eBay experiments with a visual search engine

Default avatar.
October 20, 2016
eBay experiments with a visual search engine.
eBay, the giant auction site, has just launched a new site specifically for people looking for furniture and other complementary products and items for the home. eBay Collective, to be sure, is a site that’s aimed more at the high-end crowd, as it features items like antiques, fine art, contemporary design, and other unique items. However, what makes it stand out is its visual search engine that puts a new twist on searching on the web. search-screenshot The visual search engine is Corrigon, which eBay purchased earlier this year for just under $30 million. Though Corrigon has been around for almost a decade — since 2006, to be exact — it’s only now on eBay Collective that this visual search engine is really being allowed to showcase what it can do. Corrigon works in a unique fashion to help shoppers get a good user experience when they’re looking for the right items with which to decorate their homes. Corrigon is used in a “Shop the Room” feature on eBay’s new site. This feature allows you to hover over an image of a fully designed area of a home. Then, the search engine will search throughout eBay’s inventory to find items that are similar to the section of the image shoppers indicate. search-screenshot2 Corrigon’s search technology was developed to help users both find and then identify an object within a bigger image. Then, users are able to match that discovery with additional images or links to items. Within a larger image, users on eBay Collective can now hover over a particular section of the image while Corrigon can see the item in that section. It then matches it with other items. Overall, the design of the new site is very image-rich, which makes sense since products need to be showcased to shoppers trying to make buying decisions online. This new site is eBay’s newest try at better serving its user base of active shoppers, which totals 164 million. Curating the site in this unique way with the new visual search engine is aimed at providing a much better UX to all shoppers.

Marc Schenker

Marc’s a copywriter who covers design news for Web Designer Depot. Find out more about him at thegloriouscompanyltd.com.

Read Next

3 Essential Design Trends, December 2023

While we love the holidays, too much of a seasonal theme can get overwhelming. Thankfully, these design trends strike a…

10 Easy Ways to Make Money as a Web Designer

When you’re a web designer, the logical way to make money is designing websites; you can apply for a job at an agency,…

The 10 Most Hated Fonts of All Time

Remember when Comic Sans wasn’t the butt of the jokes? Long for the days when we actually enjoyed using the Impact…

15 Best New Fonts, November 2023

2023 is almost over, and the new fonts are still coming thick and fast. This month, we’ve found some awesome variable…

Old School Web Techniques Best Forgotten

When the web first entered the public consciousness back in the 90s, it was primarily text-based with minimal design…

20 Best New Websites, November 2023

As the nights draw in for the Northern hemisphere, what better way to brighten your day than by soaking up some design…

30 Amazing Chrome Extensions for Designers and Developers

Searching for a tool to make cross-platform design a breeze? Desperate for an extension that helps you figure out the…

Exciting New Tools for Designers, November 2023

We’ve got a mix of handy image helpers, useful design assets, and clever productivity tools, amongst other treats. Some…

The Dangers of Doomscrolling for Designers and How to Break Free

As a creative professional, navigating the digital realm is second nature to you. It’s normal to follow an endless…

From Image Adjustments to AI: Photoshop Through the Years

Remember when Merriam-Webster added Photoshop to the dictionary back in 2008? Want to learn how AI is changing design…

3 Essential Design Trends, November 2023

In the season of giving thanks, we often think of comfort and tradition. These are common themes with each of our three…

30 Obsolete Technologies that will Perplex Post-2000s Kids

Remember the screech of dial-up internet? Hold fond memories of arcade machines? In this list, we’re condensing down 30…