Using TradeMe to find specific items with its bad search engine?

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TeaLeaf

6325 posts

Uber Geek

#191580 9-Feb-2016 14:05

For example if I wanted to find NZ New vehicles, even though its a field in their DB, even using meta data or keywords in the search with "NZ New" does not find them.

Any tips on how to use the search engine?

Edit: Ha, never mind ive cracked it, i used the advanced search engine, and despite it should have NZ new as a selection there, I use "NZ New" in the search and it worked, so far.

TeaLeaf

6325 posts

Uber Geek

#1488155 9-Feb-2016 15:54

nope that didnt work, mix of nz new and import

MikeAqua

7773 posts

Uber Geek

#1488167 9-Feb-2016 16:13

It's shocking. Part of the issue is people can put misleading keywords on their auction. For example searching for Honda. Someone selling a Yamaha will put the word Honda in their auction description somewhere and it comes up in a search for Honda.

In your example if I put 'Not NZ New' in an auction your search term will find my auction.

Mike

Geektastic

17942 posts

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Lifetime subscriber

#1488213 9-Feb-2016 17:15

It is shocking.

Even on the property section. We need a minimum plot size due to having 3 dogs. Can you search on that? Can you heck.

TeaLeaf

6325 posts

Uber Geek

#1488218 9-Feb-2016 17:18

i remember that had a position available, BA, wanted UX for UI skills, which id done for 10 years. not much has changed. i dont want to sound too critical.

but NZ needs ebay.

mudguard

2113 posts

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#1488239 9-Feb-2016 18:09

EBay isn't wonderful either. I get frustrated by the lack of filters on trademe. Property is the same, though more seeing $1m homes in lower price brackets.

Aaroona

3193 posts

Uber Geek

#1489872 10-Feb-2016 17:45

mudguard: EBay isn't wonderful either. I get frustrated by the lack of filters on trademe. Property is the same, though more seeing $1m homes in lower price brackets.

That kind of thing makes me laugh - same with cars- when you list, you can SELECT the price bracket you want to show your car as, but then set a price that can be whatever you want.

Why the heck TM developers didn't just use code behind the scene to set the brackets is beyond me.

If listed price is greater than or equal to 5000 and below 8000, put in X category.

Hell, I do this type of thing for much smaller data sets and couldn't live without it!

TeaLeaf

6325 posts

Uber Geek

#1490637 11-Feb-2016 16:55

same as searching for a car by a bracket, say $7500 and getting a car listed at $13000. Its even worse with boats. Why on earth they do things by ranges is beyond me, as if its of any practical user experience.

i dont wanna bag them out, but it really is a very poor user experience and yet would require some really minor (from a use case perspective) changes.