diff --git a/recline.js b/recline.js
index 64e0bc33..ccf234d5 100644
--- a/recline.js
+++ b/recline.js
@@ -513,10 +513,11 @@ my.FlotGraph = Backbone.View.extend({
   // needs to be function as can depend on state
   getGraphOptions: function(typeId) { 
     var self = this;
+    // special tickformatter to show labels rather than numbers
     var tickFormatter = function (val) {
       if (self.model.currentDocuments.models[val]) {
         var out = self.model.currentDocuments.models[val].get(self.chartConfig.group);
-        // if the x-axis value was in fact a number we want that not the 
+        // if the value was in fact a number we want that not the 
         if (typeof(out) == 'number') {
           return val;
         } else {
@@ -555,14 +556,17 @@ my.FlotGraph = Backbone.View.extend({
             show: true,
             barWidth: 1,
             align: "center",
-            fill: true
+            fill: true,
+            horizontal: true
           }
         },
         grid: { hoverable: true, clickable: true },
-        xaxis: {
+        yaxis: {
           tickSize: 1,
           tickLength: 1,
-          tickFormatter: tickFormatter
+          tickFormatter: tickFormatter,
+          min: -0.5,
+          max: self.model.currentDocuments.length - 0.5
         }
       }
     }
@@ -629,7 +633,12 @@ my.FlotGraph = Backbone.View.extend({
           if (typeof x === 'string') {
             x = index;
           }
-          points.push([x, y]);
+          // horizontal bar chart
+          if (self.chartConfig.graphType == 'bars') {
+            points.push([y, x]);
+          } else {
+            points.push([x, y]);
+          }
         });
         series.push({data: points, label: field});
       });
@@ -1357,7 +1366,8 @@ my.DataExplorer = Backbone.View.extend({
         // update navigation
         var qs = my.parseHashQueryString();
         qs['reclineQuery'] = JSON.stringify(self.model.queryState.toJSON());
-        my.setHashQueryString(qs);
+        var out = my.getNewHashForQueryString(qs);
+        self.router.navigate(out);
       });
     this.model.bind('query:fail', function(error) {
         my.clearNotifications();
@@ -1415,8 +1425,8 @@ my.DataExplorer = Backbone.View.extend({
   setupRouting: function() {
     var self = this;
     // Default route
-    this.router.route('', this.pageViews[0].id, function() {
-      self.updateNav(self.pageViews[0].id);
+    this.router.route(/^(\?.*)?$/, this.pageViews[0].id, function(queryString) {
+      self.updateNav(self.pageViews[0].id, queryString);
     });
     $.each(this.pageViews, function(idx, view) {
       self.router.route(/^([^?]+)(\?.*)?/, 'view', function(viewId, queryString) {
@@ -1574,8 +1584,18 @@ my.composeQueryString = function(queryParams) {
   return queryString;
 }
 
+my.getNewHashForQueryString = function(queryParams) {
+  var queryPart = my.composeQueryString(queryParams);
+  if (window.location.hash) {
+    // slice(1) to remove # at start
+    return window.location.hash.split('?')[0].slice(1) + queryPart;
+  } else {
+    return queryPart;
+  }
+}
+
 my.setHashQueryString = function(queryParams) {
-  window.location.hash = window.location.hash.split('?')[0] + my.composeQueryString(queryParams);
+  window.location.hash = my.getNewHashForQueryString(queryParams);
 }
 
 // ## notify