17. The method of claim 16 , wherein: the database further comprises: a second table comprising rows each corresponding to an attribute of one or more items and each comprising an identifier uniquely identifying the attribute and a name of the attribute; and a third table comprising rows each corresponding to an attribute value of an attribute of an item and each comprising the attribute value, the identifier for the attribute, and the identifier for the item; and the method further comprises: searching the third table for all instances of the item identifier for the particular matching item to determine the attribute identifiers and attribute values for attributes of the particular matching item; and in response to determining the attribute identifiers, searching the second table for the determined attribute identifiers to determine the attribute names for the attributes of the particular matching item, the determined attribute names and attribute values being provided for display.
16. The method of claim 13 , wherein: the database comprises a first table comprising rows each corresponding to an item and each comprising an identifier uniquely identifying the item, a name for the item, and a description for the item; the user-specified alphanumeric string comprises at least some of an item name or an item description; and the method further comprises searching the item names and item descriptions in the first table for alphanumeric strings matching the user-specified alphanumeric string to determine one or more item identifiers corresponding to the one or more matching alphanumeric strings, the item names and item descriptions containing the matching alphanumeric strings being provided for display.