
EBay just scrapped the wildcard search claiming high server load.  - redDragon
http://www.ebaypartnernetworkblog.com/en/wildcardfaq/
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zengr
The title is completely misleading, quoting from the link shared:

"Why is eBay no longer supporting wildcard searches?

Our research has shown that this type of search can sometimes include
unexpected variations that clutter search results and the use of specific
terms to expand one’s search is a much more effective method. That may be why
only a very small percentage of very sophisticated shoppers on eBay used this
functionality. We have also recently implemented enhancements to search on
eBay that enables us to take into account many variations in naming and
spelling in search results. By removing the wildcard (*) advanced search
functionality, we are now able to more efficiently deliver search results
faster to users."

I am sure that the server load at eBay's scale is peanuts.

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tallanvor
Well, the person is inferring server load as the reason based on this bit:
"and because this change enables us to deliver search results faster."

Wildcard expansion can be very expensive and can have a significant impact on
average query latency, both by skewing the numbers and by blocking other
queries. That doesn't mean that disabling wildcard searches is the necessarily
the best option, though. Typically you would just stop the search if there are
too many results to consider.

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swang
Title is misleading. They are scrapping it because they already take into
account variations in spelling and this will no longer be necessary.

This is the line from the site:

> Wildcard searches are no longer supported because recent changes to how
> search works already take into account many variations of a query and
> because this change enables us to deliver search results faster.

Nowhere in there does it say it's taking it out because it's causing a high
server load.

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donretag
I posted a similar story a few days ago:
<http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y12/m11/i05/s01>

Everything I have read about the move stated nothing about server load.
Wildcards are an important piece of functionality, and it is somewhat
surprising that they are dropping it after over a decade. Synonym expansion is
simply not the same thing and is not consistent with the way (power) users
work.

