Problem with the new e-commerce search engine; paging through results

When I'm attempting to exhaustively go through all the search results for a particular publisher, say, the page navigation bar at the bottom sometimes changes wildly as I page through.

Here's an example:

I first clicked on Wordsearch as the publisher (on some other book I was looking at).

Then I chose facets to shape the results: Unowned, Geographic Availability = All, and Live. Sort by Price (lowest first).

Here's the URL for the search results:

https://www.logos.com/search?filters=publisher-7834_Publisher%2Bstatus-live_Status&sortBy=PriceLow&limit=60&page=1&ownership=unowned&geographicAvailability=all&useFuzzySearch=false&viewMode=list

Page 1 of the results looked reasonable. A total of 479 Results. The navigation bar at the bottom looked like this:

I clicked to go to Page 2, and the total number of results shrank to 358.

I clicked to go to Page 3, and the total number of results changed to 391.

I clicked to go to Page 4, and the total number of results changed to 514.

I clicked to go to Page 5, and the total number of results changed back to 391.

I clicked to go to Page 6, and the total number of results stayed at 391.

I clicked to go to Page 7, and the total number of results changed to 467.

I clicked to go to Page 8, and the total number of results went back to 391. But I was told I was viewing results 301-360 again, with no page highlighted and no way to navigate to the next chunk.

In addition to the above weirdness, I noticed the certain books were showing up again on later pages that I'd already seen on earlier pages.

No doubt this is all related to the emphasis on getting the first page of results quickly and not caring about the accuracy of later pages of results. But this is the way I always used to look for more books I might want to buy. If I can't do that in a way that works, I'm likely going to stop buying books, unless something happens to come across my radar that I'm interested in. But when I've already got over 30K books, how do books I don't own "come across my radar"?

You need to do a better job of serving people with large libraries if you want to keep getting revenue from us.

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Comments

Wayne Clarke

Hey Rosie! They FIXED your problem!! However, I think the FIX has made things worse!

I was getting similiarly weird results as you--at least when you first posted. Now, I am getting a completely different behaviour. I no longer see a total quantity for "Results". I get nothing! I have NO idea how many "Results" are being returned for my search.

And I want to KNOW how many results are being returned before I start scanning through the results. A total quantity for "Results" gives me a sense if my search is too constrained? Do I need to expand my faceted search? Do I need to filter something else out? A total "Results" gives me some appreciation as to whether I want to start scanning through the results or should I modify my search first!

So, now with the FIX, I have to start clicking through the results and I will ONLY know what the total "Results" are when I reach the last page of the search results! There is NO LONGER a way to even jump to the last page of the search results or pick a page from the search results! I do see the current range of "Results" at the bottom of each web page; however, the range of "Results" still keeps changing, as you indicated in your post. With your same search criterion, I have seen 2 pages, 3 pages, and 4 pages of results. If I use the browser back and forward button, I get different results. If I use the store's "prev" and "next" navigation buttons, another set of different results are returned. Moving forwards and backwards over and over--from page to page--and you see will see an ever changing range of results (at the bottom of each web page).

This is a terrible customer experience! I have ZERO confidence that I will find what I am looking for.

Here is just a few screen shots of one of the searches--always using the same faceted search as yourself. However, my results are obviously different based on my library and geographic region.

...Top of first page of search results...

...Bottom of first page of search results...

...Bottom of second page of search results...note the "61-120" range

...Bottom of third page of search results...ALSO showing "61-120"!!!

...Bottom of last page of search results..YEP! 121-144 on the FOURTH page of 60-per page

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1304513#Comment_1304513

Hey Rosie! They FIXED your problem!! However, I think the FIX has made things worse!

Yes, I noticed. It was like "OK, you don't like the inaccuracy of our total number of search Results? We'll just remove it!" [:@]

This is awful. I think they've been assuming all along that people only want the first page of "most relevant" search results as if they were doing a Google search. They cannot fathom that some of us want to do exhaustive searches and page through all of the results looking for what we might be missing out on. Those serendipitous discoveries have led to many purchases and been quite delightful. No more!

Now you have to know a title you're looking for. This is useless for browsing for shopping.

I am very disappointed!

NB.Mick

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1304625#Comment_1304625

This is awful. I think they've been assuming all along that people only want the first page of "most relevant" search results as if they were doing a Google search. They cannot fathom that some of us want to do exhaustive searches and page through all of the results looking for what we might be missing out on. Those serendipitous discoveries have led to many purchases and been quite delightful. No more!

Now you have to know a title you're looking for. This is useless for browsing for shopping.

I am very disappointed!

They removed not only the results counter, but also the results per facet, which used to give helpful indications. This of course masks the inaccuracy of shop search results (also makes it even more impossible to know whether one found all the books looked for).

Please Logos, give us a choice: standard new engine search / old-fashioned no-engine search

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1304626#Comment_1304626

standard new engine search / old-fashioned no-engine search

The old one was a search engine too, just a different one. The new one is an off-the-shelf third-party one. The old one was written in-house. There's no such thing as no-engine search. All searching requires code/algorithms, which implies an "engine" (a metaphor for data processing by computer).

Christian Alexander

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1304625#Comment_1304625

Now you have to know a title you're looking for. This is useless for browsing for shopping.

Agreed. This makes it harder for people who cannot remember the exact title. I, too, think that was their assumption.

Steve Adams

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1304626#Comment_1304626

Please Logos, give us a choice: standard new engine search / old-fashioned no-engine search

Steve Adams

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1304626#Comment_1304626

Please Logos, give us a choice: standard new engine search / old-fashioned no-engine search

They did A/B testing. All they need to do is tell us the IP address of the old search facility. Evidently, they want to force us to use the new one for some reason, despite that we HATE it.

I am also very disappointed about how unresponsive they are being to long-term valuable customers.