To meet the challenge of richness and variety in product data, a Guided Search application enables a customer to enter a search term that describes a product in general terms; for example, "cameras". A variety of configurable features -- such as spelling correction, auto-suggest, and a thesaurus of synonyms for search terms -- help customers specify accurate and effective search terms.

When customers enter search terms, a Guided Search application responds by displaying groups of product features (known as facets or dimensions) from which customers can select particular features to further refine their search. As the customer selects features, the application displays the products that have all the selected features. You can configure the application to sort and filter the search results to help customers find specific products more easily.

The Discover Electronics reference application provided with Guided Search enables you to try out these features. For example, if you enter the search term "cameras", you are then presented with groups of features under the categories Price, Brand, Color, and Rating. As you select features from each of these groups, the application displays a list of the products that match all your selections, as shown in the following figure:

Here, the user's search for a black Fujifilm camera with a customer rating of 3, in the price range $250 - $500, has found two products. The user can now click on the listing for each product to view a more detailed description of the product.

The remainder of this guide will describe how to configure a Guided Search application in a way that will respond effectively to the challenges of product data providing customers with satisfactory and productive shopping experiences.