Ebay changes search engine

[UV101]

I know many of us use evilbay to hunt out bargains and obscure "things" which we all "need" :eyebrows:

I couldn't work out why half of my saved searches have stopped working. I have now. Apparently ebay have removed the wildcard facility from the search :eek::doh::steam:

Is it just me or does it seem absolutely ridiculous? Surely the use of boolean and wildcards are core to building good searches.

In this example, I'm looking for a Zilog Z8 processor. The part number starts Z086 so I want to search Z086* as I have no idea how accurate a seller will be with the actual part number. To further complicate things, later chips are marked as Z86Cxxxxx so I want to perform the search twice using a wildcard. There are any number of chips that could potentially suit some I don't even know about yet! how can I search for an absolute string I've yet to learn!!!

This is not the only example in my saved searches, I have "meridian 2*" to get a hit on any 200 series meridian kit that gets listed.

Anyway, I spoke to ebay about their recent "upgrade" to the search facility and this is what they said....the names have been changed to protect the innocent although I doubt for 1 second they use real names!!!

Ebay
Welcome to eBay Live Help, my name is Mandy. How may I be of assistance?

Me
HI Mandy, can you tell me how I can search using a wildcard? I regularly search for partial part numbers but recently I'm not getting any results in my saved searches. I've just done a manual search to be presented with details advising me that the use of * is no longer supported. Thanks
Mandy Searson
Hello Ian. Please give me a few more minutes whilst I look into this.

Me
Thanks

Ebay
I appreciate your patience on this. Since the use of wildcard is no longer available, below is an example of changes you can make to achieve your desired results:

Old version: anne klein silk scar*
New version: anne klein silk (scarf, scarfs, scarves)

Me
sorry that wont work. Are you saying that in my current example where I am searching a prefix with a * for the suffix i.e. Z86C as the prefix and a * for the suffix "Z86C*" I need to add the millions of combinations possible for absolute matches?

ebay
Yes, and I know how inconvenient this is for you.

Me
Its not inconvenient, its impossible. I've never heard anything as ridiculous as a search engine that doesn't support boolean expressions and wildcards. Are the any plans to fix this? I say fix because its clearly broken.

ebay
I value your point of views regarding this, so I have personally forwarded your comments to our site developers who will be reviewing them at the soonest possible time.

Me
OK thanks. I don't think I can add any more.......I think actually I'm speechless which if you knew me, you find extremely funny!

Me
Thanks

ebay
You're welcome, Ian. Thank you for contacting eBay Live Help, have a good morning.
Chat Session Ended, Goodbye. (5010)

Am I making a fuss over nothing or is this :mental::mental:

[Markiii]

another example of bad or non existent systems analysts

software developers are increasingly offshore and deliver exactly what they are asked for even if that is completely illogical or blatantly stupid

the concept of questioning doesn't happen

you need a good systems analyst to determine what the real world client needs and translate that to the technical deliverables

short version, I agree with you thats just stupid

[Macca]

I've worked for a number of companies where they have 'upgraded' systems only to have the upgraded system perform worse and be more difficult to use. In one case some basic features of the old system did not appear at all on the new system. When I asked the person who signed it off why basic and important features had disappeared they first denied that was the case. When presented with the incontrovertible evidence they blamed the people who had done the testing. They turned out to be some of the least qualified people in the company who would not even have known what they were looking at and had no prior experience in testing software. The staff who did have experience were not even advised that a revision to the system was taking place.

No-one involved considered it a big deal apart from the staff who now had to use this hamstrung system every day - I estimated the cost in lost man-hours was around £40K per year, ongoing.

[Firebottle]

That's just s?*t. Note the use of wildcards and I bet you can still understand it.

That's just ludicrous of ebay.

:cool: Alan

[synsei]

It becomes even more ludicrous when one remembers they are owned by Google... :lol:

[UV101]

LOL! i'm still in shock. I use it constantly to find typo's and spelling mistakes. I can believe that you are supposed to use every combination bracketed for I guess to get an "or" function. Apart from being totally unworkable, surely that will end up returning many false positives?

I don't get what was wrong with it. The only reason would be if you want to list something with a * character in the title which if you take ebay policy literally (which they often do) would mean the title is misleading?

A search facility without a wild card LMAO.....its not april fools already is it????

[synsei]

A search facility without a wild card LMAO.....its not april fools already is it????

Perhaps they are building up to it??? :rfl:

[UV101]

Nice avatar there Dave btw :)

[Audioman]

Just tried and it comes up with a message.

"searching using the wildcard symbol (*) is no longer supported"

Pretty daft - either a cock up and they are stuck with it or deliberate for some obscure reason. I go with cock up that they don't want to spend on changing (maybe next update if enough complaints). Funny they had resources to program in that error message though.

[synsei]

Nice avatar there Dave btw :)

Cheers Ian. The engine from a car I have lusted after ever since I was a nipper, the Triumph TR6 ;)

[synsei]

ebay* ... "you're search is irrelevant" :D

[Thing Fish]

Why on earth would they do this. Are they totally incompetent...!!!

[walpurgis]

Cheers Ian. The engine from a car I have lusted after ever since I was a nipper, the Triumph TR6 ;)

That doesn't look like a standard UK TR6 engine to me.

[Mark Grant]

Pretty daft - either a cock up and they are stuck with it or deliberate for some obscure reason.

I guess it is to make it harder to find the misspellings and grab a bargain,

If a misspelled item is not found it might not sell and will then be re listed with a better listing so ebay makes two listing fees from the seller and get a bigger final value fee from sale price if it sells for a decent amount rather than someone grabbing a 99 pence bargain from a misspelling in the title.

It's usually just about making fees for ebay.

[Markiii]

very cyncial and probably very true