Thank you perlfan,
Yes I think Fletch has given me something to go on re the widgets. There is a search on the site for anything that is listed which works quite well but operates on the flat files. The mysql database I have been working on seperately for about 35 years :) , always knew I'd have to try and integrate it, so now is the time.
I did wonder about the impact on the server as potentially with 60000 items to sift through 3 times it might be that the user could have typed it in quicker? although I have no knowledge of the 'quickness' of mysql databases.