What I don't like about eBid...

[bykimbo]

Do you mean 255 HTML characters?

I don't think so (but remember, it's not my rule and any interpretation of somebody else's statement can only be a best guess!).

[aftech]

kimbo, Have you figured out why the editor generates all those crap codes? I'll do some experiments and report the results.

[bykimbo]

kimbo, Have you figured out why the editor generates all those crap codes? I'll do some experiments and report the results.

Nope, as I said up there, I just can't reproduce that effect at all. That and I've been busy RNLIing all day!

[bluebedouin]

... I've been busy RNLIing all day!

*Is this a new sport?

[aftech]

@bluebedouin, hahaha I like that picture!

[gazlannathai]

Are we talking about the same thing? eBid submits entries for Google Shopping, constructing a "description" based on the title and the first 255 characters of the description. As far as I know that's all that goes to Google, which then makes an entry on their products base to link back to the ebid listing. Why would Google give a stuff what happens further down the page?

It would be good if Gazza or Mark could clarify that situation with some specifics. If 255 characters are all that's captured for the Google txt or XML feed file, then knowing that would allow listing optimisation for it. But if it's done the same way that most such scripts operate, then the entire description will be captured and submitted, then Google will "cut it down to size" as they index it - remember, Google love to update their policies (it sometimes seems like their corporate past-time). Whichever way it goes, the html tags have to be stripped to meet with Google policies (you can find them on base.google.com or wherever that now redirects to (I can never remember the new subdomain name they gave it).

The reason Google "gives a stuff" about what happens further down the page is due to their auto-sanitisation technology - their sheer volume of submissions requires a "no compromise" cleaning policy for submissions - if a submitted product has content that breaks their rules, then they will either reject the entry, or the entire feed, depending on the size of the publisher. Because of the above conversation, I went to check some of my domains on Google last night and discovered one of my ecommerce sites stopped having its product feeds listed last October (Aargh !!!) because of two lines that contained errors - two errors from a 1,700 item feed and the entire feed has been rejected every week since first discovery, without so much as an email to notify me - grrrr - no wonder the Christmas season was so dire for us.

Right, I have to go fix that feed now.

Gaz

[gazlannathai]

@ bedouin - ROFL - that has to be entered in the forum photo of the year

[bykimbo]

It would be good if Gazza or Mark could clarify that situation with some specifics. If 255 characters are all that's captured for the Google txt or XML feed file, then knowing that would allow listing optimisation for it. But if it's done the same way that most such scripts operate, then the entire description will be captured and submitted, then Google will "cut it down to size" as they index it - remember, Google love to update their policies (it sometimes seems like their corporate past-time). Whichever way it goes, the html tags have to be stripped to meet with Google policies (you can find them on base.google.com or wherever that now redirects to (I can never remember the new subdomain name they gave it).

The reason Google "gives a stuff" about what happens further down the page is due to their auto-sanitisation technology - their sheer volume of submissions requires a "no compromise" cleaning policy for submissions - if a submitted product has content that breaks their rules, then they will either reject the entry, or the entire feed, depending on the size of the publisher. Because of the above conversation, I went to check some of my domains on Google last night and discovered one of my ecommerce sites stopped having its product feeds listed last October (Aargh !!!) because of two lines that contained errors - two errors from a 1,700 item feed and the entire feed has been rejected every week since first discovery, without so much as an email to notify me - grrrr - no wonder the Christmas season was so dire for us.

Right, I have to go fix that feed now.

Gaz

Thanks, that's useful - I'll do some more digging. The 255 character thing came from a post here by Gazza, I think. I recall it prompted me to make a post showing what 255 characters looked like. I don't feel up to fighting the search facility today though, so I can't give you a link.

[bykimbo]

@Kimbo - last time I checked...

... you were absolutely right.

Carried out a check this week submitting a listing that's a duplicate of one already there, but with an iframe that pulled in another page, placed significantly down the description box. eBid has confirmed that this was refused by Google, the only one of my listings to be so disdained. Thanks for the heads-up on that!

[billsstamps]

What I don't like about Ebid

Attachment 20938

has 79 posts!
Perhaps I should start what I like about Ebid