This am, I logged into my eBay (EBAY) account (buying focused account) and found that I had been opted into the 'new search experience'. This is Finding 2.0, which is based on the Magellan search engine. (The engine behind eBay Express). This is the engine that has been in the playground for a while, so nothing new to report other than my guess is that after rolling this out in the UK and other countries, they are now starting to turn the dial on in the USA. At eBay Live, I heard they had 10% of users in the new experience, so my guess is they have bumped that up to 20-40% at this point.
There's some text at the top right that says: "opt out of the new search experience | FAQ". If I click opt-out, it takes me to a Finding 1.0 experience. The FAQ is here for those interested.
What is Finding 2.0 vs. BestMatch
I've been asked by many eBay observers that are confused by the difference of BestMatch [BM] and Finding 2.0 [F2]. Here's my attempt at explaining it based on my understanding. BTW, another acronym I'll use is Search Engine Results Page [SERP].
- BM - BM is a new way to change the ORDER of SERPs, not the content. BM takes into account many factors to hopefully provide a better buyer experience and generate more conversions than the historical 'time ending first'. For example, before BM, you would search on 'merrell size 10' and get 84 results ordered by time ending first. After BM, the result set doesn't change, BUT the order does. I still get 84 results, but now they are ordered by what eBay's BM algorithm thinks will be best for me based on more criteria than 'time'.
- F2 - F2 adds some more intelligence to the search engine and changes the result set, not the order of the result set (that's BM's job). It does this in many ways, first and best, IMO, is the ability to 'pick out' those pieces of text in my query that could be item specific and use that to either widen or narrow my search and hopefully improve my buying experience. To continue the example, in F1 (which is a blunt text search engine), I enter "merrell size 10" and get 34 shoes because that's what matches my text query. Actually many are "bad matchs" because the sellers put "size 10.5", and the raw text match wasn't smart enough to know that I'm not looking for a 10.5, but a 10. Now, in F2 when I enter the same string, I get a narrower (19) set of results, but this is a much better experience, because they are all REALLY are size 10 and there aren't any 10.5's or other false hits, which as I buyer I have to figure out and slug through.
Think of these two system as lego blocks. F2 works to improve (narrow or wider) the result set and BM works to optimize the conversions of the result set.
What does this mean for eBay?
I've spent a good bit of time over the last year with the Finding team (led by Jamie Iannone and Jeff King) and they definitely are sharp folks. So let's assume they have done some really smart stuff here (tested the hell out it and proven it does improve conversions). Then, what we should see as this rolls out is an improvement in conversions overall (this can be distorted by the changes to listings), and ultimately from a public-data perspective, an increase in GMV/active buyer.
Internally, I'm sure they measure converts/search and the effective CPM of each search, etc., but unfortunately we don't have access to those metrics. Because the active buyer metric has a year tail, it could also take several Q's to see any movement there. Also, you may see a decrease in pageviews on the site which if you put your 'finding hat' on, is what you want. If I put myself in Jeff King's shoes, I never want a buyer to have to go to page 2/3/4+ of the SERPs because that means I failed to deliver the right result on the top of page 1.
As F2+BM get better over time, you should see a 1:1 correlation of searchs/pageviews (much like Google (GOOG) has). Before F2/BM, you may have had a 1:2-3-4 kind of ratio which generates more pageviews, but fewer conversions since the buyer isn't finding what he is looking for. Or maybe he deactivated totally because shopping on eBay was so time consuming.
Disclosure: Author is long Google.
This article has 12 comments:
Therefore it makes absolutely no sense to marry Finding 2.0 with Best Match because neither work unless you're looking for an ipod.
But why would anyone go to eBay for an ipod, pay for shipping, and risk having their account hacked when Walmart is right down the street?
god
The perfect item with the perfect price, or the buyer that pays ebay more money by listing more. We all know where ebay is going with this.
But when are they going to learn that ebay is not about how much ebay can squeeze out of the deal, it is more to do with the fun of what used to be ebay.
Not a lot of fun on ebay these days I have to say, but they should try it some time and see what ebay is about, it still has some of the fun it used to have, such as watching your bids rise over the last few minutes as two buyers fight it out. Or being one of those buyers and trying to outwit the other while not paying more than you are willing to pay.
As the other poster said if I wish to buy some things ebay is the last place I would look. Sorry to burst their bubble but I will look for external searches from now on to search ebay. You never know I may get it cheaper off the alternative auctions.
Every seller I've spoken to is leaving because no seller is going to tolerate eBay plopping FREE COMPETING ADVERTISING in their listings.
god
I am a small to medium seller, depending on the time of year, and because of that if I get a negative or the ebay neutral at the wrong time of the year when my sales are low. I will not be found in that great new search, as I will be pushed to the back.
Ebay are putting to many things in the way of me thinking ahead and expanding my little empire. Where alternative auctions are not. OK at the moment they do not have the base of ebay, but that is only because a lot of us still hope ebay will see the error of its ways but, as ebay are soon to find they had little to do with the building of ebay. There advertising was nothing to word of mouth.
There is also the fact that if the changes hurt sellers like me, then they are going to totally stop any small sellers and put off any new sellers. Would you start selling on ebay at the moment? 21 day holds, high prices, sellers attacking sellers and ebay dong all they can to ignore the fact.
And although I have done OK on ebay I know that without all the other sellers including the small sellers to offer their stuff and draw in buyers that then come to buy from me, I would not be able to make it.
But ebay keep playing with the important things I am sure buy, and walmart will love you for it, until they get what they want and say bye ebay, as we have done.
If I'm not mistaken, the first person Donahoe hired was an ex-Walmart employee. Guess that explains everything, lol.
That statement isn't entirely factual. Listings from previous SERP's will show up on later SERP's, again and again and again. It's like ebay is forcing the repetitive display of certain items, no matter how many pages 'deep' you go into the SERPs.
There's no official announcement from ebay whether this is intentional, or a glitch. In fact, ebay hasn't even acknowledged this behavior, at all, even though screen-shots have been posted on the boards by dozens of users.
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"If I put myself in Jeff King's shoes, I never want a buyer to have to go to page 2/3/4+ of the SERPs because that means I failed to deliver the right result on the top of page 1." ~Scot
For the buyer searching for a typical consummable, this is what ebay desires. For a Collectibles buyer, a true search result may present several pages and the desired item may be on page 5.
"Before F2/BM, you may have had a 1:2-3-4 kind of ratio which generates more pageviews, but fewer conversions since the buyer isn't finding what he is looking for." ~Scot
Yes, the buyer of a mundane iPod should certainly find that 'treasure' easy enough, and buy it. However, the Collectible buyer may not find the particular Treasure he's looking for on ANY page.
And manipulating the search and result pages will not deliver something that just isn't there. It will only result in pissing-off that collector, while s/he wonders if everything available has actually been shown.
NO, it has not.
The only way around it that I have found is to change the search to "Newly Listed" but I'm still not convinced that everything shows, for example, I don't think store items are showing in that search.
Frankly, the collectables in the markets I am searching have fallen off to such an extent that combined with the poor search facilities it is now easier to perform a Google search and go to whatever site the item I want is selling on.
ACEOart.net
Here's a useful video about all the major changes on eBay:
helpmybusiness.com/200.../
Anyway, I'm sure this can be fixed and probably will be, but what I find irritating is that eBay "leadership" sees fit to spend BILLIONS buying back stock while obvious problems like this go unfixed for over a year due to budget constraints.
Donahoe can try to make eBay more like Amazon and WalMart, but he (and his predecessor) is just destroying what makes eBay unique (and sustainable) in the marketplace. There are dozens of places that are cheaper, easier, and safer to buy an iPod but few other places where one can find (or effectively sell) an original owner's manual for a 1932 Rolls Royce.
How many site issues would that fix?
How many new servers would that buy?
How many new top notch techs would that hire?