Searching Across Indices
ItemSearch
requests require that you specify a search index. This is because searching across the
millions of products in Amazon databases would take too long. Product Advertising API does, however,
enable you to search across multiple search indices using the All or Blended search indices.
All Search Index
You can use the All search index to do an
ItemSearch
search through all search indices. There are,
however, a number of restrictions placed on this request: the only parameter that you can use in the
request is
Keywords
, and you cannot, for example, sort results.
Note
You cannot use the All search index in an
ItemLookup
request.
Blended Searches
ItemSearch
searches through a specified search index, or
SearchIndex
can be set to "Blended." A
blended search always searches through the following search indices (only).
• SportingGoods
• Tools
• Toys
• VHS
• VideoGames
• Kitchen
• Music
• PCHardware
• PetSupplies
• Software
• SoftwareVideoGames
• Apparel
• Automotive
• Books
• DVD
• Electronics
• GourmetFood
Power Searches
Topics
•
Power Search Syntax (p. 91)
ItemSearch
's Power parameter, which can only be used when the search index equals Books, enables
you to use simple or complex queries to perform book searches. A simple power search would be to
return all books written by a specified author. While this query is valuable, it does not offer anything more
than a similar search using the Author parameter in an
ItemSearch
request.
The true value of power searches comes in the ability to specify multiple criteria to search for books. For
example, you could create a query that returned all books by a specific author, published during a specified
year, in a specified language, and printed in a specified format.
Power Search Syntax
The individual parts of a power search query are of the following form
key:value
For example, the following query string searches for books authored by Davenport.
API Version 2011-08-01
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Product Advertising API Developer Guide
Power Searches
