Methods and systems for enabling efficient search and retrieval of products from an electronic product catalog

A system for searching an electronic product catalog, said system comprising:

• means for networking a plurality of computers;
• and
• means for organizing executing in said computer network and configured to receive search requests from any one of said plurality of computers, said means for organizing comprising:
• an electronic product catalog having at least two entries;
• wherein the electronic product catalog is organized into at least two taxonomies;
• wherein each of the at least two taxonomies is associated with at least two categories;
• wherein the entries correspond to at least one of the at least two taxonomies and also correspond to at least one of the at least two categories;
• and
• means for searching in communication with the electronic product catalog,
• wherein said means for searching is configured to search based on the at least two taxonomies and based on the at least two categories,
• wherein the means for searching returns, in response to a search request identifying one of the at least two taxonomies, a list of the categories associated with the identified taxonomy, along with the number of entries associated with each of the categories associated with the identified taxonomy.

A method for searching an electronic product catalog, said method comprising:

• communicating a search request to a search engine, the search engine being in communication with an electronic product catalog;
• wherein the electronic product catalog has at least two entries;
• wherein the electronic product catalog is organized into at least two taxonomies;
• wherein each of the at least two taxonomies is associated with at least two categories;
• wherein the at least two entries correspond to at least one of the at least two taxonomies and also correspond to at least one of the at least two categories;
• querying of the electronic product catalog by the search engine based on the communicated search request;
• wherein the communicated search request identifies at least one of the at least two taxonomies;
• returning of a list of the categories associated with the at least one identified taxonomy, along with the number of entries associated with each of the categories associated with the at least one identified taxonomy as a response to the querying of the electronic product catalog.

An article of manufacture comprising:

• a computer usable medium having computer program code means embodied thereon for searching an electronic product catalog, the computer readable program code means in said article of manufacture comprising:
• computer readable program code means for communicating a search request to a search engine, the search engine being in communication with an electronic product catalog;
• wherein the electronic product catalog has at least two entries;
• wherein the electronic product catalog is organized into at least two taxonomies;
• wherein each of the at least two taxonomies is associated with at least two categories;
• wherein the at least two entries correspond to at least one of the at least two taxonomies and also correspond to at least one of the at least two categories;
• computer readable program code means for querying of the electronic product catalog by the search engine based on the communicated search request;
• wherein a communicated search request identifies at least one of the at least two taxonomies;
• and
• computer readable program code means for returning of a list of the categories associated with the at least one identified taxonomy, along with the number of entries associated with each of the categories associated with the at least one identified taxonomy as a response to the querying of the electronic product catalog.