It seems like almost every time I search for something in auction the autocomplete will encounter an error and throw a modal alert(). Sometimes two or more will appear while I'm typing. This in itself is surprising - why should so many of my searches result in unexplainable errors?
What is worse is that the errors are handled very crudely - alert()s are very poor in terms of UX - they are modal, thus disrupting the user's workflow, and are therefore usually only used when there's a fatal error or when the application requires the user's immediate attention. Instead, I'm told to wait a second or so, which is about roughly the amount of time it takes for me to dismiss the alert! What is even more insulting is that seconds later my results appear, without any hint of error, every single time. If this is the case, why can you not just try again silently, and only report failure if the application really cannot continue?