# Introducing... KB Search



## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

Some of us use Amazon's advanced search for finding books in the Kindle Store. But you have to remember to set the format to "Kindle", and you don't have the capability of searching by price.

We've created a page for KindleBoards members, to search the Kindle Store using a variety of search parameters. Check it out at the link below, or click on the graphic. We've got one for our UK members, too, that searches the UK Kindle Store.

http://www.kboards.com/search



http://www.kboards.com/uksearch


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## chilady1 (Jun 9, 2009)

Very nice, thank you Harvey and all the Moderators for a great tool!  KB just keeps getting better and better.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Great tool, Harvey!  Thanks!

Betsy


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

Good tool! It filters out the audible books.   

Mike


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## Raffeer (Nov 19, 2008)

How about adding Mystery/thrillers under $3?
Kindle Boards are a daily stop for me. Thanks for the work you all do in keeping it up.


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## drenee (Nov 11, 2008)

Great new feature.  Thank you.
deb


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## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

Thank you all for the feedback!



Raffeer said:


> How about adding Mystery/thrillers under $3?
> Kindle Boards are a daily stop for me. Thanks for the work you all do in keeping it up.


Yes, I can add that as a "quick click" on the right side.


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## KMA (Mar 11, 2009)

Nice!


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## Me and My Kindle (Oct 20, 2010)

This is awesome!

And the ability to sort by price will really come in handy. A lot of the time I just want the free version of a classic book from the 1800s -- and Amazon pulls up dozens of knock-off "paid" versions of those books instead!


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

Me and My Kindle said:


> This is awesome!
> 
> And the ability to sort by price will really come in handy. A lot of the time I just want the free version of a classic book from the 1800s -- and Amazon pulls up dozens of knock-off "paid" versions of those books instead!


Not to undermine the KB search because it is useful but you can sort by price without any third party search. When the results come up, there's a drop down box on the right where you can change the sorting options, two of them are "Price: Low to High" and "Price: High to Low".

What the KB search does do that Amazon doesn't is offer a max price to the search and you can choose "free" so you don't even have to bother sorting by price.


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## Tinderbox (UK) (Apr 24, 2011)

No James Cameron ebooks , I would love the Aliens Movies to read


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## NightGoat (Feb 2, 2011)

Awesome tool, thank you so much.

Yeah, since I purchased a book or two on human relations; now for my "recommendations for you," Amazon pumps me forty-four pages of business books, mainly marketing which I have no interest in, rendering the service useless to me. 

So now I have another means of narrowing down what it is that I am looking for.

Thanks again.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

NightGoat said:


> Yeah, since I purchased a book or two on human relations; now for my "recommendations for you," Amazon pumps me forty-four pages of business books, mainly marketing which I have no interest in, rendering the service useless to me.


But you can fix that!  Go to "Improve your recommendations" and, for any purchases you don't want included, mark them 'Don't Use for Recommendations' on the right side. It's a good thing to do, also, when you pick up a 'free' book that is on the fringe of your usual interest range. . . . .


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## geoffthomas (Feb 27, 2009)

I would recommend making it another "button".
The (advanced search) string is not obvious as a function.
Now that I know it exists and how to invoke it, it is clear to me.
But I suspect that others would not realize that it is a function the way that it is.
Just MO.


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## NapCat (retired) (Jan 17, 2011)

Outstanding !  Thank  You !!


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Very cool, Harvey. Thanks. It helps me as a reader and as an author when I can see where in searches my books show.


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## geoffthomas (Feb 27, 2009)

Oh....
I think I forgot to say - "Thank You".

Just sayin.....


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## AnnetteL (Jul 14, 2010)

Awesome! Hereby bookmarked.


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## Jan Strnad (May 27, 2010)

Great! But...uhm...how about a "horror" section? (Of interest to me for obvious reasons.)


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## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

Thanks all! 

This weekend I'll be adding additional subjects to choose from: Horror, and Crafts & Hobbies.


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## Imogen Rose (Mar 22, 2010)

Thanks, Harvey!


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## pdfox (Nov 24, 2010)

I did a search for Mystery & Thrillers @ $9.99, sorted by bestselling and had a $12.99 book show up.  The book was #4 James Patterson "Now You See Her".  I tried it at $8.99 and it seems to work correctly.


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## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

Thanks for reporting that. As I was testing kb search I noticed a few anomalies like that, where non-matching items would sometimes show up in search results. It was puzzling because the query syntax seems correct. 

In most cases I could recreate the same anomalies in Amazon's own advanced search, so I'm concluding that strict filtering of search results is not being applied in all cases - perhaps for performance reasons - by Amazon. 

Anyway I'll keep my eyes open for opportunities to improve those search results. Thank you for your post.


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## Irving (Jul 25, 2011)

Thank you so much! Just before reading this, I wished they would show a price filter!


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## Tara Maya (Nov 4, 2010)

Very cool.


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## VickiT (May 12, 2010)

Fantastic! Bookmarked.

Thanks, Harvey.

Cheers
Vicki


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## Casper Parks (May 1, 2011)

Nice feature,

Keep up the great work...


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## ak rain (Nov 15, 2008)

I like the search and use it to narrow down the search. I was wandering if there was a way to get the " free for prime.." ones off the list?
Sylvia


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## Dragle (Dec 10, 2011)

I tried a couple of searches with this tool to search for free books but most of the books listed were not free.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Yes, the tool was developed before the Amazon Prime Lending program was announced and implemented; the Prime results affect the "Free searches."  I've let Harvey know about the questions; I'm sure when he has a chance, he'll come by...but I'm not sure what it would take to exclude the Prime books; it might not be doable.

Betsy


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

Great tool - thanks for this


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## SamIam (Mar 3, 2011)

Very nice!


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## Dragle (Dec 10, 2011)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> Yes, the tool was developed before the Amazon Prime Lending program was announced and implemented; the Prime results affect the "Free searches." I've let Harvey know about the questions; I'm sure when he has a chance, he'll come by...but I'm not sure what it would take to exclude the Prime books; it might not be doable.
> 
> Betsy


Well, I don't think it's just that. if set the criteria max price = free and sort by highest reviews, none of the books on the first page of results are free, and only one of those is a Kindle Prime "read for free" book.


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## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

^ Thanks - looking into this now...


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## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

Update: I believe this is now fixed. Every now and then Amazon changes its search parameters and I needed to make a tweak to our expanded search.

Now it'll once again bring up free books, or books in a given price range, sorted and filtered by various options you select.

Try it here and do let me know if you spot any other issues with it. Thank you!


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Harvey, 

the regular search works...but if I then sort the results by "avg customer review" the Prime books shows up and also one book that's not free at all?  Is this just a problem with Amazon's data?

Betsy


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## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

Are you sorting *after* you get to the Amazon search results? If so that may occur as Amazon doesn't have a price filter on that page, and it's executing a new query at that point. 

But I think you would get the expected results if you specify both the price filter and the sort from the KB Search page. Let me know if I'm mistaken though!


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## ak rain (Nov 15, 2008)

thank you so much for being so responsive to my and then others requests. Betsy and Harvey


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## amyberta (Dec 14, 2009)

I just Prordered 11th Hour by James Patteron,for free, but I'm not sure if it's the whole book or just a couple of chapters?


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## amyberta (Dec 14, 2009)

I just checked it's a preview. I canceled it.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> Harvey,
> 
> the regular search works...but if I then sort the results by "avg customer review" the Prime books shows up and also one book that's not free at all? Is this just a problem with Amazon's data?
> 
> Betsy





Harvey said:


> Are you sorting *after* you get to the Amazon search results? If so that may occur as Amazon doesn't have a price filter on that page, and it's executing a new query at that point.
> 
> But I think you would get the expected results if you specify both the price filter and the sort from the KB Search page. Let me know if I'm mistaken though!


FWIW, I have noticed that even if I go directly to Amazon and search with a limiter, sometimes when I revise that search -- depending on how I do it -- I lose the original parameters. Which tells me it might just be how Amazon works.


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## Dragle (Dec 10, 2011)

I've even had it happen where the first page works according to the search (directly on Amazon), but when you go to the next page, some or all parameters are lost.


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