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What's New:
Dec
2
Best Match Inventor Leaves eBay - Unhappy with Management’s Implementation
Filed Under Best Match | Leave a Comment
Ragav Gupta, named in the patent as the inventor of eBay’s Best Match search & sort algorithm, has left eBay as of Oct 2008.
He leaves us with some interesting insights on what he calls “the monstrosity that became best match” in a comment on his personal blog. Namely, he never envisioned or desired Best Match to be the default search method on eBay nor was he happy with how management handled it.
Its no secret within eBay that I spent quite a bit of the last year trying to stop the monstrosity that became best match, but it wasn’t enough.
For those who don’t know, I conceived of and built the BayEstimator *before* I knew that Best Match was going to be made the default on site (at that time I didn’t believe it ever would, nor did I want it to). Of course once BM did become the default, the BayEstimator’s ups and
downs became quite the public drama. The truth is that most folks associated with eBay (except the employees) have absolutely no idea what *really* happens within the halls of eBay. I could probably write a book, and I assure you it would read like a corporate thriller, if not
for the tragic underlining.It saddens me to see the amount of brain-cycles (and heart-ache) so many users on the ebay discussion boards have to expend trying to figure out what’s going on, or whats going to happen next. I fail to understand why the interests of ebay users, ebay employees and ebay shareholders cannot be aligned towards the same goals.
Or maybe the whole complaining lot of us are shortsighted and whatever is happening is actually going to turn out to be right in the long term? I can simply hope, just like everyone else, that one day things will all become great again.
It’s sad to see that not only is eBay’s management driving away sellers by not listening to them, they are driving away some of their best talent within the corporation as well.
Ragav, I always suspected that eBay’s implementation of Best Match has left you in a bad position. Thanks for your efforts to tame the “monstrosity” from within.
Thanks to reader Matt for the tip and the link.
Nov
21
Reader Kathy writes:
Your articles on Best Match are wonderful and I’m sure many an ebayer is greatful that you took the time to explain it so well, but the one line that you mentioned is of particular concern to me. “geographic proximity of searcher to seller”
I see that you mentioned that it probably wouldn’t be a factor in BM, but I think it is and to a very large extent.
There are threads all over ebay’s boards with the same concern. All related to spurts of geographic/regional sales and then flat periods with virtually no sales. Many sellers thought it was coincidence until they found other members who have noticed the same thing….over and
over with their sales.Some members in the UK have been tracking this for well over a year and they’ve ran some search tests using members from all over the world and they have confirmed their findings. A very large group of sellers, if not all of them, are running thru the same cycles. Flurries of regional sales and then almost a blackout period, then it repeats the pattern.
What nobody knows for sure is whether this is a deliberate algorithm in BM or a technical issue because ebay runs low on server space (too many listings) and/or has problems with load balancing.
Some members are calling this a rolling blackout.
There are so many threads discussing this that you’d need several days just to read part of them.
I’d sure like to get your opinion on this as eBay is always in deny mode when questioned.
Kathy, I would have to agree with your hypothesis that geographical distance between buyer and searcher is now a factor that influences the Best Match search rankings. In fact, an eBay Chatter blog entry confirms this.
As for Listing Factors [affecting Best Match visibility], [Jeff King, Senior Director of eBay's Finding Team] explained that they include listing aspects such as end time, price, shipping cost, format (fixed vs. auction), geographical distance from the buyer, having a return policy on the item, etc.
Thanks for pointing this out.
Oct
14
The Camera & Photo category is a mixed-bag when it comes to the listing type the Best Match algorithm prefers for the various sub-categories.
According to my analysis, you should lean towards the fixed price listing type for the following sub-categories in order to have the best exposure in the Best Match search results:
- Camera Accessories
- Photo Albums, Display and Storage
You should stick with the auction-style listing format when posting in the following sub-categories:
- Camera Parts & Repair
- Darkroom & Developing
- Film Cameras
- Manuals, Guides & Books
- Projection Equipment
Oct
13
Listing Type Influence on Best Match Rankings: Business & Industrial Category
Filed Under Best Match | Leave a Comment
As the chart below indicates, most of the sub-categories under Business & Industrial favor the auction-style listing under the the Best Match search algorithm. The notable exception is the Packing & Shipping sub-category which provides a statistically significant boost to the fixed-price listing format. The Fuel & Energy sub-category also seems to lean towards providing an advantage to the fixed-price listing format in the search results.
Review the methodology in the first post of this series.
