URL GET Parameters search

[hannibal]

I have a site where a user can select various multiple items from select boxes to determine their search results.

 

I am using GET as the posting method so that a user can navigate back and forwards with out the "Page Expired" page being displayed and so that they can copy the URL can use it later or send to a friend to see the same search result.

 

This could boviously be quite long, which isn't really too much of a problem. A link may be:

www.mysite.com/search.php?location=southwest&location=southeast&car=ford&model=gt&year=1996&year=1997&low_price=2000&high_price=4000

 

However, I have noticed with sites that use .aspx that they have folders like : www.anothersite.com/location-southwest/car-Ford for example.

Another example is www.Autotrader.co.uk. How does copying the folers/directorys reproduce the search?

 

Does anyone have any suggestions how I keep a shorter/tidy url string, or do I simply have to have a mega long string with all my GET parameters? I can't really see a way around it. I am using PHP5 & MySQL 5 (LAMP).

 

Thanks,

 

Hannibal.

[BlueSkyIS]

i suggest that you look into using apache's mod_rewrite. i would google seo friendly urls for examples.