Search engine faulty again

[rvhc]

2600 Auctions Found For Hand-stitched Boxes

Exccept the results don't seem to have anything to do with 'Hand-stitched Boxes'

[Xaos]

I sympathise, I can see the search engine has caught a lot of 'hand' keywords.

Perhaps once one has searched for 'Hand-stitched Boxes' one can click on the relevant categories on the left-hand side to better reach the expected results.

(P.S. we don't know what country you're in for these results.)

[rvhc]

Another useless result:

1940 Auctions Found For The Common People 1746-1938

[rvhc]

A slight difference with this one!

48388 Auctions Found For THE GODFATHER by Owen Whittaker - as new paperback

3 Auctions Found For THE GODFATHER by Owen Whittaker

[damian_steele]

Is it the search engine which is at fault or the users not understanding how to correctly enter the terms that are searching for?

For example, in the case shown above the search engine will individually hit on all words in the search string and give lots of results. If the user understood how search engines work they would have entered
+the +godfather +owen +whittaker
and the results would have shown just those specific auctions which contain ALL four words in one auction.
Therefore the search engine is not at fault, just the user's understanding.

[ToyCrazyUK]

It would be useful to have an advanced search where you could select to search all words, phrase, any words, or exclude words. A lot of people won't know about doing the + etc.

[rvhc]

Is it the search engine which is at fault or the users not understanding how to correctly enter the terms that are searching for?

For example, in the case shown above the search engine will individually hit on all words in the search string and give lots of results. If the user understood how search engines work they would have entered
+the +godfather +owen +whittaker
and the results would have shown just those specific auctions which contain ALL four words in one auction.
Therefore the search engine is not at fault, just the user's understanding.

If the search engine isn't actually faulty then it's a blunt instrument unsuited to a site of this size.

2 Auctions Found For THE GODFATHER by Owen Whittaker paperback

but add the words 'as new':

48985 Auctions Found For THE GODFATHER by Owen Whittaker - as new paperback

Buyers nowadays can't be bothered trying to find ways to work around the inaccurate search results - they just move on. That's what bothers me.

[johnwash1]

Is it the search engine which is at fault or the users not understanding how to correctly enter the terms that are searching for?
...
Therefore the search engine is not at fault, just the user's understanding.

Wrong. The programmers' understanding is at fault, not the users.

If eBid were a blue sky operation, the first auction site on the Internet, I would agree with you. But it isn't. Go to eBay, put in those same searches.

Ebay and Google have taught users what to expect of searches. You may have a 'better' idea of how to do searches, but if you want people to stick around on a site, you'd better look at their expectations.

[damian_steele]

If eBid were a blue sky operation, the first auction site on the Internet, I would agree with you. But it isn't. Go to eBay, put in those same searches.

Ebay and Google have taught users what to expect of searches. You may have a 'better' idea of how to do searches, but if you want people to stick around on a site, you'd better look at their expectations.

Yes, people may well expect more from searches and both eBay and Google are fair examples of high standard search engines. However, both Google and eBay have the large sums of cash available which are necessary to buy such software or have it produced and continually refined for them; eBid doesn't.

Where eBid falls down is in failing to provide a link to a search FAQ which clearly shows people how to make the best of the search engine we have here. If people were educated in the proper usage, then the problem of finding cash for a better search engine wouldn't exist.

[johnwash1]

Yes, people may well expect more from searches and both eBay and Google are fair examples of high standard search engines. However, both Google and eBay have the large sums of cash available which are necessary to buy such software or have it produced and continually refined for them; eBid doesn't.

Where eBid falls down is in failing to provide a link to a search FAQ which clearly shows people how to make the best of the search engine we have here. If people were educated in the proper usage, then the problem of finding cash for a better search engine wouldn't exist.

Damian, I sometimes wonder if you have shares in eBid, you're always so protective of them!

Surely it's better to be gently pointing out where improvements are needed, many of us acting as an unpaid QA team, rather than just saying "Of course it's second rate, it's a cheapskate operation, accept it!".

Do you have specific knowledge of either eBid's search or search engines in general? If you do, I'm interested in your comments and why it's difficult to improve eBid's search.

If you don't, then we're both in the dark. Even so, my guess would be that while it's a bit tricky to tune searches so that, for example, plurals are handled well in a multi-lingual context, there are some aspects that aren't rocket science. Deciding whether an SQL command uses boolean 'and' or 'or' sounds fairly basic and pretty simple to fix. The examples given in the earlier posts appear to fall into that category. Don't you agree?

How much cash is needed to fix that, Damian?