Midwest Tape Adds Auto-Complete to Site Search Bar

Unsure of a spelling? Fuzzy on a name? Term on the tip of your tongue?

Midwest Tape has launched Auto-Complete, a new website feature that will better aid searches. Now when you use our site’s Search Bar, Auto-Complete will offer search suggestions.

Using Auto-Complete with SmartBrowse
Enter a term in the Search Bar. Note that fewer letters typed in the Search Bar will produce a wider array of suggestions. Likewise, more letters typed will produce more specific suggestions.

Upon entering the search term, a dropdown list of suggestions appears. With SmartBrowse, Auto-Complete will make suggestions related to format, people, titles collections, and categories.

 If you select a format suggestion, results appear in a sortable SmartBrowse list:

If you select a people or title suggestion, results that match the suggestion appear in SmartBrowse’s Search Summary:

Person selection “Harry Paul” results

Title selection “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” Results

Using Auto-Complete with Search
Uncheck the “Use SmartBrowse” checkbox underneath the site’s Search Bar and then begin typing your search term. Note that fewer letters typed in the Search Bar will produce a wider array of suggestions. Likewise, more letters typed will produce more specific suggestions.

Once again a dropdown list of suggestions will appear, but suggestions will pertain to format and titles only.

 If you select a format suggestion, pertaining results will appear in a Search Results list.

If you select a title suggestion, product details for that title will appear as the Search Results.

What do you think of auto-complete? Share your thoughts and questions here as comments.

SmartBrowse: A Closer Look

Recently, Midwest Tape posted a blog about the basics of SmartBrowsing. Here, we present a more in-depth look at the advanced search engine, detailing a variety of ways to organize your results for a quick and efficient find.

First, entering fewer keywords will return more titles, so for optimal results enter as few keywords as possible. For example, try “Fresh Prince” instead of “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”

Once a user enters keywords, SmartBrowse categorizes the results in an expandable list that divides products by titles exactly matching or containing the search word, categories, series, collections, publisher names, people, and numbers. The list of expandable subcategories makes it easy to find exactly what you are looking for and ignore what you’re not. Additionally, selecting the expand/collapse (+/–) box will expand or collapse your search results so that you see only  the results you want.

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Also, if there are more than 100 listings for a category you can opt to only view the top 100 bestselling titles or the 100 most recent titles. By doing this, you are able to quickly find the newest and most popular titles.

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After making your selection, you can arrange information alphabetically or numerically in ascending or descending order by clicking on the column names. For example, clicking on price will sort the titles by the least expensive to the most expensive. Clicking again will reorganize the information so that the most expensive products list first. Similarly, this action works for stock number, title media, misc, genre, release date, sales rank, and price.

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Another way to manage your SmartBrowse search is to further narrow your results. By clicking on the filter criteria box, you are able to restrict your findings by release date, format, and ratings.

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To continue perusing through the subcategories in the search summary list, simply select the Return to Original Search button. It is essential to select this button because clicking the browser’s back button will return you to the Midwest Tape homepage, thus closing your current results.

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Want to learn more about SmartBrowsing? Watch our tutorial.
Have you used SmartBrowse? How has it aided your acquisitions experience?

SmartBrowse: A Better Way to Search

Finding your favorite titles is easier at Midwest Tape thanks to SmartBrowse, a combination of the search and browse functions. When looking for a title on the Midwest Tape website, the browser searches not only the attributes of a product (i.e. titles, actors, artists, publishers), but also collection names, series, and categories. It’s even possible to find products by searching just partial title names and/or numbers of a stock number, OCLC, ISBN, or UPC.

To begin, just make sure the SmartBrowse option box is checked underneath the search bar in the upper right of the Midwest Tape homepage and enter a keyword. As always, by searching keywords noted throughout the DVD, CD, and Audiobook monthly buyer’s guide, finding popular titles is effortless.

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Once the results are compiled, they are grouped accordingly in a Search Summary, an expandable list sorted by exact matches, titles that contain the search word, categories, series, collections, and people.

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However, if you don’t find what you are looking for, clicking the return to original search button will route you back to the Search Summary page, where you can continue to surf through results. Because titles with similar characteristics are grouped together, you are sure to come across what your library is looking for, if not more.

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Want to learn more about SmartBrowsing? Watch our webinar.

Have you used SmartBrowse? How has it affected your searching experience?