eBaySaurus is a cutting edge tool from eBay offering a new view of search terms and a new way to discover related items to topics of interest.
eBaySaurus is a semantic network giving an insight into the search terms and vocabulary of the eBay community. Rather than offering traditional search results it displays new search terms by adding in words associated with the original search string based on what the eBay community are looking at.
In this example the search term “Harry Potter” shows that eBay users also look for “Harry Potter Lego”. Double clicking on the “Harry Potter Lego” search term reveals more items and you can carry on clicking search terms to expand your net revealing more and more items of interest.
In the sidebar eBay display four items related to the last search term you clicked on. These change as your search net expands as you explore items of interest.
I doubt if this semantic based search net will ever make it onto the eBay site as a mainstream tool, but it’s still interesting and gives an insight into how eBay are exploring search and ways to improve it in the future.
Doubtless eBay will find ways to use the data though, for instance when you type into the search box eBay will try to double guess what you’re looking for with search suggestions. If eBay learns what other users were looking for, then the same items can be suggested when a buyer starts to type in their initial search string. Notice how the first search suggestions on the right are the same as the most relevant search topics in the semantic network above.
I don’t know if this semantic network technology has worked its way into Best Match (I suspect that it has), but if it hasn’t I would be very surprised if it doesn’t in the future. eBay are trying to find ways to understand what users want without showering them with a load of loosely related items which just happen to have a matching keyword. eBay Saurus demonstrates just one way eBay can learn the search term vocabulary of the eBay community and start to refine search results. Ultimately if they get it right will result in more sales for sellers and happier buyers.
4 Responses
Howdy,
Interesting, especially as Google’s “Wonder Wheel” has gone AWOL for the past month or more since the redesign (see here https://searchengineland.com/official-the-google-wonder-wheel-is-gone-84105 ).
Quite visually annoying the movement on it, probably some developers “cool idea”, but makes usability frustrating to say the least.
Going back to the Google version, this was heavily used to visually map keywords and their relationships, I know I found them immensely useful from a research aspect and such a tool as eBay’s incarnation “eBaySaurus” could be very useful too, as eBay pulse is limited and Terapeak is a paid for application.
I think its a great idea however poorly implemented.
Matt
Looks like something with potential, interesting.
When you try and second guess a person’s actions how accurate is the result? There is no way to measure it.
Kevin Slavin argues that we’re living in a world designed for — and increasingly controlled by — algorithms.
https://www.ted.com/talks/kevin_slavin_how_algorithms_shape_our_world.html
Thank you for a most cogent explanation of eBaySaurus! I started playing with the fun stuff in the eBay labs awhile back, but I’m not always quite sure what I (supposed to be) doing with it… 🙂