Techniques for generating a globally applicable taxonomy of e-commerce goods are described. According to various exemplary embodiments described herein, a taxonomy management system is configured to analyze item listing titles and user search queries in order to identify a set of globally applicable product types that serve as universal descriptors of the underlying things or objects that are the subject of an item listing or the likely user intended subject of a user search query. Such globally applicable product types are agnostic as to any specific product inventory or product category structure of an e-commerce website. After the taxonomy management system identifies product types, the taxonomy management system may incorporate the identified product types into a global product taxonomy that identifies the globally applicable product types.