Every so often I mention it, so I thought I’d mention it again: with the help of Google, I’ve built a plus size clothing search engine just for your shopping pleasure, dear readers. That Google search box right in the smack dab middle column1 ? That’s just for you, my lovely.
As I write this, the search engine has 629 sites listed that offer clothing in plus sizes. Many do not offer plus sizing exclusively, but will have something in a size above 16 somewhere, somehow. Along with major department stores I do spend a little time every month combing Etsy and blog feeds for new websites. Here’s hoping for the day when I hit that magic 1000 sites!
And I want you to use it. Yes, yes, I get a little kickback if you click on the Google ads – whatever, some will click them, some don’t. But since I spent around 25 hours building and it’s ongoing, just let me get a little kick out of you all using the search engine I built for you. (Big, blue puppy eyes.) Pleeeeeaaaase?
You can of course go to Fat Chic, type a general term in the box and hit enter – typically it will open a second tab in your browser unless your browser is set to open a new window. But if you want your search to be uber-convenient and really narrow it down, here’s a few tricks you can use that work on all Google searches:
1. Getting the exact brand name
Let’s say you know exactly what brand of clothing you want, regardless of store. In that case, type it in putting quotes around it: “Zana Di” or “Lip Service clothing.” Be sure to use proper capitalization, as this will make sure that the words or phrases within the quote match exactly.
2. Getting what you want
So you’re hunting for blue jeans. A direct search for “jeans” will bring up jeans from size 00 all the way up to size 40. That’s a lot of jeans to comb through. Phrase you query like this: jeans +plus size or even jeans +size 24. This will narrow the search down to items related to size 24 jeans.
3. Get rid of what you don’t want
You’re still looking for jeans, but you’ve decided that you do not want to see any colored jeans. You can craft the query like this: jeans +plus -colored. Or, if you simply do not want to see purple jeans, you can craft your query jeans +plus -purple. You get the idea.
4. Sale hunting
Sale is a glorious word but not the only phrase to look for if you’re out to shop and stock. This is where the ~ symbol becomes useful: it will find words of similar meaning. So you could craft a query jeans +plus size ~sale and it will hopefully also pull up clearance items. Or you can do clothing +plus size ~clearance. You can find the ~ key next to the numeral 1 key.
Also, if you’re another blogger, you don’t have to surf all the way over here to use the search engine. You can add a widget to your own page, and use it to help you shop and blog to your heart’s content.
- assuming your browser is displaying columns – I’m working on it, folks! [↩]