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iTunes global search must be revamped

by Dave Caolo Jul 17th 2008 at 1:00PM

As the iTunes Store has grown, its search feature hasn't. Enter a bit of text in the search field, and you get results for
  1. Albums
  2. Podcasts
  3. Movies
  4. TV seasons
  5. Music videos
  6. iTunes Essentials
  7. iTunes U
  8. Apps
The results were manageable when we were just browsing music, television and movies. Today, it's just too large. Even some of the sub-categories are getting crowded. Recently, the App store was receiving a lot of eBooks from AppEngines. Earlier this week, a "Books" section was added to the App Store.

That's a good step, but I'd like to be able to filter results before execution. For example, an App Store search, a music search or podcasts. iTunes Power Search [link] does this pretty well, but I'd bet that most users don't use it. This ought to be the default search procedure.

Of course, I'm old and crotchety, so take this with a gain of iSalt.

Thanks to Matt for the eBook App Store tip!

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As the iTunes Store has grown, its search feature hasn't. Enter a bit of text in the search field, and you get results for Albums...
 

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19 Comments

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Galley

@Simon: Use the original release date for the tracks, but use the Sort Album field for the compilation's release date.

July 18 2008 at 8:24 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Shahin

It also would be very nice to have a Scan/Preview Option.
Why do I have to sit in front of my Computer when I just want to check a new Album. every 30secs I have to choose the next Track. I could do a lot more meanwhile...

July 18 2008 at 6:41 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
SpinThis!

I don't get this post. If you do a search and you find you're getting too many results, in the top left of the window you can narrow it down to just the category you specify. Easy. No need to do a power search. Maybe people don't really read anymore? Or maybe that dropdown menu isn't noticeable enough?

Power search off the top is bad, bad, bad for usability. (Visit useit.com for why.) Part of the reason Google got so popular was part of its simplicity... you type in a search term and that was it—and you get accurate results. Maybe Apple's search engine isn't really providing accurate enough results?

July 17 2008 at 6:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
matt

Holy crap my website is on TUAW, this is the greatest day ever lol.

July 17 2008 at 4:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Matt Mungan

I've always wanted to be able to search by record label.

July 17 2008 at 2:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
totoro

Agreed.

Actually, I was kinda surprised the Apps Store didn't show up as a separate entity on the sidebar in OSX, under the iTunes Store.

July 17 2008 at 1:39 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
goobi

Yep. Some search feature is needed. Maybe a search bar that might pop up a lá finder. Also needed is tabbed browsing within the iTunes store…

July 17 2008 at 1:36 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2shae

I think the whole interface of iTunes (and OS X in general) has to have a completely new style.

Either that or themes have to be a build in option.

July 17 2008 at 1:36 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
OmniGeno

Totally agree. I was actually hoping for this the other day when searching for apps only.

July 17 2008 at 1:31 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
w00master

Seems to me (in terms of UI and user features), iTunes in general hasn't been updated in a while. I'm still waiting on the ability to create smart playlists based on keywords found in the lyrics.

July 17 2008 at 1:28 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
4 replies to w00master's comment
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