I typed in “animal” in the search bar of 3D Ocean and the first result was a Ferris wheel…followed by like Kim Jung Un and an hour glass and oh, there in the 8th slot I see one whale, followed by another series of inanimate objects.
Not sure if abusing would be the right term, but ‘authors are adding rubbish keywords’ would probably be more accurate. I mean, every keyword they use that isn’t related to a a ferris wheel means that when somebody actually searches for a ferris wheel… they’re less likely to appear near the top of the results. Doesn’t make much sense to me.
No that’s abuse as clear as daylight and it’s detrimental to the growth of 3D ocean. Some authors willingly chose to manipulate the search feature to associate products with carefully selected and ubiquitous search terms that have no inherent connection, and as a result the entire search is bogged by completely irrelevant results that turns off customers by making it exceptionally difficult to find a desired product, and it makes 3d ocean look disorganized on top of it.
I’m seeing it as ‘idiocy’, you’re seeing it as ‘abuse’… it’s probably a bit of both. If somebody is searching for animal clips, I don’t want them to see my clip of a space station. What would be the point? I want to focus my efforts on making sure people find my clip if they’re actually looking for clips relating to space stations.
It’s not idiocy, it’s something calculated, because a Ferris Wheel has no inherent connection to a term such as animal, the likelihood of thinking about it as an immediate connection is low. It doesn’t make sense to call it an accident or a mistake, it occurs far too often.
Whether or not they appear at the top of the search results is their problem, the entire market of customers (and other authors who are being shoved down the list) is not responsible for the burden of their lack of market penetration or the lack in versatility of their products. If they want to appear at the top of the results, they can make better items or make more items.
It could possibly be a flaw in the search engine itself which is also plausible given Envato’s history of flaws and experimental developments, but as I already pointed out, “animal” is at least one of the most widely demanded type of 3D models, it’s economically inefficient for Envato to allow it regardless of what the cause is anyway.