Marketplace Search

[Dakota Linden]

General Overview

What is "Search"?  

For the purpose of the Second Life Marketplace, "Search" is the functionality of the Marketplace that allows a seller to target their items towards potential buyers, and for buyers to find items they want to purchase from the sellers. 

For this guide, information will be provided in 2 sections. The first section will cover how to search, and find, items in the Marketplace.  The second provides information to sellers on how Search affects their items. 

 

Using Marketplace Search - Buyers

Marketplace Search starts with the options at the top of the page. 

In the Items tab, choose which Top Level categories you would like to look through, choose the Maturity Rating of the items you wish to see, enter a keyword and then click the Search button.

You can then browse through every listing on the Marketplace that in some way relates to your search term, or you can choose to further refine the list using the options on the left. 

Refining The Results:

Categories 

The categories on the left will show the Category Name and a number.  When you do your search, you can see how many of the applicable items are in each of those categories, and you can choose to view only those items by clicking on the category name. 

Price

Here you can choose, if you wish, to limit the listings that you see by price range. There is a group of pre-defined prices, or you may choose your own minimum and maximum by entering a number into either the left (minimum) or right (maximum) or both. If you choose a price, the Marketplace will automatically update the options and reload the page. 

If you wish to remove the price and go back to seeing all prices, delete the numbers from the boxes and click on the Refine Search button. 

Land Impact

If you are looking for an item that is going to be rezzed, you can choose to enter a Land Impact value to refine the search further. Enter the minimum and maximum numbers that you are looking for and click on the Refine Search button.  If the seller did not enter a Land Impact number on their listing, the listing will be hidden. 

Permissions

If you to only see Copy enabled items, place a check next to Copy and then click the Refine Search button. The Marketplace will "hide" all listings that are not listed as Copy enabled. 

 

Using Marketplace Search - Sellers

There are 3 direct fields, and 1 additional option, on a product listing that Sellers have complete and total control over when it comes to optimizing their items for the Marketplace Search functions to try to hit their target buyer.  

• Product Listing Title
• Product Listing Keywords
• Product Listing Features

All 3 of the above fields on a Product Listing are included in Marketplace Search.  This means that words and terms in those 3 fields are, in large part, what the Marketplace uses when a keyword search is done. The Marketplace uses other metrics to include, or exclude, items from search, but these 3 fields are the most important ones on a Product Listing, and the ones that sellers should take the most care in using, when creating a Product Listing. 

The last option that sellers control is Marketplace Category Selection.  If you put your items in the wrong category, you will lose views and therefore, will lose sales.

Product Listing Title

The title is the single most important field on a Marketplace Product Listing.  The product title is shown and used when both browsing and searching the Marketplace for content therefore, the title should be brief, but contain valid, appropriate, information. 

Product Listing Keywords

Keywords on a product listing should be only about the item being sold in the listing, full stop. 

If your item listing is for a L$500 copy enabled red mesh cocktail dress, then putting Blue, green, orange, jeans, shorts, tie, hair, boots, full perm, demo, or any other words that have absolutely nothing to do with this dress you are trying to sell in the listing in the keywords, is, essentially, misleading.  The item is not blue, it is red. The item is a cocktail dress, not a pair of shorts, boots, jeans, hair, etc. The item is L$500, not a demo, The item is Copy enabled, not full permission.  

Product Listing Features

The single biggest ignored section of a Marketplace Product Listing is the Features list.  This is where a seller can "bullet point" the top stand out things about the item they are selling. It is not necessary to try to put as much information onto the list, but sellers should absolutely use this feature on every product listing they have.  It is a great place to highlight what the item is in a legible list, so that potential buyers do not have to look through the Item Description for essential information about the item. 

Marketplace Category Selection

The Marketplace has a massive number of categories and sub-categories. 

A full and complete current list of the Marketplace categories is available in the Commerce - Merchants section of the SL Community Forums, located here:

https://community.secondlife.com/forums/topic/404787-second-life-marketplace-categories/

To maximize effectiveness and have the greatest chance of an item being seen, it should be placed into an appropriate sub-category.  Items in sub-categories are seen in each successive higher category. 

If an item is placed into the Women's T-Shirts sub-category, it is visible in that category, and in Women's Tops, and in Women's, and the main Apparel categories.  If the item is placed only into the top level Women's category, then it will never been seen by someone is looking in Women's Tops or Women's T-shirts. 

[Snickers Snook]

A few things that need to be addressed....

1. No mention of the use of operators such as AND, NOT and OR. Yes they work.
2. Really all this time and you still can't choose a sub-category FIRST then search in it. You always have to start search from the top category then drill into the sub-categories. Grrr.
3. So when is Linden Lab going to start actively removing phony listings like concealing DEMOs (deliberate misspells such as DAMO or D*E*M*O or D E M O) etc. Marketplace is almost unusable because of this and other listing garbage.

And thanks for all the fish. 

[Dakota Linden]

HI Snickers!

Thank you for the suggestions regarding including boolean terms like NOT.

You can search sub-categories, by going to the sub-category first before doing the search. 

For example, if you wish to only search for items in the Home & Garden, Furniture category, then use the side Category options to go to that sub-category before doing the actual search. 

Since there are so many categories and sub-categories, the primary search from the main Marketplace page only includes the top level categories. Once you to into a sub-category the "Search In" field will automatically be filled in with the current sub-category that you are browsing. 

[Orwar]

   "NOT gacha". Best thing ever. Except you still get some gacha items that simply aren't tagged with it. "But you can just tick the COPY box" - yeah, no. Gachas, that obviously are no-copy, still show up. Besides, a lot of people for some reason sell their stuff in boxes that are non-copy, or simply can't be bothered to tick the box when listing the item. 

[Chelsea Malibu]

Thanks for the great post Dakota, helps a lot.  However, I did post elsewhere and hope its okay if I post it here again but I did have some questions on listing enhancements and it seems like you'd be the person to ask being it's related to your post.

On the listing enhancements report in MP, how are these impressions calculated? Are these actual views at the time the java script allows them in their viewer or are they part of just that run of add in the java console at that time.  Only 3 show at a time and am wondering if its part of that scroll since they run many scrolls meaning and that you may be in the loaded into the page but not actually seen yet.  So, that number could be counted and not actually seen unless they stay on page long enough for all to scroll through. 

 

 

[Alyona Su]

52 minutes ago, Chelsea Malibu said:

Thanks for the great post Dakota, helps a lot.  However, I did post elsewhere and hope its okay if I post it here again but I did have some questions on listing enhancements and it seems like you'd be the person to ask being it's related to your post.

On the listing enhancements report in MP, how are these impressions calculated? Are these actual views at the time the java script allows them in their viewer or are they part of just that run of add in the java console at that time.  Only 3 show at a time and am wondering if its part of that scroll since they run many scrolls meaning and that you may be in the loaded into the page but not actually seen yet.  So, that number could be counted and not actually seen unless they stay on page long enough for all to scroll through. 

 

 

An "impression" just means it was shown. A "click-through" means it was clicked on. So any report of the number of impressions means that is how many times it was shown. That doesn't mean how many times it was *seen* - remember that these enhancements only show three at a time, but all 30 or so are "shown" (downloaded into your browser) - that counts as an impression.

You should use the listing enhancements to get people to view your entire web store, not to sell that particular item. This is why some of these listings seem odd, like a complete freebie that appears to be top quality. One may wonder "why should someone pay that much money to list a freebie on the homepage?" Because they are smart: the goal is to get people curious enough to see what else they have listed on their MP page.

[Snickers Snook]

On 1/23/2019 at 2:20 PM, Dakota Linden said:

For example, if you wish to only search for items in the Home & Garden, Furniture category, then use the side Category options to go to that sub-category before doing the actual search. 

Since there are so many categories and sub-categories, the primary search from the main Marketplace page only includes the top level categories. Once you to into a sub-category the "Search In" field will automatically be filled in with the current sub-category that you are browsing.

Sorry about the late responses here. Didn't see this reply. Anyway, Dakota, as much as I'd LOVE for this to be true it's simply not. Please look at the two screencaps below. The first shows drilling down through Apparel to get to Formal Gowns. I typed the search parameters into the search box. Then I hit enter. Then next screencap shows the results. They have popped back up to the top level main category of Apparel. The SEARCH IN category next to the search bar NEVER changes from whatever top level category you've selected and you can't select a drill-down category from it.

 

[Fionalein]

Never worked for me either - yet everyone applauded a for a nonexistant not really working feature... 

However it reduces the results to "17335 matching items found." Your example jumped back to apparel in general after search... it still shows tons of demos after the pruning though, ...

Edited March 12, 2019 by Fionalein

[Blush Bravin]

8 hours ago, Snickers Snook said:

Sorry about the late responses here. Didn't see this reply. Anyway, Dakota, as much as I'd LOVE for this to be true it's simply not. Please look at the two screencaps below. The first shows drilling down through Apparel to get to Formal Gowns. I typed the search parameters into the search box. Then I hit enter. Then next screencap shows the results. They have popped back up to the top level main category of Apparel. The SEARCH IN category next to the search bar NEVER changes from whatever top level category you've selected and you can't select a drill-down category from it.

 

Using your example, I tried your search parameters and the steps you followed. I was able to drill down past women's and all the way down to formal wear with the search parameters holding.

 

I have no idea why it's not working for you. But it worked perfectly for me.

[Candice LittleBoots]

While on the subject of searching on MP, using the example above, what other terms can be used?

I only know of: -

- maitreya NOT demo
- maitreya AND demo

Are there others?
Can they be mixed using multiples?
Do they always have to be in CAPITALS?

Is there a full list somewhere?

[Blush Bravin]

The modifiers have to be in all caps .. I've used more than one.

example:

I frequently use two modifiers with no issues. 

[Snickers Snook]

You guys all missed the point of my original post! You should be able to DRILL down to the subcategory you want AND THEN search from there. Not put in search terms THEN drill. What Dakota stated was incorrect. You cannot DRILL first then search. It always pushes you back to what's in the dropdown box. Read below:

On 1/23/2019 at 1:58 PM, Snickers Snook said:

Really all this time and you still can't choose a sub-category FIRST then search in it. You always have to start search from the top category then drill into the sub-categories. Grrr. 

Now see what Dakota said and then my reply. Does it make sense now?

[Blush Bravin]

.

Edited March 12, 2019 by Blush Bravin

[Blush Bravin]

13 hours ago, Snickers Snook said:

They have popped back up to the top level main category of Apparel. The SEARCH IN category next to the search bar NEVER changes from whatever top level category you've selected and you can't select a drill-down category from it.

I thought your complaint was that you couldn't select a drill-down after doing the search, which totally works. I didn't realize you didn't want to have to go back down the list to get to the sub-category.

[Snickers Snook]

36 minutes ago, Blush Bravin said:

I thought your complaint was that you couldn't select a drill-down after doing the search, which totally works. I didn't realize you didn't want to have to go back down the list to get to the sub-category.

Right. What happens is if you start with the search terms at the top of category, Marketplace responds as SEARCH - DRILL - RE-SEARCH - DRILL - RE-SEARCH etc. until you get to the desired category. Each "RE-SEARCH" reloads all the new found items. It would be easier and faster (and use less server resources I'd guess) to just do DRILL- DRILL - DRILL - DRILL - SEARCH (once). It's how Amazon and eBay both work. I don't need to be searching ALL Apparel for a bikini when that sub-category is 6 levels down from Apparel.

[Snickers Snook]

Another thing. If I want to CHANGE the search terms slightly, search starts all over from the TOP instead of there at the DRILL sub-category.

Example: maitreya NOT demo

Example: maitreya AND slink NOT demo

 

[LittleMe Jewell]

10 hours ago, Candice LittleBoots said:

While on the subject of searching on MP, using the example above, what other terms can be used?

I only know of: -

- maitreya NOT demo
- maitreya AND demo

Are there others?
Can they be mixed using multiples?
Do they always have to be in CAPITALS?

Is there a full list somewhere?

You can also use OR, but be careful when combining that with NOT and/or AND.  Depending on how it is written, it might not produce the results you want.  I don't know whether or not you can use parenthesis to qualify the AND/OR conditions - the Knowledgebase article doesn't mention parenthesis.

 

[Candice LittleBoots]

5 hours ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

- the Knowledgebase article doesn't mention parenthesis.

Are these AND, NOT etc. in searches mentioned anywhere outside this forum? .. This forum is where I originally picked up these 2 search functions a year or two ago.

In terms of 'drilling down', I never know which sub-section to drill down to in the first place so I always search everything first using the search box. I then find something in the category I'm interested in and then I may click on the sub-category. But then I may use "Maitreya NOT demo" and it becomes a mess.

Would it be too outrageous to suggest that the bulk of poor results from searches (using the search box) are down to unscrupulous vendors using spam words in their descriptions. I often get totally irrelevant returns on searches which are categorically outside the parameters which were input.

[Alyona Su]

11 hours ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

You can also use OR, but be careful when combining that with NOT and/or AND.  Depending on how it is written, it might not produce the results you want.  I don't know whether or not you can use parenthesis to qualify the AND/OR conditions - the Knowledgebase article doesn't mention parenthesis.

 

It's the order you use them: OR then AND, then NOT - so this would work as expected:

Venus OR Isis AND Belleza NOT demo

This would not:

Belleza AND Venus or Isis Not Demo - it would block the demos, but the rest will not be a fine-tuned - You get only those with Belleza and Venus and anything with isis.

Edited March 13, 2019 by Alyona Su

[Alyona Su]

5 hours ago, Candice LittleBoots said:

Are these AND, NOT etc. in searches mentioned anywhere outside this forum?

Yes - at Market Place "Help" pages in the searching section. Clicking help takes you here:

https://community.secondlife.com/knowledgebase/english/shopping-in-the-second-life-marketplace-r86/

it's described in detail in the Boolean Search section.

Edited March 13, 2019 by Alyona Su

[LittleMe Jewell]

8 hours ago, Candice LittleBoots said:

Are these AND, NOT etc. in searches mentioned anywhere outside this forum? .. This forum is where I originally picked up these 2 search functions a year or two ago.

In the MP, if you click the '?' next to "Keywords" above the Search box, it will give you that link that Alyona posted.

 

8 hours ago, Candice LittleBoots said:

Would it be too outrageous to suggest that the bulk of poor results from searches (using the search box) are down to unscrupulous vendors using spam words in their descriptions. I often get totally irrelevant returns on searches which are categorically outside the parameters which were input.

This is absolutely true.  I report items that return due to invalid keywords.

[Alyona Su]

It was early morning when I posted and now I have a bit more time to elaborate on the boolean thing. I'm no math or logic expert but I've discovered what works for me and so the following is more hypothesis by deductive reasoning (and experimental results) than anything else:

The three boolean operations are, from weakest to strongest: OR, AND, NOT. Think of it the same was as the way permissions work on objects

A modifiable, copyable, transferable object in inventory shows no permissions. Put a not modify object *inside* that full permissions object and now the full permissions object adopts the more restrictive perms from the object inside - the FP object is now no-modify while in inventory. Now put a no-copy object inside the no-modify object inside the full perms object and they each adopt the permissions of the object inside it and so on. Yes, anyone in SL longer than a. month or two knows this, I explain for the new folks.

Now, stacking object permissions is a lot like "stacking" MP Boolean searches. When you create your search, think of the first part as the main full perms object:

Red OR Blue OR Yellow - bring red, blue, yellow, red-and-blue, red and yellow, blue and yellow, blue and red, and blue, yellow, red items.

Or is the softest or weakest of the three, AND will override it:

Red AND Blue OR Yellow - Only items that are both blue AND red or anything yellow. This is like putting a full perms object inside a no-copy object.

The other way around: Blue OR Yellow AND Red will yield the desired result: Blue or Yellow and *must have* Red. Now the no-copy is inside the full perms box.

NOT is the strongest because no matter what you put after it - it will block it:

NOT Blue OR Red AND Yellow - will get you the result of Zero plus Zero minus Zero.

BUT, You can mix and match after the main construct:

Blue OR Red AND Yellow NOT Demo OR Gacha. Now I will get any red or blue items that have yellow and not bother with demos or gachas in the process.

I know LOTSAWORDS LOL But, hopefully, gives food for thought how to better wrangle the MP search.

Edited March 13, 2019 by Alyona Su

[LittleMe Jewell]

16 minutes ago, Alyona Su said:

It was early morning when I posted and now I have a bit more time to elaborate on the boolean thing. I'm no math or logic expert but I've discovered what works for me and so the following is more hypothesis by deductive reasoning (and experimental results) than anything else:

The three boolean operations are, from weakest to strongest: OR, AND, NOT. Think of it the same was as the way permissions work on objects

A modifiable, copyable, transferable object in inventory shows no permissions. Put a not modify object *inside* that full permissions object and now the full permissions object adopts the more restrictive perms from the object inside - the FP object is now no-modify while in inventory. Now put a no-copy object inside the no-modify object inside the full perms object and they each adopt the permissions of the object inside it and so on. Yes, anyone in SL longer than a. month or two knows this, I explain for the new folks.

Now, stacking object permissions is a lot like "stacking" MP Boolean searches. When you create your search, think of the first part as the main full perms object:

Red OR Blue OR Yellow - bring red, blue, yellow, red-and-blue, red and yellow, blue and yellow, blue and red, and blue, yellow, red items.

Or is the softest or weakest of the three, AND will override it:

Red AND Blue OR Yellow - Only items that are both blue AND red or anything yellow. This is like putting a full perms object inside a no-copy object.

The other way around: Blue OR Yellow AND Red will yield the desired result: Blue or Yellow and *must have* Red. Now the no-copy is inside the full perms box.

NOT is the strongest because no matter what you put after it - it will block it:

NOT Blue OR Red AND Yellow - will get you the result of Zero plus Zero minus Zero.

BUT, You can mix and match after the main construct:

Blue OR Red AND Yellow NOT Demo OR Gacha. Now I will get any red or blue items that have yellow and not bother with demos or gachas in the process.

I know LOTSAWORDS LOL But, hopefully, gives food for thought how to better wrangle the MP search.

Yeah, this is pretty much what I meant by being careful how you enter things.  Sometimes you add something at the end at the last minute,, but then it doesn't really turn out the way you were initially thinking it would.  Then you have to review the operator ordering carefully.

[Blush Bravin]

22 minutes ago, Alyona Su said:

It was early morning when I posted and now I have a bit more time to elaborate on the boolean thing. I'm no math or logic expert but I've discovered what works for me and so the following is more hypothesis by deductive reasoning (and experimental results) than anything else:

The three boolean operations are, from weakest to strongest: OR, AND, NOT. Think of it the same was as the way permissions work on objects

A modifiable, copyable, transferable object in inventory shows no permissions. Put a not modify object *inside* that full permissions object and now the full permissions object adopts the more restrictive perms from the object inside - the FP object is now no-modify while in inventory. Now put a no-copy object inside the no-modify object inside the full perms object and they each adopt the permissions of the object inside it and so on. Yes, anyone in SL longer than a. month or two knows this, I explain for the new folks.

Now, stacking object permissions is a lot like "stacking" MP Boolean searches. When you create your search, think of the first part as the main full perms object:

Red OR Blue OR Yellow - bring red, blue, yellow, red-and-blue, red and yellow, blue and yellow, blue and red, and blue, yellow, red items.

Or is the softest or weakest of the three, AND will override it:

Red AND Blue OR Yellow - Only items that are both blue AND red or anything yellow. This is like putting a full perms object inside a no-copy object.

The other way around: Blue OR Yellow AND Red will yield the desired result: Blue or Yellow and *must have* Red. Now the no-copy is inside the full perms box.

NOT is the strongest because no matter what you put after it - it will block it:

NOT Blue OR Red AND Yellow - will get you the result of Zero plus Zero minus Zero.

BUT, You can mix and match after the main construct:

Blue OR Red AND Yellow NOT Demo OR Gacha. Now I will get any red or blue items that have yellow and not bother with demos or gachas in the process.

I know LOTSAWORDS LOL But, hopefully, gives food for thought how to better wrangle the MP search.

Nicely done. Thank you for taking the time to write it out so clearly.

[Love Zhaoying]

2 hours ago, Alyona Su said:

It was early morning when I posted and now I have a bit more time to elaborate on the boolean thing. I'm no math or logic expert but I've discovered what works for me and so the following is more hypothesis by deductive reasoning (and experimental results) than anything else:

The three boolean operations are, from weakest to strongest: OR, AND, NOT. Think of it the same was as the way permissions work on objects

A modifiable, copyable, transferable object in inventory shows no permissions. Put a not modify object *inside* that full permissions object and now the full permissions object adopts the more restrictive perms from the object inside - the FP object is now no-modify while in inventory. Now put a no-copy object inside the no-modify object inside the full perms object and they each adopt the permissions of the object inside it and so on. Yes, anyone in SL longer than a. month or two knows this, I explain for the new folks.

Now, stacking object permissions is a lot like "stacking" MP Boolean searches. When you create your search, think of the first part as the main full perms object:

Red OR Blue OR Yellow - bring red, blue, yellow, red-and-blue, red and yellow, blue and yellow, blue and red, and blue, yellow, red items.

Or is the softest or weakest of the three, AND will override it:

Red AND Blue OR Yellow - Only items that are both blue AND red or anything yellow. This is like putting a full perms object inside a no-copy object.

The other way around: Blue OR Yellow AND Red will yield the desired result: Blue or Yellow and *must have* Red. Now the no-copy is inside the full perms box.

NOT is the strongest because no matter what you put after it - it will block it:

NOT Blue OR Red AND Yellow - will get you the result of Zero plus Zero minus Zero.

BUT, You can mix and match after the main construct:

Blue OR Red AND Yellow NOT Demo OR Gacha. Now I will get any red or blue items that have yellow and not bother with demos or gachas in the process.

I know LOTSAWORDS LOL But, hopefully, gives food for thought how to better wrangle the MP search.

Does MP search respect parentheses for order of operations?