You run a search on Tuesday for a Tickle-Me-Elmo doll. You find a bunch. Then you come back on Wednesday and there are zero results! What happened?  

 

 

Sometimes Taobao thinks it knows what you are looking for, and will decide a category for you. This is often very helpful. For example, if I search for an SD card, it changes the category to only search within SD Cards.

 

 

Notice that the navigation bar is blue – we are in Taobao’s electronics section. But if I change my mind about the SD card and want to search for some stuffed Elmo instead, we might have a problem.  Taobao thinks it still knows what I want, and continues to search only within the SD card category.  So a search for Elmo gets zero results.

 

 

If I wasn’t such a smart guy, I might think that Taobao doesn’t have any Elmo stuff.  Luckily, I’m super smart.  So I click on the Category Menu and look for 所有分类 all categories. 

 

That’s right! Over 1000 Elmo products. Tricky Taobao thought it could fool me. Notice also that the Navigation bar changes from blue to orange. That’s because we went from Taobao’s electronics market back to their general market.  

Have you ever been tricked by Taobao’s zero-result searches?