
Show HN: Amazon Search on Steroids - ceyhunkazel
http://www.jeviz.com/
======
LeifCarrotson
The power feature I am most looking for, and which I think this site could
implement well, is cross-category search. If I want, say, ECG leads,
manufacturers and vendors will list them in, variously, Industrial &
Scientific, Health & Household, Electronics, Computers & Accessories,
Professional Medical Supplies, or even the pervasive Tools & Home Improvement
category.

Many of these sub-categories have useful filters that aren't available in the
general product list, but if I want to use them, I must open tabs for each
category.

If this site could do a union on all the categories, offering sub-filters
where available, filtering in the products that meet those filters and
categories, out the products that have different categories, and in the
products that have no categorization at all for that filter, that would be
very useful.

On the other hand, if Amazon would just do a better job of curating the
metadata on all these products, that would be great too. Maybe it takes a full
time effort for a few people to maintain the compatibility lists for all the
phone cases on Amazon. But that has to be more efficient than having thousands
of under-informed consumers try to repeat that work over and over again...

~~~
ceyhunkazel
It is really hard to do with, even API requires department for extra features.
What about dividing screen with iframes and search for several(at most 4)
categories.

------
miles
Would be swell if sellers' book descriptions could also be searched; I've
found some gems that way:
[https://tinyapps.org/blog/nix/201112010700_amazon_wget.html](https://tinyapps.org/blog/nix/201112010700_amazon_wget.html)

~~~
ceyhunkazel
Never thought that, I will look into it. Thanks for the feedback.

------
daveguy
I always thought it would be nice to sort by stars x reviewers or stars x
log(reviews) -- something like that. Something that better balances rating and
popularity. One of the most annoying things in amazon search by rating is
scrolling through screens and screens of products with one user giving a
product 5 stars.

~~~
dmix
Agreed, I find it amazing that this still hasn't been addressed. "Sort by
Average Score" should definitely factor in the number of reviews. It's an easy
fix from a technical perspective because you can also sort by number of
reviews. Just combine the two!

~~~
ceyhunkazel
Definitely good idea, currently I redirect to Amazon and it is not easy with
even with Amazon Advertising API because when you request amazon only turns 10
products and for another 10 you need a new request. You need to request lots
of pages to calculate it and Amazon has request limits.

------
fny
A few things:

\- The interface is overwhelming. While I understand that you aim to surface
power, I think you're not targeting a specific power well enough to cater to a
user's needs. For example, if you aim to help a user find deals, you should
develop an interface that targets that super power.

\- Related to ^, I'm wondering why a user would ever need some of these
features... like why would I want to search by hidden keywords?

\- Re: branding. I feel like you haphazardly went for a 5-letter dot com, when
you could have done something more memorable like amazonhunter.com

~~~
qqg3
Yes but he would be shutdown instantly if he used "Amazon" in the url

~~~
hornbaker
JungleSearch or JungleHunter would be decent compromises.

------
analyticsjam
Personally I like the interface and think dumbing it down would be a mistake.
I would recommend adding a "minimum reviews" filter, as I sometimes sort by
avg rating but get things with 2 or 3 reviews that are probably fake anyway.

~~~
ceyhunkazel
I found most of sort features by try and error. I will look into it if Amazon
provides it I will implement it.Thanks for the feedback.

~~~
o_____________o
Oh, you're not running the search over your own data?

~~~
ceyhunkazel
No I am directing to Amazon with right search query url.

------
vblord
I agree that the interface is way overwhelming. It's very hard to see what the
text boxes are for because the labels are positioned so funny. I was also not
expecting it to open a new window to Amazon. I thought the results would stay
on your site (like on CCC). Also, how do you pronounce the name of the site
anyways?

From a functionality standpoint, I think this works great. I wish amazon would
let me search by all these features. This saves a ton of time and headache
with searching amazon.

One final thought. It would be great if it supported smile.amazon.com. I
support the "Youth Competitive Programming Circle" with all my purchases. It
would be nice if all the links went to smile.amazon.com instead of straight
amazon.com.

Overall I like it. Keep at it.

~~~
ceyhunkazel
Thank you for the feedback. I will add smile url option. Jeviz is pronounced
like first parth of these words ge-neral and vis-io

------
ceyhunkazel
I am the author of jeviz.com. Currently it is only for US locale. Immediate
benefits are you have more options for search sorts. For example most choose a
department and select "Most review" sort option to sort by number of reviews
which is not visible in Amazon.com site. When you login you can save your
search parameters and synch your mobile, desktop search parameters. There are
about 50,000 categories in Amazon you can do full text search for categories.
There is advanced book search more accessible than Amazon advanced book
search. Please tell me what are the features you want more.

~~~
zitterbewegung
I like how you use the tour to explain the interface. Since you seem to be
targeting power users although they could probably figure it out as you go
along it makes it slightly less intimidating.

~~~
ceyhunkazel
Yes, I target power users but even power users needs introduction I think. You
can end the anytime by clicking End Tour button. It won't show up again unless
you clear your browser cache.

------
dleightful
Is it possible to search for books that have been blurbed by certain authors?
For example, if I'm interested in a list of books that Donald Knuth, or heaven
forbid Gary Shteyngart, has blurbed and recommended, how would I go about
doing that? Often the product descriptions will have blurbs or reviews from
various sources listed on the Amazon page to induce individuals to read the
book or atleast permit it to capture their attention.

~~~
LeifCarrotson
> blurbed

What does this mean? Is it a typo for blogged, a new social network used by
Knuth and Shteyngart, or a word I've never heard of?

~~~
ronp2016
I think he means the quotes praising the book that appear typically on the
back cover of a physical book.
[https://susanleighnoble.wordpress.com/2012/09/18/writing-
an-...](https://susanleighnoble.wordpress.com/2012/09/18/writing-an-awesome-
book-blurb/)

~~~
giarc
I think they may refer to the actual Amazon page, found under "Editorial
Reviews". For example, from a random book I found.

[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385542364/ref=s9_qpp_gw_d...](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385542364/ref=s9_qpp_gw_d99_g14_i4_r?ie=UTF8&fpl=fresh&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=&pf_rd_r=2VTHTMFBDX8J4H9DN6BZ&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=6aad23bd-3035-4a40-b691-0eefb1a18396&pf_rd_i=desktop)

Editorial reviews by Oprah, someone from the NYT, People, NPR etc.

------
inertial
Say I want to search a shirt of specific brands only e.g. "Calvin Klein" and
"Versace". If I misspell the name, Amazon won't complain, rather it'll show
the incorrect brand name in the left pane. Would it be easy to add auto-
suggest for brands so that I get the name right.

~~~
ceyhunkazel
Auto complete these features are not provided by Amazon but I really thinking
of implement it myself. Thank you for the feedback!

------
Sakiina_
LOVE this! Thank you for sharing.

I've wondered, is there a way to combine book format searches? Books have
Paperback AND Audio CD, for example?

~~~
ceyhunkazel
Thank you! Let me check if it is technically possible if so I will implement
it.

------
ceyhunkazel
Author of jeviz.com here. All started with a question on Quora
[https://www.quora.com/What-kind-of-features-would-you-
like-t...](https://www.quora.com/What-kind-of-features-would-you-like-to-see-
in-Amazon-Product-Search)

~~~
gfosco
I'd really like to search by product dimensions.

~~~
giarc
Is this tongue in cheek?

~~~
gfosco
No it was an idea I submitted here 2+ years ago
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7542631](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7542631)

------
moepstar
Nice job :)

Sad though, once one considers what Amazon has begun as: a search engine...

And yes, somehow and for some reason most ecommerce sites are not good at
filtering their data on more criteria in categories...

~~~
notyourwork
Amazon has hundreds of millions of items, search at that scale is not as easy
as it is for a few thousand books. E-commerce search is not the same as google
search. Relevance by words and associations like google creates is much
different than how people search when shopping/exploring.

If you have a better way to do it, Amazon is hiring and I am sure they would
love to hear your ideas.

~~~
karambahh
I am not so sure they really care about changing their search.

They only recently started to change their recommendation stack, after years
of using outdated technologies. I think it is somewhat similar with search.

It's not so much that "it's complicated at their scale" as "It works somewhat
okay, which translates into X hundreds of millions of $, so don't touch it".

I know they could (and they most probably do) run A/B tests, but the thing is,
how do you run MVT tests on such a large infrastructure, with such a varied
catalog, etc...it all gets very complicated at their scale, just from an org
perspective.

Many "power users" complain about the state of Amazon search, but I doubt the
average joe really cares about that.

A more recent (and with a much smaller catalog) player, zalando (rocket
internet) has a modular org and a modular approach to their stacks and they,
apparently, change or update their tools much more often than Amazon.

I am pretty sure zalando being more "agile" come from their much smaller size
(both in inventory, turnover and org).

Large organisations have a harder time moving than smaller ones, after all...

------
ceyhunkazel
Amazon CA locale is requested and I will add it ASAP. Any locale you want to
see?

~~~
JokoX
Amazon DE would be perfect! Great tool btw!

~~~
hakandilek
Selam Ceyhun,

I'd be a constant user for Amazon DE. Can help you out with testing.

~~~
ceyhunkazel
Selam, Hakan. I would be very happy if you can help as I don't even speak
German. Thank you keep in touch.

------
robertcorey
How are you planning to monetizing? Are you an amazon affiliate?

~~~
ceyhunkazel
Yes I am an affiliate. I am putting my tag to searches.

