[BUG-234985] Marketplace Search Not working as expected

[sl-service-account]

What just happened?

After the web meeting, I have been doing extensive tests on the Marketplace search document for you all what we have found and have been telling LL for quite some time now

1. Relevance Search

Relevance search weighs heavily on one-word titles, for instance, bed, yacht, and door, as seen in the attached images. Elastic search is favoring one-word titles over actual relevant search results. Creators have caught on and are exploiting this.

2. Best Selling
In searching Yachts with Best Selling chosen the results are even more skewed.

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/products/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search%5Blayout%5D=gallery&search%5Bcategory_id%5D=&search%5Bsort%5D=purchase_count_desc&search%5Bper_page%5D=96&search%5Bkeywords%5D=yacht&search%5Bprice_low%5D=&search%5Bprice_high%5D=&search%5Bland_impact_low%5D=&search%5Bland_impact_high%5D=&search%5Bcopy_permission%5D=0&search%5Bmodify_permission%5D=0&search%5Btransfer_permission%5D=0&search%5Blimited_quantities%5D=0&search%5Bis_demo%5D=0

What you get are items at the top that have nothing to do with Yachts, why? because they have put a single instance of "Yacht" in the keywords - I have attached the results.

3. Ratings
The only thing that does seem to work halfway decent is rating, although it is still weighing heavily on keywords and bringing up unrelated items. When I search for beds, I don't want to see a house, I want to see the top-rated beds..

For instance here is a search for beds: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/products/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search%5Bcategory_id%5D=&search%5Bmaturity_level%5D=GMA&search%5Bkeywords%5D=bed

 

4. Elastic Search

Elastic Search is weighing too heavily on single-word titles for Relevance, which used to give results like the ones shown in ratings.

Also, creators are spamming the features tab with the same word, which is also skewing the results, which Elastic Search is weighing higher.

It seems the order for search now on Relevance is:

• Title, Keywords, and then features tabs and not descriptions,

• This is causing an exploit in the system that creators are using to their advantage and pushing down other creators in the search results. This is why sales are dropping on the MP and people are complaining, creators and customers alike.

   

5. Icons or emojis in titles and the brand name field.

When creators exploit this, it makes it seem like the items have a 5-star rating and draws the eye to the stars they put in their brand name, rather than the actual rating for that product, I have attached images.

More and more creators are catching on to this, again, skewing results and making it unfair for all creators. No special characters should be allowed in titles and brand names.

This is also searchable under the Merchant tab all you have to do is copy the five stars in the brand title and put it in search as seen below.
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/store_name_search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search%5Bsort%5D=&search%5Bkeywords%5D=%E2%AD%90%E2%AD%90%E2%AD%90%E2%AD%90%E2%AD%90

What were you doing when it happened?

Searching the MP

What were you expecting to happen instead?

When doing a relevant search I expected to see relevant items and not products that creators have listed to game the search algorithm

When searching using best-selling I expect to see things that I have searched for, for instance, yachts, all best-selling yachts. That is not what is being shown.. if I want to look for jeans I would search for jeans and I should not have to sift through hundreds of unrelated items just to find Best Selling Yachts.

Same with rated items, I want to see all the best top-rated beds, not homes.

Other information

yes, When searching for items, imagine Amazon, when I search for a blanket I would like to see blankets, same for cooking ware. The search didn't use to use to do this. Linden Lab admitted in the last web meeting they changed the way search worked by making Titles weigh more heavily, however, this has caused many creators to have massive drops in sales on the MP including myself, by over 50%.

Attachments

• bed.png 2024-01-15 19:01:45
• door.png 2024-01-15 19:01:45
• feature tab spam.png 2024-01-15 19:02:16
• inspect tab.png 2024-01-15 19:08:43
• stars.png 2024-01-15 19:01:45
• yacht.png 2024-01-15 19:01:45

Original Jira Fields

Field	Value
Issue	BUG-234985
Summary	Marketplace Search Not working as expected
Type	Bug
Priority	Unset
Status	Awaiting Review
Resolution	Unresolved
Reporter	Dema Fairport (dema.fairport)
Created at	2024-01-16T00:04:18Z
Updated at	2024-01-16T11:44:15Z

{
  'Build Id': 'unset',
  'Business Unit': ['Platform'],
  'Date of First Response': '2024-01-16T05:44:15.126-0600',
  "Is there anything you'd like to add?": "yes, When searching for items, imagine Amazon, when I search for a blanket I would like to see blankets, same for cooking ware. The search didn't use to use to do this. Linden Lab admitted in the last web meeting they changed the way search worked by making Titles weigh more heavily, however, this has caused many creators to have massive drops in sales on the MP including myself, by over 50%. \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n",
  'ReOpened Count': 0.0,
  'Severity': 'Unset',
  'System': 'Website',
  'Target Viewer Version': 'viewer-development',
  'What just happened?': 'After the web meeting, I have been doing extensive tests on the Marketplace search document for you all what we have found and have been telling LL for quite some time now\r\n\r\n1. Relevance Search\r\n\r\nRelevance search weighs heavily on one-word titles, for instance, bed, yacht, and door, as seen in the attached images. \r\n\r\n2. Best Selling\r\nIn searching Yachts with Best Selling chosen the results are even more skewed. \r\n\r\nhttps://marketplace.secondlife.com/products/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search%5Blayout%5D=gallery&search%5Bcategory_id%5D=&search%5Bsort%5D=purchase_count_desc&search%5Bper_page%5D=96&search%5Bkeywords%5D=yacht&search%5Bprice_low%5D=&search%5Bprice_high%5D=&search%5Bland_impact_low%5D=&search%5Bland_impact_high%5D=&search%5Bcopy_permission%5D=0&search%5Bmodify_permission%5D=0&search%5Btransfer_permission%5D=0&search%5Blimited_quantities%5D=0&search%5Bis_demo%5D=0\r\n\r\nWhat you get are items at the top that have nothing to do with Yachts, why? because they have put a single instance of "Yacht" in the keywords - I have attached the results.\r\n\r\nRatings\r\nThe only thing that does seem to work halfway decent is rating, although it is still weighing heavily on keywords and bringing up unrelated items. When I search for beds, I don\'t want to see a house, I want to see the top-rated beds.. \r\n\r\nFor instance here is a search for beds: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/products/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search%5Bcategory_id%5D=&search%5Bmaturity_level%5D=GMA&search%5Bkeywords%5D=bed\r\n\r\n\r\nElastic Search is weighing too heavily on single-word titles for Relevance, which used to give results like the ones shown in Best Selling. \r\n\r\nAlso, creators are spamming the features tab with the same word, which is also skewing the results, which Elastic Search is weighing higher.\r\n\r\nIt seems the order for search now on Relevance is\r\n\r\nTitle, Keywords, and then features tabs and not descriptions, causing an exploit in the system that creators are using to their advantage and pushing down other creators in the search results. This is why sales are dropping on the MP and people are complaining, creators and customers alike.\r\n\r\nSpeaking of exploits - Icons or emojis in titles and the brand name field.\r\n\r\nWhen creators exploit this, it makes it seem like the items have a 5-star rating and draws the eye to the stars they put in their brand name, rather than the actual rating for that product, I have attached images.\r\n\r\nMore and more creators are catching on to this, again, skewing results and making it unfair for all creators. No special characters should be allowed in titles and brand names. \r\n\r\nThis is also searchable under the Merchant tab all you have to do is copy the five stars in the brand title and put it in search as seen below.\r\nhttps://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/store_name_search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search%5Bsort%5D=&search%5Bkeywords%5D=%E2%AD%90%E2%AD%90%E2%AD%90%E2%AD%90%E2%AD%90\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n',
  'What were you doing when it happened?': 'Searching the MP',
  'What were you expecting to happen instead?': 'When doing a relevant search I expected to see relevant items and not products that creators have listed to game the search algorithm\r\n\r\nWhen searching using best-selling I expect to see things that I have searched for, for instance, yachts, all best-selling yachts. That is not what is being shown.. if I want to look for jeans I would search for jeans and I should not have to sift through hundreds of unrelated items just to find Best Selling Yachts.\r\n\r\nSame with rated items, I want to see all the best top-rated beds, not homes. \r\n\r\n',
}

[sl-service-account]

CaithLynnSayes commented at 2024-01-16T11:44:15Z

I'd like to take the opportunity to also mention that since the last major 'update' to MP (about a year ago, i think) users are no longer able to search for usernames in MP's search box. I used to often just search for a creator's username in MP and find their store that way. This no longer works. This is a step backwards no matter how you look at it. ;)