I searched [hallicrafters] and got same results as you - a whole bunch of random stuff with zero reason to be there, nothing in the design style, tags, title, template text or even descriptions to explain their presence.
And then I was doing a COMPLETELY unrelated search - three words intended as an exact phrase [xx on yy]. I got about 4,000 results, almost all wedding stationary, which had [xx] and [yy] in the title/tags. But those products were irrelevant to my search because alone those words (fairly common as color descriptors) have no relevance to the context of them as the exact phrase I wanted. So I tried again but with quotes ["xx on yy"]. That also got about 4,000 results but this time about half of the first page of results were actually items using that exact phrase I was looking for as the design; the other half were just like searching without quotes - products that had [xx] and [yy] in the tags/titles but not in the context of the exact phrase. But here's where it gets really interesting ...
When I went on to page 2, I had to do a double-take as there was the very same bridal bingo card and other products you mentioned and that I too saw when searching for [hallicrafters]. There were at least six that I recognized immediately without even trying from the [hallicrafters] search and I never even went past page 2. So I'm thinking, maybe it's remembering my browsing history that I just recently viewed those items, so I opened a different browser, no history/cache/cookies, completely clean, and as an anon guest same thing, there were those very same products in both unrelated searches that had no reason to be in the results for either. I don't know what to make of this, it's really bizarre.
I have been encountering results more and more lately that have no apparent reason to be included so have been wondering if perhaps there is some experimental AI being used in search, producing these misguided results. But even if that were the case I don't see how it could explain the above. So maybe Z is trying a new marketing strategy, inserting random results in searches for more exposure, but getting the same "random" results in completely different searches like this doesn't point to them actually being random either. So I don't know. I am completely lost as to what is driving search now. All the t-shirt spammers seem to have figured it out though. 🤔
Ok, true weirdness going on. Just did another COMPLETELY unrelated to the above two searches search, this time for some keywords used in my new wedding invite, and the #1 result is that same bridal bingo card, and then some of the other random ones that were in the other two searches. . My new invite showed up in the 7th spot of about 300 for my chosen keywords so that's cool, but what is going on here?
I'll be the outlier. I put hallicrafters in the search bar and got back precisely 7 hallicrafters products from the Penguin Protest store and nothing else. Maybe AI A/B?
Whelp, looks like we have stumbled upon another situation like this one where you pretty much summed it up with
It's weird there are two distinct but nearly consistent sets of results depending on browser. It's also weird that Jerry got set A using Chrome but I got set B.
Given the varying results in this thread for 'hallicrafters' I tried it in all the browsers I have installed.
Opera (anon) - 7 results
Edge (anon) - 7 results
Vivaldi (anon) - 7 results
Firefox (signed in) - 131 results
Firefox (anon) - 141 results
Chrome (anon) - 7,445 results
Brave (anon) - 7,445 results
I can't believe such a vast difference between two of the most popular browsers (7 appropriate results w/ Microsoft, 7.5K chaotic results w/ Chrome) would be intentional for any reason. Maybe there's something in the bones of the search programming that isn't globally recognized as valid by all the different browser engines. I have no idea. But if it's intentional I'd love to know the reason as I just can't fathom one.
But my Chrome is showing 7 results
Yeah. There are different "sets" of results that vary depending on browser and also sometimes with whether one is signed into Zazzle or not. And others using same browser may get a different "set". I was hypothesizing it might be a programming issue as I am stretching to find an explanation besides it being intentional, because as said, I just can't fathom a reason this would be on-purpose.
Added: - when I search on my phone (Android using Firefox as default browser), I get the 7 results.
It's just the opposite for me. I've always put terms in quotes when I want those exact words, all of them, in that exact order, with nothing in between them. An exact-phrase search. It's one of those things where you don't know how or when you learned, it's just always been and I guess I thought it was just how everyone knew how to do too. . So it seemed natural to me on Zazzle to use quotes to narrow down searches and on the flip-side, to try to construct tags containing exact-phrases I thought customers might use. But at some point using quotes on Zazzle searches started mucking things up. Here's a post to tech forum I made in June 2023 about complications with a search and a Mod said it was most likely due to the use of quote marks which proved to be correct. And then here's a post I made a few days later after some testing and using quotes def mucked things up with that one.
So since then I rarely use quotes when searching on Zazzle because 1) I'm convinced they're throwing a monkey wrench into the works, and 2) if most other people (i.e shoppers) aren't using them, I want to know what results they're getting as that's really all that matters.
I really wish there was an option to report a store and not just individual products because with these deliberate spammers, taking down one product at a time is barely a drop in the bucket. Whoever is reviewing the reports needs to be able to see the bigger picture. I have said things like "please checkout their store as all their products are like this" but no idea if they do. When I reported products like that I never kept track so no idea if any action was ever taken so I pretty much stopped reporting such products. However, a month or so back I reported probably two dozen shirts over the course of a few nights, all of which were 100% violating IP rules (like using team logos or album cover art) and I did keep track and all of them were promptly taken down in less than 24 hrs. So clear copyright offenders, that definitely gets their attention.
The #1 and #5 mug in that search shouldn't be there but are because they included 'jesus' as a tag. I clicked on some of the suggestions in the top row and ended up on a reporting spree. Submitted about a dozen violations. Barely a drop in the bucket. There were two types of offenders - items where all ten tags had to do with the upcoming US election but the designs had nothing to do with that, and designs that were centered around election stuff but randomly included 'jesus' in the tags. Flagrant tag stuffing to take advantage of popular/trending search terms.
I saved those things I reported on 10/2 for tag-stuffing to a bookmarks folder. Turns out there were 12 total I reported. As of tonight all but one have been removed (they may have been removed sooner, don't know, this is the first I've checked), and the one that remains is the last one I reported so either that one got a pass or it's a timing thing. But I am impressed. Someone at Z is actually acting on reports we submit so it is worth the little bit of time it takes to report a few when you run into these flagrant violations. It's too bad it can't be prevented to begin with but every little bit we whittle away at it ='s a little less clutter in the MP results.
