Search Versus Sort

Filed Under Best Match 




Over at Seeking Alpha there’s a blog post discussing eBay’s decision to retire their old search algorithm by the end of April 2009.

According to Jeff King, eBay’s “Senior Director of Finding,”

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.

Does this mean changes to Best Match?

Not really.

This change (the search algorithm) pertains to what results are returned when a user types a query in eBay’s search box. Best Match (the sort algorithm) pertains to the order in which the results found by the search algorithm is presented to the user.  The user can choose from other sort algorithms such time and price, but Best Match is still the default sort method presented to the searcher.

It’s easy to lump the two together (I do it all the time here) because, to the user, search is search. I type something into the search box and look at the results listed on the results page.  It seems like a single process, however there are two things going on here – search and sort.

According to the announcement, eBay said it would expand its practice of using product details (formerly known as “pre-filled item information”) in listings and said using them is one of the best ways to boost exposure in the new search.  (If anybody is keeping track, I predicted this not too long ago.)

When the Best Match sort algorithm does it’s thing, how do your listings rank?  Learn more about ranking well in Best Match with my free 128 page eBook: Best Match Made Simple.

Posted Feb 24, 2009

Related Posts:

  • Reserve Auctions Make Less Money for Items Under $100
  • Ranking Well in Etsy’s Relevance Search & Sort
  • eBay Disables Best Match Search Due to Keyword Spamming
  • Making Sense of eBay’s Best Match
  • eBay’s Smart Search: A Peek into the Future of Best Match


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    One Response to “Search Versus Sort”

    1. Wesley Chen on February 24th, 2009 11:17 pm

      When would eBay make this “pre-filled item information” compulsory when listing an item? Currently even if this exsits (as can be seen on the left side – conditition, color, manufacturer, type, etc), the majority in each option still is “not specified”…

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