Captain Beard Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 (edited) An eBay search for "atari adventure" yields 256 hits, almost none of which have the word Adventure in the title. WTF? Edited August 16, 2008 by Captain Beard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 You are including the entire text of the auction, and the search applies to EITHER word. Try using Advanced Search for the exact phrase. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Beard Posted August 16, 2008 Author Share Posted August 16, 2008 Thanks for the help, but I think you're being being mislead by the quotes in my post -- I don't use them when I do a real search. You are including the entire text of the auction, and the search applies to EITHER word. No I'm not. It's a standard title only search. It's exactly how I search for every other cartridge. Try using Advanced Search for the exact phrase.I don't necessarily want the exact phrase. I want any auction with the words "Atari" and "adventure" in the title.Again, that's how I search for every other cartridge -- this is the only one that returns hundreds of false hits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 Oops...I thought that the header+body was default. Very strange. If you notice, most of them do have ATARI entered someplace in the header. For those that don't (like the first hit, for example), they carry the word in another field. I'd suggest using "Adventure 2600" instead for more relivant hits. "ATARI" is just too broad (downright misleading on some...what the heck is an "Atari NES"?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Beard Posted August 16, 2008 Author Share Posted August 16, 2008 Oops...I thought that the header+body was default. Very strange. If you notice, most of them do have ATARI entered someplace in the header. For those that don't (like the first hit, for example), they carry the word in another field. Yeah, but that search should only return hits if BOTH words are in the title. I'd suggest using "Adventure 2600" instead for more relivant hits. "ATARI" is just too broad (downright misleading on some...what the heck is an "Atari NES"??The problem is the word "adventure". Try just that. Over 64,000 hits! Almost none actually have the word "adventure" in the title. But try any other word: pitfall, reactor, threshold... only relevant hits. The search engine doesn't like the word "adventure" for some reason and frankly, it's annoying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 Maybe because it's the name of a genre it's being excluded somehow? I dunno. The quote marks in the search field don't appear to be helping. Another search gone to the dogs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christophero Sly Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 (edited) I've noticed this too. It sure is irritating. Makes it impossible to find Atari, Corp. Adventures . I don't exactly understand what is happening with this search. Maybe Ebay tagged "Adventure" as some sort of special keyword and linked it to all sorts of items. Edited August 16, 2008 by Christophero Sly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
video game addict Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 I often find coleco games in my Atari searches that do not have the word Atari in the title. Not sure why they pop up but it's irritating. ebay's search tool is whack! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 I often find coleco games in my Atari searches that do not have the word Atari in the title. Not sure why they pop up but it's irritating. ebay's search tool is whack! Next time you see that, check the "Make:" field, I bet that's what it is. Perfect example: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=150284093451 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemoncurry Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 I just asked eBay, we'll see what they have to say, but my guess is that the search engine considers "adventure" to be a genre of game, so it tries to supply games that fit the genre, such as that venerable adventure game "Frogger"! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 I just asked eBay, we'll see what they have to say, but my guess is that the search engine considers "adventure" to be a genre of game, so it tries to supply games that fit the genre, such as that venerable adventure game "Frogger"! Yep: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=140258881733 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Beard Posted August 16, 2008 Author Share Posted August 16, 2008 I just asked eBay, we'll see what they have to say, but my guess is that the search engine considers "adventure" to be a genre of game, so it tries to supply games that fit the genre, such as that venerable adventure game "Frogger"! Yep: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=140258881733 So the "title only" search function is actually searching the title and the little description box, eh? I bet they call that bug a feature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 I just asked eBay, we'll see what they have to say, but my guess is that the search engine considers "adventure" to be a genre of game, so it tries to supply games that fit the genre, such as that venerable adventure game "Frogger"! Yep: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=140258881733 So the "title only" search function is actually searching the title and the little description box, eh? I bet they call that bug a feature. That bug wasn't there last year, so I guess so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemoncurry Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 Heh, yeah, a search for atari action yields the same games as does atari adventure, plus 12 more games that must have action in the title but not fit the genre! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemoncurry Posted August 24, 2008 Share Posted August 24, 2008 eBay's completely useless reply was to say they didn't know what I was talking about. Maybe if the eBay employee didn't speak English as a second language, he would have understood the question better... I didn't bother following up since it seems we have figured it out ourselves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homerwannabee Posted August 24, 2008 Share Posted August 24, 2008 When you type Adventure into the search engine it assumes you want all adventure games so any video games listed as Atari 2600 in the adventure category will show up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadow460 Posted August 24, 2008 Share Posted August 24, 2008 (edited) EDIT: Nevermind, it seems ebay's rules have changed. Edited August 24, 2008 by shadow460 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 I just ran into this myself, trying to fix the eBay search links that are on the profile page for each game in the database. It just so happened that I was testing "Atari 2600 Adventure". The results are completely worthless. Took me about a minute to figure out that it was including any "Atari 2600" games that were tagged with the "adventure" genre. What in the hell? If I want to search for a genre, that should be an advanced search feature, not something that comes up in a standard, default search. Man I really hate eBay. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemoncurry Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 Took me about a minute to figure out that it was including any "Atari 2600" games that were tagged with the "adventure" genre. ..Al Man, you're quick! It took us a whole discussion (see above)! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 Took me about a minute to figure out that it was including any "Atari 2600" games that were tagged with the "adventure" genre. ..Al Man, you're quick! It took us a whole discussion (see above)! Well, I figured there had to be *SOME* reason for it, so I looked at a few of the auctions and saw that they all had the "Action, Adventure" tag for the genre. Who knows what other fields are matched for during searches. I then hunted down this thread as I remembered one with this title. Hadn't read it until today, though, but since I experienced this issue firsthand, I wanted to put my (late) two cents in. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemoncurry Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 Aren't you glad eBay helped out by adding that "feature"? Greedy SOBs, they figure the more auctions they throw at a user, the more sales. I for one don't think too many people type "adventure" into the search engine to find "adventure games"... If I may suggest: have it search for ("atari 2600 adventure", "adventure atari 2600","atari vcs adventure","adventure atari vcs") - at least you'll hit some of them without all the extra noise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 Greedy SOBs, they figure the more auctions they throw at a user, the more sales. I for one don't think too many people type "adventure" into the search engine to find "adventure games"... Yep, that's the only reason I can even think of why they did that. God forbid someone type in a search and NOT get any results! If I may suggest: have it search for ("atari 2600 adventure", "adventure atari 2600","atari vcs adventure","adventure atari vcs") - at least you'll hit some of them without all the extra noise. Well, it's only an issue for extreme cases such as this. The links I have on the profile page for games is really just a starting point. If you want to refine the search to display more or less results, once you're at eBay that's easy enough to do. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christophero Sly Posted November 6, 2008 Share Posted November 6, 2008 It appears that ebay has fixed this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemoncurry Posted November 6, 2008 Share Posted November 6, 2008 (edited) It appears that ebay has fixed this. Well, I'll be hornswoggled. (or maybe not, having just looked up the actual definition!) Edited November 6, 2008 by lemoncurry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Beard Posted November 6, 2008 Author Share Posted November 6, 2008 It appears that ebay has fixed this. Well, I'll be hornswoggled honk my hooter! Fixed it for ya. And count me among the surprised. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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