After a bit of testing this morning I figured out that the only word that matters in your classified advert is the FIRST word of the title. All other words in the title and the ad are ignored by the search engine.
If that first word is "the" then the only time your ad will be listed as a result of a classified ads search is if you perform a search on the word "the." All other words are ignored. Try it!
So -- what this means is that you need to pick that first word very carefully so that it conveys the main thing about whatever you are advertizing. It also means that until they fix it there's no reason to spend more than L$50 on an ad since all of the results lists will be pretty short. So you can make a whole bunch of ads with different first words to make sure you are reaching everyone you want to reach rather than spending a whole bunch on one big ad so it will appear at the top of the list.
In a way once you get used to it it's kind of better this way.
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What's the word? |
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Poppet McGimsie
Proprietrix, WUNDERBAR
Join date: 28 Jul 2006
Posts: 197
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12-04-2006 07:42
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Talarus Luan
Ancient Archaean Dragon
Join date: 18 Mar 2006
Posts: 4,831
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12-04-2006 07:58
Yes, now, instead of having one ad taking up one record's worth of database space per query, they will now have 10, or 20, or 50.
I can see how that is so much better for the database loading issues that are literally killing the game.  |
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Poppet McGimsie
Proprietrix, WUNDERBAR
Join date: 28 Jul 2006
Posts: 197
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12-04-2006 08:09
yeah I know it sucks.
But since they've said they'll only "consider" changing it back to the way it was that kinds means we need to find a way to live it it. All I know is that since last Wednesday I've hardly had any new customers. This morning since changing my ads so that the first word is something more specific than "the" I am getting visitors at the rate I used to. When life hands you lemons, etc. |
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Whata Fool
Registered User
Join date: 10 Jul 2004
Posts: 90
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12-04-2006 08:20
Yes, now, instead of having one ad taking up one record's worth of database space per query, they will now have 10, or 20, or 50. I can see how that is so much better for the database loading issues that are literally killing the game. That is the Tao of Secondlife. |
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Lewis Nerd
Nerd by name and nature!
Join date: 9 Oct 2005
Posts: 3,431
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12-04-2006 08:44
Simple Boolean "and/or" searches have been around for many, many years, been implemented in programs in many places.
It's not quite cutting edge technology. Why can't LL get it to work properly? Lewis _____________________
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Cocoanut Koala
Coco's Cottages
Join date: 7 Feb 2005
Posts: 7,903
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12-04-2006 09:01
Everything on the entire Internet has search.
That all of a sudden I need to name my shop "House - Coco's Cottages" is NOT better. This needs to be fixed, and ASAP. coco _____________________
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Jopsy Pendragon
Perpetual Outsider
Join date: 15 Jan 2004
Posts: 1,906
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12-04-2006 09:41
Simple Boolean "and/or" searches have been around for many, many years, been implemented in programs in many places. It's not quite cutting edge technology. Why can't LL get it to work properly? Lewis They're text searches, not boolean, at best regular expression, at worst, substring searches, (which may then be &'d and |'d together) Supporting high volumes of substring searches over a large body of dynamically changing data is expensive to do effeciently. |
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Dellybean North
Registered User
Join date: 8 May 2006
Posts: 321
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12-04-2006 09:47
Hey this is great!
I'm going to rush and change all my ads to first word - Sexy!  |
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Seola Sassoon
NCD owner
Join date: 13 Dec 2005
Posts: 1,036
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12-04-2006 15:58
The password is.... nipplesss.
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A severed foot is the ultimate stocking stuffer. - Mitch Hedburg
I saw a commercial for an above-ground pool. It was thirty seconds long. You know why? Because that's the maximum amount of time you can depict yourself having fun in an above-ground pool - M.H. You know, I'm sick of following my dreams, man. I'm just going to ask where they're going and hook up with 'em later. - M.H. |
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Winter Ventura
Eclectic Randomness
Join date: 18 Jul 2006
Posts: 2,579
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12-04-2006 16:10
so instead of one ad with 20 keywords, I now need 20 ads?
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Seola Sassoon
NCD owner
Join date: 13 Dec 2005
Posts: 1,036
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12-04-2006 16:23
so instead of one ad with 20 keywords, I now need 20 ads? You got it! _____________________
A severed foot is the ultimate stocking stuffer. - Mitch Hedburg
I saw a commercial for an above-ground pool. It was thirty seconds long. You know why? Because that's the maximum amount of time you can depict yourself having fun in an above-ground pool - M.H. You know, I'm sick of following my dreams, man. I'm just going to ask where they're going and hook up with 'em later. - M.H. |
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Coyote Momiji
Pintsized Plutonium
Join date: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 715
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12-04-2006 16:32
Brilliant.
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Winter Ventura
Eclectic Randomness
Join date: 18 Jul 2006
Posts: 2,579
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12-04-2006 19:19
You got it! I'm not pleased by that answer. _____________________
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Ralph Doctorow
Registered User
Join date: 16 Oct 2005
Posts: 560
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12-04-2006 19:55
But since they've said they'll only "consider" changing it back to the way it was that kinds means we need to find a way to live it it The only thing I've read about them considering is whether to comp us the ad fees. |
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Winter Ventura
Eclectic Randomness
Join date: 18 Jul 2006
Posts: 2,579
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12-04-2006 20:58
Would you cite a source for this please? Everything I've read on the blog is that they are trying to fix this all ASAP. The only thing I've read about them considering is whether to comp us the ad fees. /139/cc/151984/1.html#post1348652 [UPDATE] Thanx to Phoenix, found out that *yes*, in the midst of recent database load changes, Search functionality was tweaked. This includes:
Tentatively, we're open to changing some of this back, but we need to figure out first what's the root of the problems. Hope this helps! [ANOTHER UPDATE] I confirmed we don't have a classified refund policy. It's conceivable what should be done is, as an idea, extend the classified listing for the time missed (or something similar). We don't have a way to do this at present but will continue to think about how it might be implemented. "Tentatively, we're open to changing some of this back" _____________________
● Inworld Store: http://slurl.eclectic-randomness.com ● Website: http://www.eclectic-randomness.com ● Twitter: @WinterVentura |
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John Stantz
Registered User
Join date: 24 Apr 2006
Posts: 2
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12-04-2006 21:14
Hmmm...maybe they should outsource it to Google. They do a fair job of searching.
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Seola Sassoon
NCD owner
Join date: 13 Dec 2005
Posts: 1,036
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12-05-2006 10:27
Hmmm...maybe they should outsource it to Google. They do a fair job of searching. Wouldn't work unless each store referenced a different store. _____________________
A severed foot is the ultimate stocking stuffer. - Mitch Hedburg
I saw a commercial for an above-ground pool. It was thirty seconds long. You know why? Because that's the maximum amount of time you can depict yourself having fun in an above-ground pool - M.H. You know, I'm sick of following my dreams, man. I'm just going to ask where they're going and hook up with 'em later. - M.H. |
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Seola Sassoon
NCD owner
Join date: 13 Dec 2005
Posts: 1,036
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12-05-2006 10:28
I'm not pleased by that answer. Don't shoot the messenger! _____________________
A severed foot is the ultimate stocking stuffer. - Mitch Hedburg
I saw a commercial for an above-ground pool. It was thirty seconds long. You know why? Because that's the maximum amount of time you can depict yourself having fun in an above-ground pool - M.H. You know, I'm sick of following my dreams, man. I'm just going to ask where they're going and hook up with 'em later. - M.H. |
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Anya Ristow
Vengeance Studio
Join date: 21 Sep 2006
Posts: 1,243
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12-05-2006 11:06
For the time being, if I search for "hair" I only get listings for people selling hair. I like it this way. I should locate and landmark all the hair sellers before we go back to the keyword spamming system, or before people post ads that begin with "hair" but have nothing to do with hair.
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Ralph Doctorow
Registered User
Join date: 16 Oct 2005
Posts: 560
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That's not very good
12-05-2006 12:00
Winter - I hadn't seen that, I had only been reading the stuff in the blog.
That's pretty bad IMHO. |
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Winter Ventura
Eclectic Randomness
Join date: 18 Jul 2006
Posts: 2,579
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12-05-2006 17:36
Don't shoot the messenger! continues polishing her pulse-rifle.. "Why dear.. what makes you".. click... "think I would"... click-clack.. "shoot the messenger?" _____________________
● Inworld Store: http://slurl.eclectic-randomness.com ● Website: http://www.eclectic-randomness.com ● Twitter: @WinterVentura |
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Ravanne Sullivan
Pole Dancer Extraordinair
Join date: 10 Dec 2005
Posts: 674
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12-05-2006 17:40
From the official SL BLOG
Today, we worked on features which were disabled after our database load issues. After doing careful testing, we’ve turned back on:
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Jopsy Pendragon
Perpetual Outsider
Join date: 15 Jan 2004
Posts: 1,906
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12-05-2006 17:54
If we take this at face value, it seems LL doesn't care about the now useless classified ad search nor the business owners/content creators that depend on it. Classifieds take L$ out of circulation. LL sells new L$ directly via the Lindex. If they leave classifieds 'broken', it's effectiveness as a money sink will vanish. L$'s will likely devalue... LL will be in a position where if they sell new L$'s, it will further devalule the L$. Leaving classifieds broken will indirectly handicap one of their revenue streams. Of course, whether that revenue stream is sufficient to cover the cost of FIXING classifieds... is a completely different matter. |
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Yngwie Krogstad
Registered User
Join date: 7 Jun 2006
Posts: 233
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12-05-2006 23:19
I can see a certain benefit to those of us who are doing the searching, in not having it search everything. How many times have you come across a listing like this one? (note this is not a real listing, just something I made up, but it illustrates the problem quite nicely)
--------------------------------------------- Come to my casino! sexgoreanbdsmcampchairnippleromancemoneyfreelindensfurrylovedatemarriagenewbiewelcomecopybotkilledmycatyourmotherwasahampsterandyourfathersmeltofelderberriesmontypythonredgreenreddwarflearntomakemoneynowhowtoconyourfriendsintobakingfruitcakesforaliving --------------------------------------------- But, for those of us who don't care to abuse our customers by loading up our ads with a lot of irrelevant keywords like in my example above, it causes a huge problem. If you've got a place listed which for example is a garden, a nice place to relax, bring a date, get married, spend some quality alone time in a peaceful setting, get romantic, kiss someone, snuggle, listen to jazz, or watch a waterfall, you would need to place ads that start with each of the following words: garden relax date marriage married wedding partner peaceful quality alone romance romantic kiss snuggle jazz music waterfall That's a lot of ads, at a lot of expense, and that much more to go wrong with the database. Right now it feels like a no-win situation for LL, those of us who place ads, and the people searching for them, until and unless they get things fixed. I wish all concerned a lot of luck and patience. |
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Poppet McGimsie
Proprietrix, WUNDERBAR
Join date: 28 Jul 2006
Posts: 197
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12-06-2006 06:03
Well it is not so expensive if you don't pay more than the minimum for it. Instead of paying $500 for one ad, you get 10 ads for $50 each. And because search is the way it is now, you don't need to worry about it becoming an annoying and unslightly "results spam" for the searching customer (you won't show up as 10 ads in a row if you use different keywords).
And actually this issue has caused me to change my ad-making habits and making them more effective so that more people are finding my shop. Now I wonder about this: is this new method really going to tax the database more? That depends upon what is taxing the database! If the search just looks for one word, and returns typically 5-10 entries, doesn't that stress the database less than it searching for all instances of all words in an ad and descritpion, and returning scores to hundreds of entries? Does the database being 20-100 times bigger stress the database more than that, or less? |