Responding to Iris' post about the problem with Second Life Marketplace features, NWN reader and SL blogger Rose Mackie highlighted all the problems with SL Marketplace's search function in a very detailed analysis worth reading in full:
"Marketplace does need a lot of fixing up. The Search engine is totally borked. Much of the blame goes to merchants who:
- Use special characters in item and store names so that their items list first;
- Place items in the totally wrong category either out of ignorance of what they are selling or in an attempt to snare the unwary;
- Keyword stuffing;
- Neglect to maintain their storefronts with current information, Urls, and Slurls. Merchants who know they are leaving SL or who are going to be temporarily away should note that in their store info or profiles.
"Let us keep in mind that when the Marketplace was initiated, Linden Lab repeatedly told merchants that item names and descriptions would be excluded from search criteria, so correct keywords were extremely important. This ideal would appear to be an epic fail. Some things I would like to see are: