# Amazon Search Frustration

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-search-frustration/843273>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 11, 2019, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-search-frustration/843273 "2019-11-11T03:30:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2019, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-search-frustration/843273/41 "2019-12-10T17:02:25Z")

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I too tried - both [amazon.com](http://amazon.com) (where I’m signed in) & amazon.ca (where I’m not). The first several pages of results were all packing cubes. (A lot were for multi-size sets - and it is “harder” to sift for single sizes in a website than it is to sift for that on a physical shelf), but I didn’t get random items.

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**Author:** ![GMANCANADA](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gmancanada/32/2837_2.png) [@GMANCANADA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GMANCANADA)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2019, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-search-frustration/843273/42 "2019-12-11T02:51:39Z")

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Tried again in my normal Safari window and got the same bullshit results. Tried in a private window and got proper results. So yes, presumably something in my browsing history is triggering the differences.

Good to know, but regardless, this is still an example of how F’d - up Amazon is when browsing history overrides specific search terms so approximately 60% of the hits are completely irrelevant to what I searched for. (If I consider that there were no hits for only the “large” size I was looking for, then 100% of the matches were wrong.)

BTW - I followed control z’s tip and did a separate google search, found on the large size on Amazon that way.

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**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2019, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-search-frustration/843273/43 "2019-12-11T03:41:43Z")

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> [@GMANCANADA](#):
>
> Thank for all your comments.
> 
> Too bad. It used to be Amazon was a place that had anything you could possibly want. It still has everything, but it’s impossible to sort through the crap to find it anymore.

Crazy idea but why not get two pairs?

I have never had a problem finding stuff on Amazon, but i agree you had some problems.

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**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2019, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-search-frustration/843273/44 "2019-12-11T07:11:04Z")

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Just a hint: Make sure the little grey box at the left end of the search bar is set to “all” or “all departments.”

A few days ago I was searching for something simple (I honestly don’t remember what it was) and getting all sorts of bizarre results. Then I noticed that that a strange department was selected in the grey box and it was trying to find results in a totally unrelated department. I changed the department to “all” and it worked just fine.

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