From the revised FAQs:
You can use multiple terms in a search to narrow down the results. You can also use special operators. Using NOT in front of a word will exclude that term from your search. You can also use % as a wildcard operator to search when you only know part of a term. For example, using “sellers: usernames” on the drop-down menu and searching for “%love” will return results for all shops with the word “love” somewhere in the name.
Hope this helps!
April 26th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
the % thing I did not know about - thanks for posting this one!
April 26th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
The wildcard is sooo useful. The default seller search will only show names beginning with the word you typed. If you know a sellers name has love in it, but it doesn’t start with love, wildcard search is your friend.
I just wish these search tips were somewhere ON ETSY, like, say, underneath the search box. (a little link saying “search tips” which would then expand to more text when you clicked it- DHTML)
April 26th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
oh duh, haha, just noticed they did add it to the FAQs!
good job etsy. The secret is out!
April 26th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
the % thing new here as well. Thanks!
April 26th, 2007 at 10:57 pm
Thank you for posting this here. It helps a lot.
April 26th, 2007 at 11:07 pm
glad to know about the % being the wildcard. i’m used to using * & was irritated that it never worked on etsy.