plug for your site!

But tell me.......... How the heck does having to leave the main eBay site and jump through another hoop to your "search site" make shopping anything easier??? And who's to say your site isn't geared to what YOU want us to see? Nobody does something for nothing - except maybe http:Craigslist.org.

If it takes me having to use another site other than the one I'm supposed to be on for a great "buyer experience", I'd much rather shop at www.Bonanzle.com where the searching comes easy and accurately.

2009 Feb 23 11:03 AM

[speckles]

How much did eBay pay you for that headline???

2009 Feb 23 12:13 PM

[jackus]

I actually thought the title of this listing said retire new search engine on first glance. And I then said wow, maybe eBay is deciding to go back to that which worked.

Then I started reading and said OH! And then what!

The new search engine has never been wanted by sellers. All I ever hear is how people hate it. And I opted out every chance I got as a seller. Not intuitive at all. Terrible!!

2009 Feb 23 12:45 PM

[Gadz]

If you had used GetItNext.com you would not have had this problem..try it.


On Feb 23 09:48 AM SleepyTime wrote:

> I searched for Pfaltzgraff dinnerware last night. There were 15
> pages of the design I was looking at. On the 15th page, I found
> the well-known, multi-million dollar replacement company for dinnerware.
> One day and a few hours left to go on their auction and they were
> on the last page.
>
> If a large company like that can't impress Best Match, how is the
> small seller supposed to do it?

2009 Feb 23 01:32 PM

[Bob C]

The blogger states:
"At least eBay’s management is for once admitting that they are listening to users."

OMG! You have got to be kidding!

If eBay would have put a big OPT OUT button for their "new search"
engine, while in "trial" stage, I would be willing to bet the ranch that not one single person would have used the "new search."

I freaked out he first time they forced it on me. Searching the forums I found that there was a tiny 'opt out' button hidden on the bottom of the search page.

Apparently 90% of the users didn't find the button, or even know they had a choice.

2009 Feb 23 01:44 PM

[x_powerseller]

At least eBay’s management is for once admitting that they are listening to users.
==========


Listening?!?! John Donahoe is deaf, blind and STUPID!
Who are those users they have been listening too? EBay management should leave their imaginary friends (users) alone, come down from Lala Land and listen to the REAL users!
Buyers and sellers alike have been saying it over and over again … “Best Match” sucks!

This Senior Director of “FINDING” should go and find a way out of this mess!

Fire the DEVIL “J.D.” and send him back to business school!

www.amazon.com/s/qid=1...

2009 Feb 23 01:52 PM

[Gadz]

Hey Wakeup,

I did not say the site does anything for free.

What I do know about it is that it does not charge the Customer but makes its money from EBay if an eventual sale goes thru EBay.

Since searching EBay can be difficult at times (hence why this site was created in the first place) since it is there, one might as well use it: the creators have tried to provide as seamless an experience as possible.

And it does not manipulate your search either. It has no stake in what you buy, its only motivation is that you buy whatever you have searched for.

Try it. If you are not satisfied, feel free to leave me another comment telling me so. The creators are always looking for any kind of feedback to make it better.

Cheers, Gadz


On Feb 23 11:03 AM Wake-Up! wrote:

> @Gadz
>
> .....If you really want to be able to search eBay effectively and
> quickly, try the website called GetItNext dot com....."
>
> Nice plug for your site!
>
> But tell me.......... How the heck does having to leave the main
> eBay site and jump through another hoop to your "search site" make
> shopping anything easier??? And who's to say your site isn't geared
> to what YOU want us to see? Nobody does something for nothing - except
> maybe http:Craigslist.org.
>
> If it takes me having to use another site other than the one I'm
> supposed to be on for a great "buyer experience", I'd much rather
> shop at www.Bonanzle.com where the searching comes easy and
> accurately.

2009 Feb 23 01:55 PM

[Patricia013]

Listened to us??? Are you kidding? If Ebay were listening to us they wouldn't have invited their diamond sellers to a special meeing in Long Beach, CA and had them sign a non disclosure so that we will never know what was talked about or decided there. Do you think for one minute that ANYTHING said there was for the benefit of ALL sellers? If so, then why the secrecy? Ebay lies to sellers on a daily basis and whenever they say "you talked, we listened" you have to cringe at just what they're going to lay on you next!

As for best match - are you aware that even the inventor of Best Match said it is NOT being used for the purpose it was intended? He quit Ebay and I'm sure that probably had a lot to do with it. Ebay management would never lower itself to buy search services from Google and end up with a logical search. Most of us would hire an expert if we were in trouble but Ebay knows what's best....or so they think! So, we wait a for a couple more declining quarters and for Donahoes weaker and weaker explanations as to why the site is failing. Obviously these people are so stubborn they have to learn the hardest way possible!

Its going to take a couple more declining quarters before the board of directors finally realizes they have to move on this current management before there will be nothing left to manage!

2009 Feb 23 03:49 PM

[Et tu, Brute!]

No, they are NOT listening to customers! What a complete and utter CROCK!

They have NEVER listened to customers in their life, be it buyers or sellers, EVER!

The lies continue! I really have come to hate this company.

2009 Feb 23 04:00 PM

[Et tu, Brute!]

An article such as this reflects one of two things:

The author:

!) Is in the company's pocket

2) Is a complete ignoramus and has NOT kept informed or done even the most minimal of research. Which renders the reputation of the reporter so far off that all future reporting is called into question, thus damaging the believability of the reporter thence forward.

2009 Feb 23 04:08 PM

[marzsit]

this is too funny... anybody who knows anything about ebay knows that their new search technology sucks badly. it is too slow, and too clunky to use effectively.. i call it the 100-pound swiss army knife...

and no, ebay never listens to it's users. the next time you visit ebay, have a look at the public forums and read the thousands of complaints regarding the recent changes to the site...

2009 Feb 23 05:11 PM