Finding Browse Node Values

You can find browse node values in the following ways:

Use ItemSearch and ItemLookup and specify the BrowseNodes response group.
Find a browse node ID that is similar to the one you want and use BrowseNodeLookup to investigate its child and ancestor browse nodes.

The default response group, BrowseNodeInfo, returns, among other things, the complete ancestry of a browse node. For example, in the following response snippet, you see the complete browse node ancestry of Security is Subjects > Computers & Internet>Business & Culture > Security.

<Item>
  <ASIN>0596007485</ASIN> 
    <BrowseNodes>
      <BrowseNode>
        <BrowseNodeId>15375261</BrowseNodeId> 
        <Name>Security</Name> 
          <Ancestors>
            <BrowseNode>
              <BrowseNodeId>549726</BrowseNodeId> 
              <Name>Business &  Culture</Name> 
              <Ancestors>
                <BrowseNode>
                  <BrowseNodeId>5</BrowseNodeId> 
                  <Name>Computers &  Internet</Name> 
                  <Ancestors>
                    <BrowseNode>
                      <BrowseNodeId>1000</BrowseNodeId> 
                      <Name>Subjects</Name>

Note: If a browse node has multiple ancestors, only one of them is returned in the response.

In contrast, BrowseNodeLookup only returns child browse nodes that are the direct descendant of the browse node in the request. You could use any of the browse node IDs to either find additional, related browse nodes by using another BrowseNodeLookup request, or to focus an ItemSearch request.