diff --git a/lib/getdb-browser.js b/lib/getdb-browser.js
index 312f48a..3512763 100644
--- a/lib/getdb-browser.js
+++ b/lib/getdb-browser.js
@@ -1,3 +1,18 @@
 
 var Leveljs = require('level-js');
-module.exports = function(l) { return new Leveljs(l); };
+module.exports = function(location) {
+  var db = new Leveljs(location);
+
+  // monkey patching _approximateSize
+  // see https://github.com/maxogden/level.js/pull/21
+  db._approximateSize = function(a, b, callback) {
+    var err = new Error('Not implemented');
+    if (callback) {
+      return callback(err);
+    }
+
+    throw err;
+  };
+
+  return db;
+};
diff --git a/lib/queryplanner.js b/lib/queryplanner.js
index 5e91230..72e36f1 100644
--- a/lib/queryplanner.js
+++ b/lib/queryplanner.js
@@ -22,21 +22,15 @@ function queryplanner(db, options) {
 
     async.each(query, function(q, cb) {
       var newq = queryMask(q)
-        , range = utilities.createQuery(newq)
-        , result = function(err, size) {
-            if (err) {
-              return cb(err);
-            }
-            q.size = size;
-            async.nextTick(cb);
-          };
-
-      try {
-        db.approximateSize(range.start, range.end, result);
-      } catch(err) {
-        result(null, Object.keys(variablesMask(q)).length);
-      }
+        , range = utilities.createQuery(newq);
 
+      db.approximateSize(range.start, range.end, function(err, size) {
+        if (err) {
+          size = Object.keys(variablesMask(q)).length;
+        }
+        q.size = size;
+        async.nextTick(cb);
+      });
     }, function(err) {
       if (err) {
         callback(err);
diff --git a/test/queryplanner_spec.js b/test/queryplanner_spec.js
index c3d4690..fd4fa35 100644
--- a/test/queryplanner_spec.js
+++ b/test/queryplanner_spec.js
@@ -503,7 +503,11 @@ describe('query planner', function() {
 
   describe('without approximateSize', function() {
     beforeEach(function() {
-      db = {};
+      db = {
+        approximateSize: function(a, b, cb) {
+          cb(new Error('not implemented'));
+        }
+      };
       planner = queryplanner(db, { joinAlgorithm: 'sort' });
     });
 
diff --git a/test/triple_store_spec.js b/test/triple_store_spec.js
index 522c506..96ed63b 100644
--- a/test/triple_store_spec.js
+++ b/test/triple_store_spec.js
@@ -385,4 +385,11 @@ describe('deferred open support', function() {
       done();
     });
   });
+
+  it('should support deferred search', function(done) {
+    db = levelgraph(level());
+    db.search([{ predicate: 'likes' }], function() {
+      done();
+    });
+  });
 });