Hi everyone,

I’m Esteban Kozak with eBay’s Finding team. We’re putting up an announcement board post shortly (from me) introducing "Best Match", a new sorting option for buyers on Search & Browse results.

"Best Match" lets you sort the listings you see based on a concept called relevance. Best Match is different from other sort options today that sort based on one piece of information, such as "Ending Soonest" or "Lowest Price". With relevance-based sort options like Best Match, listings are ranked based on the item’s title and description, plus past buyer behavior for similar searches.

Here’s what I mean when I say we’re factoring in past buyer behavior: with Best Match, what buyers do on the site will affect the order in which listings are displayed. In other words, if buyers running a particular search often end up viewing, bidding on, or buying a certain type of item more often, this will be factored into our relevance calculations. The Best Match scores for these types of items will be higher, and might display higher on the page because they are similar to items that have been more relevant for that search in the past.

One very important note: using this sort won’t change which listings are returned, it only changes the order in which listings are presented. No listings will be added or removed when you sort by Best Match.

Where to find "Best Match" sort

The "Best Match" sort is completely optional. You’ll be able to find this option in the next few days by clicking the drop-down menu next to "Sort by" at the top of the results list. If you’d like this to become your default sort view for your search results, use the "customize display" link right next to the drop-down.







One thing I want to make sure I get across: we will continue to use "Time: Ending Soonest" or "Time: Newly Listed" as the default sort orders for Search and Browse results, just as it works today.

We’re also working on another sort option that will let you sort listings by category. We’re hoping to release it later this month, and we’ll be back with an update then.

Following you will find some FAQs with a few of the more common questions we think will be asked.


Sincerely,

Esteban Kozak
Finding team


Question 1: What is "Best Match"?

Answer: "Best Match" is a new optional search results sort feature that will let buyers choose to sort their search results based on relevance. The "Best Match" feature gives buyers another way to organize their search results, helping them more quickly find what they are looking for.

Question 2: How does "Best Match" work?

Answer: When "Best Match" is selected, each listing's Best Match score is calculated using a number of factors, and is tailored to each buying situation. Along with the listing title and other information, one of most important elements in this calculation is the historical buyer behavior on the site for similar searches. The relevance ranking system scores listings higher based on the community's buying activity, so you should see the most relevant listings for your search at the top of the results. One thing to note: Best Match scores are only used to sort listings, and won’t be shown on the site.

Question 3: How do I get my items to show up when "Best Match" is selected?

Answer: Because of the complexity involved in calculating Best Match scores, it can be difficult to predict the position of a particular listing for a particular search. We recommend sellers follow the eBay Selling Tips in order to maximize the opportunity to rank high in this optional sort option.

Question 4: Is this the same as the "Best Matches" sort on eBay Express?

Answer: eBay Express uses and emphasizes a different set of factors to determine relevance. In addition, it utilizes buyer data from eBay Express buying activity, which will differ from eBay.com.

Question 5: When will I see the "Best Match" sort option?

Answer: The Best Match sort will be available in the next few days. You’ll only see it when you select it in the "Sort by" menu. We will continue to use "Time: Ending Soonest" or "Time: Newly Listed" as the default sort orders for Search and Browse results.

Question 6: You mention Best Match scores are based on a number of factors. What other factors are used besides the Community's buying activity?

Answer: "Best Match" scores are primarily driven by relevance ranking, which is based on Community bidding and buying activity for similar searches. For listings that have similar relevance ranking, Best Match scores may also incorporate other data to break ties, such as "time left" or "price".

Question 7: I don’t see my item in the relevance sort - why not?

Answer: The "Best Match" sort doesn’t change which items get returned for a particular search - it just changes the order of the items themselves. If your item isn’t appearing at all, please check this page: ‘where is my item’.

Question 8 (for eBay Developers): How do API users take advantage of the "Best Match" sort option?

Answer: The "Best Match" sort option includes additions to the eBay unified schema API. The GetSearchResults and GetCategoryListings calls will enable you to specify that the best matches are returned first. Additional information will be in version 481 of the unified schema API Release Notes, available by October 9, 2006.