I’ve noticed this on many shopping sites, but I’ll use etsy as an example, since that’s my most recent encounter with this problem.

I’ll search something like “car magnet,” and most of the results are for stickers and have “magnet” nowhere in the title or description. Then I’ll try the syntax “car magnet -sticker,” which seems non-functional since I will still get back results including stickers.

I’ve had this problem time and time again. Ebay seems to at least specify which items don’t fit all my search terms, but etsy, Amazon, NewEgg, and nearly every other shopping site I’ve ever used causes me to throw my hands up in despair. (Looking at Walmart too, for giving my celiac ass gluten-containing products in a “gluten free foods” search.)

How do people find what they’re looking for? How do you get back the results you want?