Facebook question - Market Place

Facebook has the same issue Amazon has. When you search for something, they decide what you see - instead of showing you what you asked for and it REALLY ticks me off. Is there a way to get it to only search for what you asked for? Today I had a search in for bale accumulators, had a massive listing of square balers maybe 3 accumulators and a whole bunch of other stuff. So I type in New Holland balers, the top line has a 2 John Deere balers, a Massey tractor, and tire for a baler. Nearly all the New Holland balers that appeared when I searched for bale accumulators disappeared.

Anyone know the trick on how to fix this on Facebook (or Amazon that matter).

I dont do Facebook so not much help.

Many of the advertisers on the places I look intentionally mislead by placing all these extra words in their ads. Some will use white text so with the white background you dont even see their word list, but they have New Holland Ford baler bailer Vermeer John Deere Case international harvestor (and much more) written somewhere in their ad.

So any search of any of this brings up their ad for you to see. When it clearly doesnt fit the search.

It is spam, and I try to avoid sellers that are so underhanded to do this. If you are selling a New Holland baler and put John Deere in your ad, Im left to believe you are dishonest enough I dont want to deal with you.

Just my thoughts.

Paul

Nope. If you do find a way, let me know.

What you call a "fix" doesn't have any meaning if the developer doesn't consider anything "broken." You are asking for a "feature" not a "fix", but having said that if it is not on the developers list of feature to implement it isn't happening.

They develop search algorithms to satisfy the greatest number of people. Many of us appreciate being offered alternatives in case our exact need is not offered. I suppose the developers could implement a button to trigger an exact-only search (and if you notice, Google has that - not a button but on fine print under the results of your search it will say "does not conntain (phrase)") and offers to redo the search with strict rules. But many marketplace owners apparently do not think the development cost is worth it.

The search on Facebook Market Place is only as good as the sellers descriptions. Many sellers do not know enough about their items to write a completely accurate description, they just want to dispose of the item. If you have patience to sift through the chaff you can find some real bargains. If you want better customer service tailored to searching for farm machinery, try a farm machinery website.

(quoted from post at 08:35:23 06/08/23) The search on Facebook Market Place is only as good as the sellers descriptions. Many sellers do not know enough about their items to write a completely accurate description, they just want to dispose of the item. If you have patience to sift through the chaff you can find some real bargains. If you want better customer service tailored to searching for farm machinery, try a farm machinery website.

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I disagree. My brother in law has sent me MANY ads that would not come up for me in a simple search for "International" when the word "International" was IN THE TITLE OF THE AD, correctly spelled, plain as day. These ads were within the area I was searching. There is absolutely no reason these ads should not show up on my simple search.

In addition I have had ads randomly pop up only a few days after a search. Thinking they must be new ads as my search did not catch them, I open the ads to find that they've been up for SEVERAL WEEKS.

On many occasions I have had Facebook even tell me that there are no ads that match my search criteria when only a few hours before, it had no problems showing me dozens of ads that did NOT match my criteria along with a few that did. You can't tell me that those ads, many of which had been out there for MONTHS all suddenly sold within a few hours. Especially when a few hours later those ads are all magically back.

It is very clear to me that the search algorithm is INTENTIONALLY this way. For what reason? To what end? I have no idea. Clearly it knows I am searching for tractors as it has no problems showing me Allis Chalmers, John Deere, and other brands along with the token number of International tractors. I've even tried IH, CaseIH and Farmall and often get the SAME results as I did with the International search.

Farm machinery websites are a joke. Same ads week after week month after month. Prices are always totally out of line, so bad that you know its a waste of time calling and asking if they're willing to deal.

Just remember AI is the future. And these searches are the result of it!

I have the same issue. They intentionally show ads of things you MIGHT like. I search Scout 80 almost daily on FB. I also use alternate searches like international scout, ih scout, and scout international. I get ads for Broncos, tractors and boy scout gear. At least once a month my nephew sends me a FB Ad with a scout that I never got in any of my searches.

No. The ads that Facebook is skipping have the information correctly spelled and are usually in the title and are aways in the description within the ad. When my son posted a set of wheel weights for sale on Market Place I thought he blocked the add from his Facebook friends (he will do that to keep from selling something he never wants to see or hear about again) and he said no - they are on there. I searched specifically for wheel weights and got all kinds of weight lifting equipment and a few other people's adds for wheel weights. Then for no apparent reason they popped up about a week later when I did a search for tractor tires....

Agree that fecebook has a poor search function.
However,
As with most search engines it will help if you add apostrophes to both ends or your search term/phrase.
Example:
'john deere'
Try it.

Yeah, it has nothing to do with some of the GUESSES people are giving you here. It's exactly like you describe, Facebook shows what it thinks you should want to see. While ignoring items that are exactly what you want to see. And something that shows up one day, you may never see again. Facebook has the worst search function there is, but a huge margin. It's nearly useless in some instances.

right. you can (or used to be able to) add key words so if I was selling a New Holland baler I would certainly put JD and other brands in the key words (NOT in the ad itself). Yeah some on here will have a fit about that but its business and without advertising you have nothing (PT Barnum) so maximize your viewer. maybe you can persuade the JD shopper to look at and maybe buy your New Holland baler.

I have seen where some folks that don't advertise well. like washing machine with no brand or condition in the ad. or a guy that posted an ad for a deere brush hog but only put JD in the ad without John or Deere.

any yes FBook will send you stuff you may not want because the advertiser paid extra for FB to promote it so they send it to everyone which muddys things up so then nothing stands out.

I've looked for heat pumps and every A/C unit that looks like a heat pump (yeah the look the same) pops up even though nothing in the ad says heat pump. so some is by picture not necessarily text.

good luck.

That tightens it up a bit. If you type in New Holland Baler Evry ad that comes up will have at least one of those words in the title or the ad. like new, New Holland, or baler. It does not require that all three words be in the listing. It still appears to be missing several of the listings it showed when I search for other things hay related.

(quoted from post at 09:36:48 06/08/23) Yeah, it has nothing to do with some of the GUESSES people are giving you here. It's exactly like you describe, Facebook shows what it thinks you should want to see. While ignoring items that are exactly what you want to see. And something that shows up one day, you may never see again. Facebook has the worst search function there is, but a huge margin. It's nearly useless in some instances.

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Just my opinion but I see a lot of good answers here, while your answer looks more like a conspiracy theory.

Dont matter what you search or even say its gonna pop up in your search

(quoted from post at 18:24:52 06/08/23)

(quoted from post at 09:36:48 06/08/23) Yeah, it has nothing to do with some of the GUESSES people are giving you here. It's exactly like you describe, Facebook shows what it thinks you should want to see. While ignoring items that are exactly what you want to see. And something that shows up one day, you may never see again. Facebook has the worst search function there is, but a huge margin. It's nearly useless in some instances.

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Just my opinion but I see a lot of good answers here, while your answer looks more like a conspiracy theory.

Click to expand...

Conspiracy theory? Did you confuse me for someone else? All I mentioned was exactly how Facebook Marketplace works. It decides what it wants to show you. Thats not a theory, its very well known. Its quite common to see an ad one day and then never find it again unless you bookmark the page. It has nothing to do with poor spelling.

(quoted from post at 16:35:40 06/08/23)

(quoted from post at 18:24:52 06/08/23)

(quoted from post at 09:36:48 06/08/23) Yeah, it has nothing to do with some of the GUESSES people are giving you here. It's exactly like you describe, Facebook shows what it thinks you should want to see. While ignoring items that are exactly what you want to see. And something that shows up one day, you may never see again. Facebook has the worst search function there is, but a huge margin. It's nearly useless in some instances.

Click to expand...

Just my opinion but I see a lot of good answers here, while your answer looks more like a conspiracy theory.

Click to expand...

Conspiracy theory? Did you confuse me for someone else? All I mentioned was exactly how Facebook Marketplace works. It decides what it wants to show you. Thats not a theory, its very well known. Its quite common to see an ad one day and then never find it again unless you bookmark the page. It has nothing to do with poor spelling.

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Maybe if you were to post a link to a published Facebook policy your statement would look less like a conspiracy theory.

"Thats not a theory, its very well known. Its quite common to see " makes it look like if it gets repeated enough it becomes fact.

(quoted from post at 03:47:17 06/09/23)

(quoted from post at 16:35:40 06/08/23)

(quoted from post at 18:24:52 06/08/23)

(quoted from post at 09:36:48 06/08/23) Yeah, it has nothing to do with some of the GUESSES people are giving you here. It's exactly like you describe, Facebook shows what it thinks you should want to see. While ignoring items that are exactly what you want to see. And something that shows up one day, you may never see again. Facebook has the worst search function there is, but a huge margin. It's nearly useless in some instances.

Click to expand...

Just my opinion but I see a lot of good answers here, while your answer looks more like a conspiracy theory.

Click to expand...

Conspiracy theory? Did you confuse me for someone else? All I mentioned was exactly how Facebook Marketplace works. It decides what it wants to show you. Thats not a theory, its very well known. Its quite common to see an ad one day and then never find it again unless you bookmark the page. It has nothing to do with poor spelling.

Click to expand...

Maybe if you were to post a link to a published Facebook policy your statement would look less like a conspiracy theory.

"Thats not a theory, its very well known. Its quite common to see " makes it look like if it gets repeated enough it becomes fact.

Click to expand...

Here you go:

https://blog.hootsuite.com/facebook-algorithm/

Apparently there is a whole industry based on how to put your posts, marketing, story or reel at the top of the algorithem. It also appears the ranking is based on the poster or person doing the listing - not the person doing the search. Basically if Facebook likes you, your posts go to the top, if they don't like you, your posts get lost in the shuffle.

If you don't believe them - here's one your Gold Standard sources:


https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/10/tech/facebook-whistleblower-algorithms-fix/index.html

It is weird Sometimes an eBay search does not find anything Then a google search brings you to the item you want on eBay.