March 1, 2008 at 9:48 pm · Filed under Categories, Search, Tags · By GreenMamba
In this thread, Etsy memberTwistedThicket inquired about the status of the promised, and much anticipated, search overhaul which would aim Etsy’s primary focus at handmade goods. Admin kfarrell had this response:
Hey folks,
I know you’re all patiently waiting, but I think this is a good time to mention the last line of Rob’s Storque article: “Like all tasks that require engineering work, things could take longer than expected, so please keep this in mind.”
Because Etsy is such a vast site, it is often hard to estimate exactly how long something will take. Doubly so because the site is constantly changing even as we’re working on it. Search changes in particular can be finicky because of the huge impact they have on the site’s speed.
Chris recently put through a bunch of great changes that have sped things up dramatically - meaning we can handle much more traffic before anyone will notice a slowdown. This is one of the many steps towards the improvements everyone is waiting for.
Thanks for your continued patience, although you might want to exhale, oxygen to the brain is a good thing!
Stay tuned to the Storque ( http://www.etsy.com/storque/section/etsyNews/ ) for tech updates about site changes, since the holiday madness ended the ninjas in Engineering have been cranking things out at a good clip. :)
Posted at 5:15 pm, March 1 2008 EST
Read the original Storque announcement here.
Previous coverage on UEN can be found here.
February 1, 2008 at 7:39 pm · Filed under Categories, Search, Tags, The Storque · By quirke
In this Storque article, Rob/Rokali describes some new changes to the site, focused mainly on tweaks to browsing and searching that will result in reduced category bleed, and vintage and supplies being screened out from the default search settings.
The tagline on our homepage reads Your place to buy & sell all things handmade. This was our focus when we launched Etsy two-and-a-half years ago, and it will remain our focus. However, a bit of housekeeping is needed to maintain this.
Etsy currently has over 1.1 million active listings, and more than twice this number of items have been sold. Way back when, in April or May of 2005, when we were laying out the top-level categories, we included two categories that we thought would be of great use to the community: Supplies and Vintage. We’re glad we did this, and we have been happy to see these categories thrive.
As Etsy continues to grow and the circles of people who know about the site spreads beyond crafters, we see the ratio of buyers to sellers increase. What began as a one-to-one ratio is now five-to-one, and we hope to see it around ten-to-one by the end of this year. This means means more buyers for every seller. It also means the vast majority of people coming to the site are coming here to find “all things handmade.”
We’re super sensitive to how the small businesses get pushed to the perimeter of marketplaces. Indeed, we created Etsy for the specific reason of making sure that handmade goods were kept in the center. We’re going to make some changes to the current site to make sure the center can hold.
What’s going to change?
We’re tweaking how both browsing and searching work.
The main search bar will default to searching only handmade goods. This means that vintage items and commercial supplies will, by default, be excluded from search results. Of course, the searcher can opt to include them by selecting the correct option from the drop-down menu to the right of the search bar.
Right now we have what we call “subcategory bleed.” When you click into, say, Art, you only see items whose first tag is Art. But as soon as you hit a subcategory in Art, like Drawings, you see all items who have both those tags, no matter what the first tag is. This will be remedied to work in the way that most people expect it to work (from other ecommerce taxonomies): Art > Drawings will only show items with the first tag Art; in other words, items inside that top-level category.
Three Special Considerations
One: Patterns will be moved to their appropriate places: handmade patterns with the handmade crafting supplies, and commercial patterns with the commercial supplies. The Patterns for sale on Etsy are both handmade and commercial, and should be tagged appropriately. This moving will be done automagically, and we’ll give specific advance notice for it.
Two: Handmade supplies are handmade, so they’ll still be included in the default results.
Three: We know that changes like these will require some getting used to. We’re going to give all commercial supplies and vintage items an extra 4 months of listing time in light of this.
What’s the timeframe for these changes? Our goal is to put them in place by the end of this month. Like all tasks that require engineering work, things could take longer than expected, so please keep this in mind.
The comments for this article are closed, but here is an accompanying forum thread for discussion.
UPDATE 02/02/08:
Rob/Rokali has provided a mock-up of how the new header might look.
UPDATE 02/02/08 by JB:
Rokali has posted his follow-up
November 29, 2007 at 11:47 pm · Filed under Alchemy, Categories, Currency, Features, Feedback, Listings, Search, Tags, The Future · By quirke
In this thread, admin kfarrell gives a general progress/status report on many of the top issues currently concerning Etsy members.
kfarrell says:
So without making any promises or specifying any timelines, I’ll address some of the features mentioned at the beginning of the thread. A couple of them aren’t really my area so I’m afraid I’ll have to skip those.
* Checkout process needs reworking
Yes, we are working on layout changes to make this process easier for new buyers on the site who may not already be familiar with Etsy and Paypal.
* Bring alchemy back
OK!
Seriously, it will be back. And better than ever!
* Deal with categories, tags, and search
Well now that’s three features, isn’t it ;) All three of these are being actively evaluated, tweaked, and redeveloped. They are all very complicated systems that work with each other, so nothin’s gonna happen overnight.
* Clarify the place of both supplies and vintage on the site
Vintage items belong in the Vintage category, handmade and commercially produced supplies belong in the Supplies category.
* More frequent and clearer feedback to the forums from the Etsy admin team (FAQs, stickies, etc)
We have recently release a new help guides section ( http://www.etsy.com/help_guide_main.php ) which we will be adding guides to on a continual basis. We are also going through and updating the FAQs.
* More warning and user testing before introduction of new features
We do collect a lot of user input before a feature is launched, and the lead time between announcing and releasing a new feature varies from project to project.
* Bulk/multi-update for items (Shipping profiles, prices, tags)
This is a great idea, although not something we’re actively developing at this very second because we have a few bigger fish to fry, and only so many cooks can be in the kitchen at a time! Also apparently the engineers like to sleep occasionally. Yeah, I don’t get it either ;)
* Multiple currency support for sellers and buyers
This is something we are working on.
* revise flagging system
We are indeed working on a far more graceful way to handle flags
We’re also working on about 50 other BigSecrets I sadly can’t tell you about, although none of them happens to be a Dodgeball game (bummer for dodgeball fans).
We do read *all* the feedback on Etsy posted here in the forums, including the stuff that’s sometimes hard to read. So please, continue posting your ideas (both positive AND negative), I just ask that you keep things constructive and refrain from personal attacks on admins or each other. There is a human being behind every avatar on Etsy.
November 13, 2007 at 1:40 pm · Filed under Tags · By Lis
In this thread, Etsy admin HeyMichelle clarified how the tag “art” should be used:
The Category (first tag) Art is, in general, for items that only function as art. If it fits in another “what it is” type of category (eg. Jewelry, Housewares), your first tag is that category. However, if the term “art” applies to what you are making, you may use “art” as one of your extra tags.
This is how it works for buyers:
If the buyer is looking for an art print, they will search “art print” or “painting print” or something like that.
If they just want to browse through all art, they click the category “Art” (which I find is generally only things that belong in the Art category, with only a few incorrectly tagged items here & there). If they want to narrow it down, they will click one of the subcategories on the side. Now, we are only finding things correctly tagged with Art as the category (and maybe a few rare flagrant mistags, which you send to flagged [!at] etsy.com.
Example: mosaics
If I made a mosaic scuplture piece that has no function other than being art, it’s category is Art. Then I tag it scupture, mosaics, etc.
If I made a mosaic mirror, it’s category is Housewares so it can be with the other mirrors. I also tag it mirror, mosaics, and art, since I feel it is art.
October 24, 2007 at 4:10 pm · Filed under Features, Search, Site Use, Tags · By www.bathinginluxury.com aka Soap
New info added to this UEN post. Let me know if you all have a preference as to new posts or my continuing to add to the existing ones.
October 22, 2007 at 9:37 pm · Filed under Features, Search, Tags · By www.bathinginluxury.com aka Soap
New Storque-provided info is incorporated into this post.
