Just started using the API. I'm just not getting the results I get on Shopping.com using the API.
For instance, I have been trying to search "Uncharted 2" which is a very popular PS3 game and I'm not getting that in any of my results. I have tried tweaking it with different options but I'm just not getting it right.
Could someone point me to the right direction on how to go about optimizing search results? It would be great if I can tell what options are being used on Shopping.com's search but I doubt that that option would be available.
If you make a simple keyword request without a category, you get roughly the same results as on Shopping.com (add the 'numItems' parameter to get more results):
On Shopping.com, you do see one item for the stand-alone game, but you'll notice that it says it's 'no longer available' - i.e. there are no offers for that product. We do not return products without offers in the API by default, since there is no offerURL to monetize the product. However, you can enable these products if you want using the 'showProductsWithoutOffers=true' parameter.
One last thing to mention, is that there is a specific PS3 games category (96639) if you wanted to constrain the search to only PS3 games. See http://developer.shopping.com/docs/API_Use_Cases#34 for info on how to view the category tree.
Hello,
Just started using the API. I'm just not getting the results I get on Shopping.com using the API.
For instance, I have been trying to search "Uncharted 2" which is a very popular PS3 game and I'm not getting that in any of my results. I have tried tweaking it with different options but I'm just not getting it right.
Could someone point me to the right direction on how to go about optimizing search results? It would be great if I can tell what options are being used on Shopping.com's search but I doubt that that option would be available.
Here's one of the queries I've tried.
http://publisher.usb.api.shopping.com/publisher/3.0/rest/GeneralSearch?apiKey=c0bbe2ac-9930-4eff-9192-0948eef74feb&trackingId=8057090&categoryId=96425&keyword=uncharted 2&numItems=5&pageNumber=1&productSortType=relevance
Thanks in advance.
Cheers.
Ryan – 11/9/09 4:52 pm
Hello,
If you make a simple keyword request without a category, you get roughly the same results as on Shopping.com (add the 'numItems' parameter to get more results):
http://publisher.usb.api.shopping.com/publisher/3.0/rest/GeneralSearch?apiKey=[apiKey]&trackingId=[trackingId]&keyword=uncharted%202
On Shopping.com, you do see one item for the stand-alone game, but you'll notice that it says it's 'no longer available' - i.e. there are no offers for that product. We do not return products without offers in the API by default, since there is no offerURL to monetize the product. However, you can enable these products if you want using the 'showProductsWithoutOffers=true' parameter.
One last thing to mention, is that there is a specific PS3 games category (96639) if you wanted to constrain the search to only PS3 games. See http://developer.shopping.com/docs/API_Use_Cases#34 for info on how to view the category tree.
Hope that helps,
--ryan