Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Quotables: Search-o-Rama

do i get a prize?

I did a search for "long sleeve onesie" and got 34 pages of short-sleeve t-shirts, long-sleeve t-shirts, lounge pants, lap tees, Baby Gap items (!!!), short-sleeve onesies, dresses, skirts, tank tops...and some cute long-sleeve onesies.

I looked at every. single. page. All 34 of them. So. Tired.

14 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Right. If this doesn't get fixed, then anything else they do is useless.

Hey Chad- did you hear me? I don't care if you do nothing but that one thing.

Fix the search. Now.

Customers aren't coming back. Can you imagine how many thousands of people have been turned off by the screwed up search? Think about it.

Impetuous said...

ZACTLY! As I said on Twitter:

HELP US OBIWAN DICKERSON, YOU'RE OUR ONLY HOPE!

Anonymous said...

I'd like an option to leave the *tags* out of the search.

(ie Please.just.let.me.search.by.title! Please!!!)

I just tried to do a search for logo design. Do you know how many dipwits have put 'logo design' as a tag on their buttons, hangtags, magnets, labels...? At least if I could search by title, I could avoid all of the mistagged collateral.

Luckily for me in this case I can sort by price descending, because I figure that decent logo design should cost at least a hundred bucks (or two, or three) and not many of the button/card/magnet/swingtag/stickers listings are that expensive.

God forbid I search for anything under $50 though (sigh). I haven't bought much of anything in the last year on Etsy because the search is just too borked for me to bother with.

Anonymous said...

I'd like an option to leave the *tags* out of the search.
==============
I agree. Search is messed up but I can't help but think that all focus on "filling" out all your tags no matter how far reaching or unconnected the word is making it worse. IMO not everything on the site needs 15 tags to describe it.

Anonymous said...

I searched for my own items, in my own category. Never found them. pages and pages and pages. Not there.

And no, my items aren't sitting in limbo. FRUSTRATING.

Smarty Pants said...

tags are bullshit, but even title and description can be abused by the sellers.
Black princess crystal Fairy necklace pendant would put you in 6 searches, for starters. I'm doubtfull anyone looking for a crystal wants to see a pendant, that could very well be a scrabble pendant on the oh-s0-creative Etsy, but it's reality. That's how search works.
There are business who's sole purpose it to teach web store to use wording to bump themselves up on the search engines. The problem is, theres so much out there the search engines are flooded. Who's going to look through all that and how do you use it to your advantage?

Anonymous said...

I don't give a shit about organizing my favorites (the latest patronizing "Which would you prefer?" forum question I noticed).

A non-functioning search is the core problem of etsy--a ridiculous search that they cling to like a 5 year-old wanting to take his binky to school.

Time to let go! You don't even have to admit it was stupid in the first place. Just move on to a real search!

Andy Mathis said...

Convo those 2 sellers who stated- the search works perfectly, I love it, nothing wrong with it, I can find anything I want, I love discovering things from other categories, buyers need to educate themselves on how to search - and get them to help you.

They can be the personal shopping service for Etsy.




Tags are evil.

Pandora said...

This is one of the reasons I've put off buying things lately. But now it's time to starting thinking about Xmas presents. Too early you say? Not when "searching" on Etsy takes literally days. I'll be lucky if I find what I want in time to have it shipped to me for Xmas day.

pomomama said...

my recent search for slippers for adults had me gnashing my teeth at the ever-lengthening search string i was forced to type

i had a thesaurus out for every possible child-related descriptor and still after a whole string of NOTs there were booties turning up!

searching for handmade supplies is another headdesk moment

Ruby Re-Usable said...

so, did you eventually find a long sleeved onsie? then what are you whining about? and wasn't it fun to discover all that other stuff along the way? maybe Etsy just wanted you to see all the other stuff that you did not even know about, I mean, how narrow minded to want to purchase a preconceived notion, Etsy search is just expanding our horizons, you ungrateful bitch! (please note the sarcasm here)

Anonymous said...

They need to ditch tags for the default search and make it strictly by title and then SHORTEN the title length. I cannot tell you how it sets my teeth on edge when I see "Red Green Yellow Blue Purple Pink Orange Black White Bag Tshirt Dress Tote Pendant Earring Bracelet for Children Moms Teachers Nurses" in titles. And this is a compilation of title abuses, no calling out here! And then they should make an "advanced search" where you can include tags. ARgghhhhh! I want to do a lot of Christmas shopping on Etsy, but I fear the search.

Anonymous said...

the crux of the matter is that tags really only work when the usage is consistent across the board. To keep a tags system they would either have to 1. only accept a pre-defined set of tags or 2. be much more strict in enforcing correct tag usage.

The Funny One said...

qb is right and so many other commenters here.

If you have the stamina and time to find another site to list on, do it. Just try it out with a few products.

You will be amazed at these features that have turned their Search into a dream (if you've put up with Etsy only).

*all photos upload at the same time your entire listing goes up
*their CATEGORIES are very streamlined and limited and have about 1/1000th of the variation that Etsy has.
*shipping is standardized with a shipping calculator that can be updated in seconds
*they use Google adwords, so your listings are instantly google-able.
*they often pre-screen, so you can be with similar quality AND PRICED sellers.
*visitors can sign up for a email notice when you list a new item in your store.

(Your store, which needs all the advertising it can get, not Etsy and not Etsy picks.)

Fixing Search on Etsy is the prime issue, but if it happens in the next 12-18 months, can every seller wait until the holiday selling weeks are over for things to improve?