iwannabuy
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posted on March 12, 2001 07:52:21 PM
There is an auction on Ebay (it ends within the hour) and no matter what I'm searching for this auction comes up. It is not a lengthy ad, and the words that I'm doing a search for are not in it. It has had about 28,000 hits according to the counter. How do they do that?
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eventer
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posted on March 12, 2001 07:54:41 PM
Most likely has keyword spamming in it. LOTS of keyword spamming.
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iwannabuy
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posted on March 12, 2001 07:57:45 PM
But the words I'm searching for are not in the ad. If it was key word spamming, wouldn't the words have to be in there somewhere? Or can they somehow be hidden?
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Skwid
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posted on March 12, 2001 07:58:47 PM
I think I've been running into the same auction. As long as I search on Title and Description, it comes up. I checked the page source, and I don't see any keywords in there. I have a feeling eBay's search screwed up...there seems to be a lot of complaints on their search board.
Words can be hidden by making the font match the background color. You won't see them, but the page source (View/Page Source) will show them.
[ edited by Skwid on Mar 12, 2001 08:00 PM ]
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eventer
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posted on March 12, 2001 07:59:56 PM
They can either be hidden in the html code or written using white text to be hidden from view...try using the "view" "source" from your IE or Netscape tool bar when in this ad & you'll be able to determine which it is.
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ohandrea
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posted on March 12, 2001 08:00:26 PM
I've noticed that now for a few days.....I thought it was just a coincidence!
It's not showing up under EVERYTHING....very weird......also, who would really want that?
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Puddy
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posted on March 12, 2001 08:00:43 PM
They are in the ad. The seller used the same color font as the background, ie, white letters on a white background. You can't read it but the search engine does.
A real no-no.
John
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iwannabuy
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posted on March 12, 2001 08:01:47 PM
I don't think I'm supposed to say what it is on this board, but is the auction you're talking about for 7 of a particular item?
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ohandrea
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posted on March 12, 2001 08:07:21 PM
You can find it under "hat" but not under "cowboy". You can find it under "omega" but not under "urn".
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ohandrea
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posted on March 12, 2001 08:10:57 PM
And you have to search using "titles AND description."
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iwannabuy
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posted on March 12, 2001 08:12:18 PM
Yes, that's the one I'm talking about. I was starting to think I was going crazy. No matter what I was searching for, that popped up.
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eventer
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posted on March 12, 2001 08:17:25 PM
I looked at the source but don't see any keyword spamming in there.
It HAS to be a glitch!
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dubyasdaman
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posted on March 12, 2001 08:20:29 PM
With all those hits, how is the bidding?
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AnonymousCoward
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posted on March 12, 2001 08:21:54 PM
Beta testing testing for a new Microsoft-eBay feature perhaps? For $$$, get included in every search results on eBay.
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brie49
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posted on March 12, 2001 08:22:42 PM
Bidding is great! It's up to $162 with 28 bids. All except 2 were made in the last 2 days.
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Puddy
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posted on March 12, 2001 08:25:01 PM
There's a photo hosting site that will pay you .25 for each 100 views of their photos in your auction.
They have restrictions on what "views" are considered, such as unique viewers within a 48 hr period etc.
John
PS I'm not saying this is what this particular person did. Trying to get hits with meta tags and keyword spamming has been tried before and ebay has rules against it.
DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!
[ edited by Puddy on Mar 12, 2001 08:27 PM ]
[ edited by Puddy on Mar 12, 2001 08:30 PM ]
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magazine_guy
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posted on March 12, 2001 08:25:58 PM
I can't find the keyword spamming either-- but it's gotta be there somewhere. It's not white-on-white, and not a wordlist you can see when viewing the source. Maybe some sort of java thing?
Makes for a healthy number of bids, though...
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magazine_guy
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posted on March 12, 2001 08:30:27 PM
That auction got over 100 hits in the final 60 seconds- heck, I have auctions go for 10 days without 100 hits! 
Someone figure this out...
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ohandrea
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posted on March 12, 2001 08:54:56 PM
Does someone want to invite the seller?
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runaroundsue
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posted on March 13, 2001 04:41:51 AM
I think it must have been some kind of glitch for the lucky seller.
I went into their past auctions via feedback, and the hits were only 00013, 11 etc.
They have a new item up, but it doesn't get caught in the searches like the other one (although hits are up to 233 on it, this is probably because we are all looking at it).
The seller is probably unaware of how this happened and is out scrounging for 7 more of these to sell
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kudzurose
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posted on March 13, 2001 04:47:34 AM
Why can't MY auctions get caught up in THAT kind of glitch, instead of all the bad glitches
kr
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abacaxi
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posted on March 13, 2001 05:25:03 AM
I checked the source ... no keyword spamming in there. It was probably a glitch in the eBay indexing software.
That's the kind of incident that makes database managers go grey real early.
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figmente
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posted on March 13, 2001 08:40:03 AM
Haven't noticed nor looked for the subject auction but wondered if this could be deviously snuck in by taking advantage of the reports that the search indices do not update to reflect edits ... i.e. add auction with a keyword spam list, wait for indexing to catch it, and then use edit to remove the list.
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kudzurose
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posted on March 13, 2001 11:42:08 AM
figmente - that's an interesting theory; would that work?
The auction was listed on 3/5 at 20:28:54, and revised at 20:50:41; according to the record of what was revised, the category was changed.
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xenainfla
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posted on March 13, 2001 04:00:51 PM
Kudzurose,
That is a technique used by many people with their websites & I would bet that this is exactly what this seller did. I don't buy an eBay glitch. I could see how this could benefit the Seller with a cute little trick.
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