When Amazon adds an item to their store, they aren’t just putting it on a shelf somewhere.
There’s a technical process involved, which includes entering information about the product into their database. They enter all the basic infor- mation — title, author, label, manufacturer — and then they enter descriptive information about the product. The idea is to help out when you’re searching for something: If you don’t know the
exact title or name of what you’re looking for, you can use keywords like “pleated khakis” or “green sweater” that describe the product. You can also use ISBN numbers or UPC codes as keywords.
These numbers identify specific products (ISBNs identify books and UPCs identify just about every- thing else) and when you use them as keywords, Amazon.com will take you right to that product’s detail page.
Here’s a quick anatomy of an All Products search-results page:
If at all possible, the search engine offers you search results from every store. And for the matches that are sort of miscellaneous, there’s the Everything Else category.
You’ll find cool extras on the sides of the page. Notice that the right and left columns feature some interesting Amazon extras — most notably Listmania lists and So You’d Like To guides. Other Amazon customers create these lists and guides. Amazon surfaces them in your search results based on their relevant content. You can find out more about these (and how to create your own) in Chapter 12.
Amazon anticipates possible spelling errors.At the bottom of the page, you’ll see a line that reads (in the case of the “puppy” search) No matches for ‘puppy’. Below are matches for ‘poppy’. That’s how they manage to offer restaurant-menu matches on my search for “puppy.”
How about Scenario 2? This time, you’ve already got a new puppy, but you know that what you need is a book on how to train a puppy. So you go to Amazon, type puppyin the search field, and use the drop-down menu to select Books. Conveniently, three popular books on raising puppies are listed first. But you still get 1,427 results! What if you don’t want one of the three most popular? Are you going to go through 1,427 detail pages? Mais non!
Remember, search results are more specific when you enter a more specific set of keywords. To come up with search results that look like Figure 8-3 — a much more manageable 86 — you enter puppy training; then select Books from the drop-down menu.
Figure 8-3:
Search results get easier to manage when you’re more specific with your keywords.
Picky, Picky: Refining Your Search Results
The easiest way to narrow down your search results is to add more specific keywords. Once you’ve done that, you can then use the drop-down menu that sits at the top of the “All results” list to sort them.
The drop-down menu varies some from store to store, but it usually offers some or all the following choices: Bestselling, Featured Items, Average Customer Rating, Price: Low to High, Price: High to Low, Alphabetical: A to Z, and Alphabetical: Z to A. When you select one of the choices from the drop- down menu, Amazon sorts it accordingly, making it easier to find what you’re looking.
In certain stores, like Apparel and Sporting Goods, you can actually refine your search results using the left nav — the links running down the left side of the page. Figure 8-4 shows the results for a search on “puppy” in the apparel store. The left nav lets you refine your search by category, brand, or price by simply clicking on the link that interests you. You’ll also notice that each link in the left nav tells you how many results are in each location (in parentheses at the end of each link).
Figure 8-4:
You can refine search results in the apparel store by using the left nav.
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Chapter 8: Get What You Want: Find It and Suss It Out
Advanced Search
Several stores at Amazon have an Advanced Search function — a search tool specific to the store that’ll help you pinpoint exactly what you’re hunting for.
Table 8-1 outlines which stores have this additional search function, and offers a few tips on how to best use it.
Table 8-1 Advanced Searching
Store Tips
Books To access Books advanced search, click on Search in the Books subnav. Enter information for author, title, subject, ISBN, and pub- lisher. Use the drop-down menus to further refine your results and to sort — by reader age, by format, by publication date, and so on. Use Power Search, a more technical tool, to enter search terms (accord- ing to Amazon’s syntax) and qualifiers like “and,” “or,” and “not.”
Music To access Music advanced search, click on Search Music in the Music subnav. Search music by artist, title, label, and/or (a hidden gem) song title. Want to hear Boom Boom (Let’s Go Back To My Room), but don’t know which Paul Lekakis album contains the song? You’re in luck! You can also choose your format — CD, cassette, DVD audio, and vinyl. This page also offers a link to the classical and opera advanced search page.
Video To access Video advanced search, click on Advanced Search in the Video subnav. Search by title, actor, and director. Refine your search using the drop-down menus for format, price, release date, rating, genre, and languages. You can also search for used items and subtitled items.
DVD To access DVD advanced search, click on Advanced Search in the DVD subnav. DVD offers the same search functions as Video plus a few more: picture format, audio type, region code, and a long checklist of special features.
Auctions To access Auctions advanced search, click on Advanced Search in the Auctions subnav. Search Auctions by keyword, member nick- name, or auction ID. Refine your search according to category, zip codes, auction status, and auction location.
Outlet To access the Outlet’s advanced search, click on Advanced Search in the Outlet subnav. Outlet Advanced Search is not so advanced.
Search by keyword and refine according to outlet store.
Store Tips
zShops To access zShops advanced search, click on Advanced Search in the zShops subnav. Search by keyword, store, and listing ID. Refine your search by category, zip code, status, and location.
Toys & Games To access the Toys & Games advanced search (which is actually called the “Toy Finder”), click on Toy Finder in the Toys & Games subnav. Search by keyword and use the drop-down menus to further refine your results by age, category, price, or video game system.
Product Information
There’s something to be said for being able to handle a product before buying it. That’s why so many people were skeptical about online shopping — how an item feelsis part of the decision-making process. But with the right informa- tion, the need to feel diminishes, and the urge for convenience takes over.
You can find all different kinds of product information at Amazon. In fact, certain stores give you access to far more information than you’d find at a comparable brick-and mortar-retailer. So how do you access it? In most of the stores, the left nav on the detail page has a Product Information (or Item Information, or Toy Information, and so on) box like the one in Figure 8-5.
This is the master list of the kinds of information Amazon offers for that product. If you don’t see that box, then you know that item has limited infor- mation on the site; you can find whatever information there is by scrolling below the product image.
Here are the different kinds of product information offered at Amazon.com:
Buying Info: This is the basic information — price, shipping informa- tion, and so on — that you’ll find for every product at Amazon. It lives right next to the item’s image on the detail page. Occasionally, you’ll have to click a link to see complete buying info — especially if there’s a lot of info associated with the item you’re looking at.
Big Pictures:Click on images for a bigger view of the goodies you’ve been ogling from afar.
Product Features or Details:Many products also have feature informa- tion. This is usually a bulleted list of the most prominent characteristics of that item. You’ll find this information farther down the detail page, above the reviews.
Technical Specs:Many items (typically electronic or mechanical things) offer more details in the form of technical specifications. You can access them from the left nav Item Information box on the detail page.
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Product Manuals:Some products on the site (again, usually electronic or mechanical) have PDF files you can download that contain electronic versions of their manuals. You’ll find these in the left nav information box or below the product details on the detail page. If you need some help downloading and viewing PDFs, check out the “Kiss your paper- weight goodbye” sidebar.
Editorial Reviews:Amazon hires pros to review their products, so you can be assured that anything they tell you is worth knowing. You’ll find these on the detail page, above customer reviews and below product details.
Customer Reviews:This is the cornerstone of Amazon’s success as a source of information about various products. Customers review the products, giving you the lowdown on what real people think of them.
That can be a great help when you’re trying to decide what you should and shouldn’t buy.
But wait! There’s more. When it comes to product information, Amazon is king. Explore the detail pages of the different stores as you visit them.
They vary from store to store and each one offers its own informational gems. You’ll find things like a link to all the books written by the author whose book you’re looking at. You’ll see entire segments of the page devoted to showing you like products based on other customers’ purchases. On many detail pages, you’ll even find customer suggestions on what to buy instead of the item you’re looking at.
Figure 8-5:
The product information box for a mixer offers all kinds of information.
Striking Infogold: Expert Advice
Sprinkled throughout Amazon.com are little informational gems — checklists, buying guides, articles, and so on — that’ll help you make smart buying deci- sions. These gems are extremely helpful and, unfortunately, a little bit hard to find. In some stores, they’re on the subcategory pages under the heading Expert Advice. Other stores put them all together in information centers. But right now, there is no centralized directory, though there are hundreds of guides, articles, and other helpful bits living on the site.
To find these informational gems, you have to happen upon them in the various stores. For example, the digital camera buying guide is on the digital camera page in the Camera and Photo section of the electronics store. But if you want information on buying a car seat for your child, all you have to do is go the resource center (Figure 8-6) in the Baby store — it’s a choice in the subnav.
Figure 8-6:
The Resource Center is an excellent place to get information on baby products.