Here’s a simple idea that surprisingly I’ve yet to see implemented. On major sites like Amazon and Newegg, searching for a product gives you a guided search bar, which helps narrow down what you’re looking for. For each category, you can only pick one option. The idea is this: allow me to eliminate categories that I want excluded, in effect letting me pick more than one option.

For example, if I’m looking for running shoes, allow me to “cross out” Puma and leave Nike, Adidas, and Asics. It’s really that simple. Sometimes when I search for things, I know exactly what I don’t want and not necessarily what I do want. If I had only selected Nike, I may very well miss that new Asics shoe that works better for me.

Edit: Here’s a different example that might be better. Say I’m looking for music. Let’s take Jazz for example, and I’m interested in the record label Impulse. So I search “impulse records” on Amazon and out pops a bunch of albums under a ton a different genres. Wouldn’t it be nice to eliminate the categories for which I have no interest, allowing me the opportunity to explore the rest? Obviously, I could go category by category, but that’s way more tedious and takes away from the buying and exploration experience.