Search methods on the Opentao sites

[Tatyana_S]

As you remember, Taobao has changed its search method provided via api to exclude dubious goods and fraud sellers from the search results. http://forum.opentao.net/forums/showthread.php?t=47175

We have released our own search method (Extended search) as analog of the old method to let your buyers search throughout Taobao.

Thus, there are two search methods on Opentao websites for now - Official and Extended. (Subsequently, we plan to add several search algorithms).
To help you determine which search method is optimal for your site, we’ll tell more about each of the methods.

The official Taobao search method
It’s the origin search on Taobao.com, which was changed, and now searches only products with “good reputation”. This search method we get via Taobao api.
In fact, it is search throughout Tmall area, which presents products and vendors with the highest ratings and the original brands.

• There are no categories with the lack of conformity in this search method
• Also it has "All Items" information output.

Please note. Due to the fact that the category of goods may not be available in Tmall, some categories on your site can be empty.

Also the official search is missing rated seller filter.

When the official search method is activated, the total number of available products in the search results is reduced, as well as price range of trade items (ie, the difference in the prices of the same product from different vendors will be small). And this is perhaps its only flaw.

When you use the official search method, the exact match of categories remains on the site (no empty category or categories with no those goods).

You can use only official search method on your site. Please contact the support with a request to leave only official method on your e-shop.

Extended search
This search method allows you to search item throughout Taobao. It is our own software and not included in the official Taobao api search algorithms. However, it gives much more items in search queries.

Extended search complements (but does not replace!) the official search method. When you activate it your customers can also search products within Tmall (search options are displayed in a separate menu).

At the moment we identified the following issues in the work of the Extended Search:

• There is no filter by seller rates.
• Items may not match the name of the category in which they are located, or category may be empty. We are faced with the problem of non-compliance categories when the Taobao search algorithms had been changed.
• This is a temporary inconvenience that will soon be eliminated. For more details follow http://forum.opentao.net/forums/showthread.php?t=47169
• There is a problem with displaying "All Items of the vendor".

Extended search is provided "as is" and we do not give any warranty on his work, although we track its work and support this search algorithm.

Please note that the work of the Extended search depends on the Taobao.com policies and its software. In certain changes in the topapi Extended search may not work correctly.

Please read the terms of use of the Extended search here (use google translate) http://box.opentao.net/documents-terms/Exsearch-others.

Extended search is activated (or deactivated) by request (http://support.opentao.net/), and available to all customers Opentao for free.