‘Paper’ zero results
Sorry about that, the Search API went down. We're back live now: https://www.searchagora.com/search?query=paper&price=&type=p...
Show HN: I scraped 200M Shopify products to build a search engine
21–30 of 44 posts
Re: Show HN: I scraped 200M Shopify products to build a search engine
#22Unfortunately it seems the underlying search API is throwing '{ "message": "Not Ready or Lagging"}' for every search
Just woke up (in Madrid currently) and seeing all the errors. Working on getting the product back live.
We're back live now. Had to set up a new search server and quickly importing 100k products at a time. The results should be better by the minute now (as the data set increases).
Re: Show HN: I scraped 200M Shopify products to build a search engine
#23I don't get a single result for any searches.
Sorry about that. The Search API went down. We're back live now.
Re: Show HN: I scraped 200M Shopify products to build a search engine
#24It doesn't work. "Soap" returned 0 results.
Sorry about it not working. We went down for a few hours. We're back live now:
Re: Show HN: I scraped 200M Shopify products to build a search engine
#25How do you plan to drive customer traffic to this site? As others mentioned, it's bare bones, raw search engine. I think these days, consumers need something more than just a bare choice because it's too much. People get paralyzed when they are presented with multiple options.
I think if you could develop something that works similar to interest or Instagram, that would be more interesting, especially for female consumers who love to spend time on sliding endless feeds with items to buy.
Re: Show HN: I scraped 200M Shopify products to build a search engine
#26You should get metrics on searches that yield zero results and investigate why. Getting zero is a turn off! My example: timber
Absolutely. Search went down for a few hours. The 'no search results' found also went down, which made it even more confusing :/
Here's the search results for timber now: https://www.searchagora.com/search?query=timber&price=&type=...
I'll note that this is a good use-case for AI-Powered search, as Agora isn't detecting the user's intent to find 'timber wood' here. There's a couple products made with timber which is a good start.
Re: Show HN: I scraped 200M Shopify products to build a search engine
#27Search is not working. Also, I seem to get shoes for anything I search. Did you hardcode it by any chance? Are you open to collaborate with others? I might have an automated method of curating products. Please drop a line to comp [dot] turkey [at] gmail.com.
Sorry about that, we're back live now. You may have searched when we restarted the server which caused the shoes issue (i.e. "red shoes" is the go-to search for testing).
I'd love to collaborate. Automating curated product lists is very top of mind. Right now, a registered user can create 'lists' of products and then share those lists with others (similar to a Spotify playlist). Creating curated lists as inspiration and to drive a viral loop is the next step. I'll reach out via email.
Re: Show HN: I scraped 200M Shopify products to build a search engine
#28Love to see that you have posted again, I commented on your post last time!
I have two main questions here.
Firstly, why would Shopify or Woocommerce not build this themselves? And secondly, how do you intend to drive traffic to the web? I can see how you will solve the search function at scale, but I see a bigger hurdle in driving initial traffic to the site
Re: Show HN: I scraped 200M Shopify products to build a search engine
#29Well done! A lot of progress since last time. Have you guys considered using AI to categorise products (ie; create labels using product images), instead of using the text to match the search? I say this cause I sometimes see some irrelevant products and I can tell you guys are basing the search on text
Re: Show HN: I scraped 200M Shopify products to build a search engine
#30How do you plan to drive customer traffic to this site? As others mentioned, it's bare bones, raw search engine. I think these days, consumers need something more than just a bare choice because it's too much. People get paralyzed when they are presented with multiple options. I think if you could develop something that works similar to interest or Instagram, that would be more interesting, especially for female cons…
Generally I'm of the belief that there are 2 types of users, with different acquisition strategies:
1. Users who want to find a very specific product, with the intent to purchase. This assumes that the search functionality and quality filters are working very well. User comes to Agora, finds exactly what they are looking for, and continues with their day. We save them time and provide them with a lot of immediate value. I think we'll acquire these with word-of-mouth, if the search is actually exceptional and we have the most comprehensive data set. I'll also note that limiting the search results for this user is likely better than an endless scroll (to your point about being paralyzed with choice). We're playing around with the "view more" button at the bottom of search results: showing a user 20 results and then letting them click on view more to see an endless scroll.
2. Users who spend a lot of time online shopping, with the intent to browse. For these users, the plan is to introduce features that give us a viral loop. For example, users can currently create an account to create 'lists' of products they like. We have users making 'birthday gifts list', 'party decor', 'Christmas wish list", 'bachelorette party inspiration', etc. Think of it like a Spotify playlist. The goal is to come up with more features like this that drive a viral loop back to Agora.
Hope that helps answer the question and how I'm thinking about it. Separately, we need to upgrade the design soon. Been so focused on functionality that need to shift to improving the look / feel. Open to any ideas :)