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EBay just scrapped the wildcard search claiming high server load.

9 points by redDragon 14y ago

zengr 14y ago
The title is completely misleading, quoting from the link shared: "Why is eBay no longer supporting wildcard searches? Our research has shown that this type of search can sometimes include unexpected variations that clutter search results and the use of specific terms to expand one’s search is a much more effective method. That may be why only a very small percentage of very sophisticated shoppers on eBay used this functionality. We have also recently implemented enhancements to search on eBay that enables us to take into account many variations in naming and spelling in search results. By removing the wildcard (*) advanced search functionality, we are now able to more efficiently deliver search results faster to users." I am sure that the server load at eBay's scale is peanuts.
- tallanvor 14y ago
  Well, the person is inferring server load as the reason based on this bit: "and because this change enables us to deliver search results faster." Wildcard expansion can be very expensive and can have a significant impact on average query latency, both by skewing the numbers and by blocking other queries. That doesn't mean that disabling wildcard searches is the necessarily the best option, though. Typically you would just stop the search if there are too many results to consider.
swang 14y ago
Title is misleading. They are scrapping it because they already take into account variations in spelling and this will no longer be necessary. This is the line from the site: > Wildcard searches are no longer supported because recent changes to how search works already take into account many variations of a query and because this change enables us to deliver search results faster. Nowhere in there does it say it's taking it out because it's causing a high server load.
donretag 14y ago
I posted a similar story a few days ago: http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y12/m11/i05/s01 http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y12/m11/i05/s01 Everything I have read about the move stated nothing about server load. Wildcards are an important piece of functionality, and it is somewhat surprising that they are dropping it after over a decade. Synonym expansion is simply not the same thing and is not consistent with the way (power) users work.

9 points by redDragon 14y ago

zengr 14y ago

The title is completely misleading, quoting from the link shared: "Why is eBay no longer supporting wildcard searches? Our research has shown that this type of search can sometimes include unexpected variations that clutter search results and the use of specific terms to expand one’s search is a much more effective method. That may be why only a very small percentage of very sophisticated shoppers on eBay used this functionality. We have also recently implemented enhancements to search on eBay that enables us to take into account many variations in naming and spelling in search results. By removing the wildcard (*) advanced search functionality, we are now able to more efficiently deliver search results faster to users." I am sure that the server load at eBay's scale is peanuts.

tallanvor 14y ago
Well, the person is inferring server load as the reason based on this bit: "and because this change enables us to deliver search results faster." Wildcard expansion can be very expensive and can have a significant impact on average query latency, both by skewing the numbers and by blocking other queries. That doesn't mean that disabling wildcard searches is the necessarily the best option, though. Typically you would just stop the search if there are too many results to consider.

swang 14y ago

Title is misleading. They are scrapping it because they already take into account variations in spelling and this will no longer be necessary. This is the line from the site: > Wildcard searches are no longer supported because recent changes to how search works already take into account many variations of a query and because this change enables us to deliver search results faster. Nowhere in there does it say it's taking it out because it's causing a high server load.

donretag 14y ago

I posted a similar story a few days ago: http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y12/m11/i05/s01 http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y12/m11/i05/s01 Everything I have read about the move stated nothing about server load. Wildcards are an important piece of functionality, and it is somewhat surprising that they are dropping it after over a decade. Synonym expansion is simply not the same thing and is not consistent with the way (power) users work.