eBay Search Results

A descending garage door busted my sunroof wind deflector the other day (I was in the beam!!! Grrr…) so I went looking for one on eBay. I really like how their search results work. This strikes me as highly usable.

By Deane Barker | June 1, 2007

Comments

Comment by Brian, June 2, 2007 4:57 pm

It might have been more usable if the search had simply displayed 216 results (instead of 0) with keywords highlighted. You know, kind of like Google would have :)
Comment by Dave, June 3, 2007 1:05 am

That’s the same way eBay displays multi-term search results. Which one did it first?
Comment by Deane, June 3, 2007 1:29 am

It might have been more usable if the search had simply displayed 216 results

I disagree. The engine has no way of knowing what you meant, so it provides the different options and let’s you click for which one matches closest to what you wanted.

That’s the same way eBay displays multi-term search results. Which one did it first?

This is eBay, Dave.
Comment by Peter, June 3, 2007 2:35 am

LOL! Which came first? The chicken or the chicken? :-)
Comment by Dave, June 3, 2007 8:30 am

Didn’t that say Google search results? Come on, admit it; you’re horking around with the titles… No? Well, I guess that’s what I get for hitting Gadgetopia at 1 in the morning. And what happens when four of the six latest posts are about Google.

Sorry!
Comment by Brian, June 6, 2007 1:52 am

I disagree. The engine has no way of knowing what you meant, so it provides the different options and let?s you click for which one matches closest to what you wanted.

Yeah, Google has no way of knowing what you meant either. Yet, somehow, magically, the one that I really did want shows up in the top 3 results 95% of the time. 2 clicks (and no scrolling) to get where I’m going 95% of the time, versus 3 clicks and more probable scrolling 100% of the time. Hmmm.

Of course, we all know that Google is psychic, so it’s really not a fair comparison anyway ;)