How do you search for Stores Inworld?

I usually think of something that I want when I'm offline so I usually end up on xstreet first. But if I am online I will use the All search at times. I type in something semi specific like 'ponytail' instead of just using 'hair'. From the results I will usually try to weed out the all-in-one stores and malls. I look for the stores that sell just the specific category that I'm searching for. I also look at the wording of the store description to see that they are actually describing what they have instead of just spamming one word over and over. And I do look at the picture that comes up in the search. Then I start hopping over to the stores and if I don't like what I see I hop to the next and on and on until I find what I want or go home with empty bags.

I'm not a shopper so I haven't gone looking for something specific in ages. However on the rare occasion I do want to look for something, as already mentioned, I go to my lm folder which I have organized in categories and consult it. My lm's were gleaned from my early days in SL when I did shop a bit and noted the places I liked; from recommendations I see on these forums as well as merchants in these forums.

As has been mentioned by others, most of what i buy anymore (I really don't *need* ANYTHING else) is if I see someone wearing a particular hairstyle, dress, jewelry, etc. that catches my eye, I ask where they purchased it.

I also LOVE clicking on furniture I see at non-furniture places to check out how many prims it is, who the designer is, etc.

Oh, and by reading profiles...I love reading profiles and it is amazing the places one finds in the picks section. I add the ones that interest me to my ever-growing list of "Places to Go in SL."

I only use All Search for a specific item, by name.

*raises hand*

If I'm looking for a selection of items to choose between (say, "hats" then I'll use Classified/Shopping. If it's a large category I'll often skip the first page of results ... don't wanna wear what everyone else is wearing.
For some reason I have a blind spot when it comes to using Places search ...

This is an option I always keep in mind, too.

Well as a merchant I am pretty amazed by the number of people still using places search I must say. Maybe I oughta run some bots after all

As a shopper I use search all, and most of the time I find exactly what I want. Mostly those are sculpts and textures, for clothing I do have a default shop. And as a man, I do not need too many outfits either
Search all works well, if you know how to search. LL should make that clearer I think, so people can easier find what they want.

This is where all of you go wrong!


Also, i rarely use search except to find a particular hang out or something. Using search to actually find things i want to buy seems kinda futile. Maybe i am wrong? I prefer to do my searches via xstreeet.

I do not search for stuff using All search of Places search without reason. Most of the time I'll hear that a particular store is having a sale or the like. If I do not know the name of the avatar, I look for the store in places first then All. That is if I'm looking for a store.

Now that I think about it, I might actually try map first. But then, a lot of the time, I'm looking for a neat forest or city, and those tend to have sim names similar to forest/city name. Like, say, Botanical Gardens.

Though the number one thing I search for in SL are live music events. Which, unless I get some group notice with attached LM, I look for through the events tab. I do not TP through that, though. Normally look at the map first, that is one of the options, and see size of crowd. And how far away the LM was placed. Then move the red beam closer to stacked people. And teleport.

On rare occasions I'll put "forest" or "nature" or the like into places search and then randomly explore. Years ago I'd put something like "New York" in there and see what came up. I haven't done that in a while. Searching for real world things.

Thank you for your explanations. The assumption was that "most" people type in a very general term to All search or Places search, and click the first thing that pops up, then TP directly to it, without much thought.

Looks to me like you put some thought into it. I do. I generally use Xstreet first, but some days I want to explore, and I want to chat with people shopping, and kind of shop on a whim, hit or miss....never know what you might come across.....so I use All search, but I tend to skip the first few pages - as I know what goes on, on those pages. The other night, when shopping for specific clothing....I started with the very first spot on the All search page, with a very general term....went to 2 dozen stores, and it wasn't productive at all. Coming here, to ask for referrals...sent me immediately to the right places.

I use Classifieds a lot, when I type in a very specific term, because I "think" that someone who is very confident in what they have to offer, regarding that specific item, will bust out a few lindens to let me know. I use Places search when I have a specific referral and name.

Read again, Marcel. Sounds like people use Places search when they have a specific name to plug in. Sounds like a few people check the map first, too.....before TPing.

Well I am suprised people do use Classifieds- maybe I should have one again? And I can't help it I am on the first page for All Search - people like my stuff!

Seriously though- what I find pointless in Classifieds is that the more you pay the higher you are- grant you that is RL equivalent as in your billboard is going to cost more on a high traffic thoroughfare than a side street- I think- but I just can't see spending tons of money to get out there within Classifieds.

Mostly I do rely on word of mouth although I plug my store CONSTANTLY on the web, in-world groups, networking etc. As a shopper, I do tend to stick to All Search as I said.

Amaranthim - I can tell from the tp counter on the ad, that they do work. Fortunately, there is a counter, so that you can evaluate this. Most of mine are only about 150L a week, and well worth it. The key is in how you use your keywords. If I put one together, and it gets half the counts as the others....I scrap it, and try again, with different words.

These Classified ads also appear in the All search. They are off to the side, on the right hand side, in a highlighted box....so they grab anyone who is using All search as well. If you use the right keywords....you can end up right next to another business, who has a zillion traffic count, and a zillion group members, and a zillion walls and floors labeled with spam keywords.

I use some obscure keyword combinations, and do not rely on general keywords. If you want....I can help you with your keywords, so you could do a trial run. I could probably get enough info off of your blog, to put a good keyword list together for you.

I usually learn about a place through the creator name (ie, through blogs, fashion feeds, inspection of prims, etc), and I find it easier to get to the store by way of putting that name into the person search field and then tabbing over to the classified section. The store could very well be in places/all/picks of the creator, but I want to make sure I go to the "correct" store, preferably the mainstore, so I look to see whatever the creator has paid to have linked to them (the classified).

Otherwise I could be teleporting into some person's bedroom because I used a profile pick that seemed to be the store; or some other store that has a remarkably similar name in search.

So yes, classifieds work, for me. I rarely use the classified search box, though. Just the classified box on profiles. So the bare minimum, which is 50L?, is adequate for my personal needs.

Thanks a bunch Mickey- I am all about the exposure- yeah heck why not and as long as it is not too expensive i am willing to give it a shot. I figure I have a discritionary budget for advertising - though already earmarked some big bux for next month - still, can always have a trial run again.

I go to places. All really turns up too much "noise" for me to usefully sort through. I chose shopping, put in the word I want to look for and prepare for it to be spammed. I go to the last page and then work my way from there. I rule out those that don't have the keyword I'm looking for, like chair sometimes shows up for hair.

This is interesting, am kind of curious abuot why you start at the last page? Is that a good thing? I've found that about halfway down the first page, my results start to meander from what I asked for, as in your chair/hair example.

I'm curious to know what people are searching for that comes up with a lot of noise on the first page. Maybe I'm biased because my search is usually related to my business, but if I wanted "hair" then certainly the folks on page 1 sell hair. Right? What are people looking for that they can't find on page 1 or 2, even if it is not of the style/quality they may like?

Well, when you use the ALL search, you get literally everything. Groups, places, sims. What would be so much more sensible would be check boxes instead of a drop down menu that gets lost.

Search ALL
Check boxes that apply:

Shopping, rentals, regions, groups, avatars..etc...

Check boxes work - drop down menu's don't because people tend to go with the default.

I agree that it would be more sensible to have the check boxes instead of a dropdown, but the places search as it currently stands only encourages more silly names like!!!!***AAAAAA Designs, or traffic botters. When you actually filter by place, what noise is there?

Are you familiar with how to use the All search, then pull up the page with the stores inventory listed? With product descriptions, prices....and GO coordinates, that should drop you right in front of the item?

I am well versed in how to use the search.

What I want to understand is HOW people are shopping via search all. Are you looking for a product or a store? If you're looking for a store, finding a store that sells x is fairly easy. If you are looking for a specific product, that might not be as easy.

ok...I'm not inworld at the moment....but you can type in a general term like "Hair"....and have success on first page? I'll try it tonight.

If I put a pretty descript keyword in...I usually have pretty good success with the All search. It's plugging in a general word.... that pulls up the pages with parcels that have repetitive keywords listed over and over again, rather than actual product, that hits the first page. I'll run a few words tonight.

Hair:

1) !STARLIGHT - Nothing but keyword stuffing
2) PLATINUM - Nothing but keyword stuffing
3) *ESCALA* - Nothing but keyword stuffing
4) INDULGENCE - Nothing but keyword stuffing
5) Sirena Hair - Keyword stuffing
6) *FLAWLESS* - Nothing but keyword stuffing
7) -+ RocX +- - Nothing but keyword stuffing
Goldie Locks Hair @ Nantli Xolal - Resize scripts
9) NEKO & EMO HAIR - Nothing but keyword stuffing
10) AVATAR HAIR - Nothing but keyword stuffing

1 usable result out of 10 and even that one turns out useless due to the resize scripts.

In the time it took me to check those 10 I'd have tp'ed to a few places, found someone with a hairstyle I like and then tp'ed to the creator's store (even if I don't want the style for me, if I think it looks good then the store has a good chance of selling hair I would want).

I searched for "hair" and #1, other than the region named Hair, was some mall that I won't name, but they do sell hair there. Around 40 different styles for women, and a handful (sadly) for men. So, they do sell hair, but it is a question of taste and variety as to whether or not this is a place where one would shop.

Is it relevant? In my opinion, yes, it is a relevant result. Is it quality? Not as much as, say, ETD or Gurl6, but quality is not something that can be ascertained in search.

Notable well known stores that made it onto page 1 of search all for hair: Sirena.

Half of the results at page 1 look like they are owned by the same group. Going to page 2, first result is Truth. Zero Style is halfway down this page. A bunch of other malls I've never heard of, but it appears that they sell hair. Whether or not it's hair I care for is a different matter, but they sell hair.

So the results seem to be relevant, it's just a matter of taste.

Cristalle...I was talking about what Kitty supplied above. So what you do, if I understand correctly....is just TP immediately, without a run through their inventory list?

Writing people off for keyword stuffing is a reflex that doesn't tell me whether or not there is any relevance to the result.

Yes, they keyword stuffed. Pretty much anyone in the first few pages has to stuff keywords to be where they are.

But I wanted to see if they actually sold hair. For an average shopper, I think that is what matters, right? So I decided to see if they had hair and what kind of quantity. 40ish styles for women isn't great in comparison to other shops I've been to, but it is relevant. As such, I find that it is a relevant result, even if the quality of the result isn't terribly good.

When I took Jojo's classes, she always emphasized if one wants to use classifieds to not put much money into it like Sojii mentioned. As Mickey said, it's another way to have a store appear in search.

Also she said to go one or two lindens more than the break point, ie. I think the lowest classified one can have is 50L. A lot of people will take an ad out at that rate. Going 51L or 52L separates the ad out a bit more.

I'm not sure I can use classifieds due to being in a mall setting and not being able to set the land...I'll have to check that out as I'd like to give it a trial run as well.