Search Result Filtering

[prem]

Hi All

straight to the point:

I am developing a search engine for a listing site. when a search is performed it will show the results that is relevant to the keywords i entered.

 

As a second level for the search i want the result to have a subset of generic words with a count based on the result received from first level.

 

if there are 1 or more item per criteria i want to link it so that once based on the first level result, i can filter that result based on the criteria clicked to show the second level result..

 

my explanation might be trippy to give you a better insight of what i am talking about check the ebay site (below).

 

http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=m38.l1313&_nkw=apple+iphone&_sacat=See-All-Categories

 

I have performed a search for "Apple Iphone" - notice the left pane which is titled "categories" each category item is linked with the number of counts based on the first level search results.

As you click an item on every occurrence the results get narrowed.

 

now i have managed to pick result based on a search query but i am a bit clueless on how to pick the keywords, make a count on them and link them if there are 1 or more results.

 

would appreciate if someone could direct me to a tutorial which explains this or even explain the approach on this.

TIA

 

 

[premiso]

I am not sure if this will help, but I know TAG Clouds, sort of do the same thing, except the count. But you can modify the code accordingly...

[prem]

Hi thanks for the feedback, i too was thinking of tag clouds but its a complex approach, you see in order to generate tag clouds the script with pick up the phrases from one field/table (tagcloud table) in the database but in my case there are several items. such as:

 

price (range)

date posted (range)

availability of images (yes / no)

 

so in such a case how would we go about generating result to each item. for instance lets take the price range for example.

 

ex: I am searching for an Iphone (i am not worried about the price at this instance) - the results come up showing all items that match my search query (lets assume 1000 results). along with it there is a side pane listing them according to the prices like the one below.

 

Price

10  - 100 (0 result) *this is not linked since there is no result for this criteria*

101 - 150 (200 results) *linked*

151 - 200 (500 results) *linked*

201 and above (300 results) *linked*

 

now the user who performed the search has an option to look at items that fit his/her budget (let's say his budget is $120) he/she can click on the link and filter only the results that meets his budget. if he clicks the second link - he will be presented with 200 results only.

 

could anyone suggest the best approach for this? because tag cloud is not feasible since there are multiple columns as keywords..

 

TIA