Search function - really???

[Anne]

I just did a search on calendars.
Turns out 2023 calendars are trendy on Zazzle. Speechless ...

[Windy]

That's Zazzle for ya!

[James]

Most of the Calendars are templates, so customers are drawn to the design and most likely update the cover year where available. 😊

[NigelSutherland]

This shows that our posts ARE being monitored. 👏

[Anne]

Shows you are a delightful optimist, @NigelSutherland  🙂

[Anne]

@James 
You're clearly bezazzled, James! 🙂
You are (sort of) implying that Zazzle only caters to the die-hard customers who are coming back each year to customize their same template.
In the round circles are the "trending searches". One of them is 2023.
This means that any customer who looks for a "calendar 2026" in a search engine will not be lead to Zazzle (at least that is unlikely).
And in the odd case a "newbie" finds Zazzle on this page, they would probably conclude that the company is out of business. (and immediately leave) They would maybe not think "Oh, but I can customize that".
Also, Zazzle offers the option to replace a product. If I were working as a Zazzle employee I would approach the designer, tell them they made a wildly successful design and if they could please update it to 20XX. (as used to be the Zazzle policy). And remove the 2023 from popular search results.
I hope you reconsider. Thank you.

[Saints_Aplenty]

Umm, James... Unless it's a perpetual calendar, just updating the cover wouldn't make the product usable for a new year, would it? I don't design calendars, but wouldn't the purchaser need to update each and every page? Or do layouts automatically update?   I sincerely doubt a buyer would go to the trouble.  🤭 For the record, the layout of a 2023 calendar is only reusable in 2034, 2045, 2051, 2062, 2073, 2079, 2090, 2102, 2113, and 2119.

[ColsCreations]

 I don't design calendars, but wouldn't the purchaser need to update each and every page? Or do layouts automatically update?

I have wondered that myself and it's why I have never tried to design a calendar. 

[NigelSutherland]

The base calendar layout changes each year appropriately. Your added designs stay in place.

[Saints_Aplenty]

You learn something new every day! Thanks, Nigel!

[James]

Nope, we automatically update the calendar pages to start at 1/1/2026 and will change this half way through next year (or whenever they have this set up for, i don't know that). So while the cover image might be outdated, the calendar itself will be good. 

[Saints_Aplenty]

Good to know. I stand corrected.

[Wollastonite]

The round circles are populated with the most common tags in the search results. It's the designers who are still using the outdated "2023" as a tag that are at fault for that. They need to update their tags and cover images with the correct year.

[Anne]

@Wollastonite Is that true?
That would explain why the site looks so stale, as many designs are more than 10 years old.
I always assumed these round circles where trends based on what customers are looking for.

[Wollastonite]

It relates to that. The topsellers are near the top of the search results, and so their tags are the ones that populate those circles. So indirectly, it's kinda sorta based on trends. Nobody is intentionally curating those circles though; change the sort to Newest and those circles will pull different tags. In the specific instance of calendars as a product, they're very seasonal, so the calendars that sold well in 2023 are still there as the top results, and the "2023" tag is right up there.