Search introduce Ranking places and better categorization

[NohWayJose]

Search is very frustrating because some (many) searches return pages and pages of results. For example, try searching for London. If I'm after a hotel or hairdresser or bus stop, I have to scroll at top speed for about a minute before I get beyond the most populous categories. Firstly, I can't know what the categories are called as there are soooo many. but if I choose the categories tab, with expectation that I'll be able to see and filter from all the categories, it seems that's a highly constrained list. I can't, for instance search on a name and then refine the returned list by picking a category (or categories); I'd have to refine my search by correctly remembering & typing the name of a category. I'd expect to be able to search by name string (or substring), category, sub-category, in any order and with equal ease, preferring to use selection to refine the search criteria over lots of navigation, using my memory, return navigation and error free typing.

1. Selecting one category from the small subset available in the categories tab shows instances nearby, ranked, it seems, by distance, which is fine.
2. Selecting a category, as above and augmenting the search field does offer more specific results and again ranked by distance.
3. Selecting some categories (e.g. Food) includes several other categories (pubs, cafes, restaurants, etc). If there is a hierarchy it should be explicit and complete, such as showing a tree of hierarchies (even just an indented list). Then a user can choose any category at any level, from the full list as one of their search criteria, with the expectation that child categories will apply when parent categories are selected (making explicit what is currently implicit).
4. I see no easy way to centre the search around a different location or along a route. if for example I need to pick up drinks or flowers near my destination or go for a pee, fuel the car or grab a bite en route, then I'd like to be able to specify 'near destination' or 'along route'.
5. How about ranking by recommendation too? (Do Trip Adviser have a free API?)

[NohWayJose]

How does this make it from nice to have to let's design and deliver it? I'm happy to design it if there's a commitment to deliver it.

[NohWayJose]

Any progress? The unusable search results is the major reason OSMAnd is difficult to use. This would be the single most useful enhancement you could make to the App! (well maybe near tie with an intelligent strategy to improve rendering time - see my other feature request)

[vshcherb]

No public api ranking for OSM places today exist, so it's not feasible. About tree hierarchy I didn't understand, search works near map view location (if it's far enough from my location) or it's present in context menu search near by.

[ferromint]

About tree hierarchy I didn't understand

Let me direct your attention to the following part of @NohWayJose 's issue text which explains the effort / complication / suggestion for improving the usability solely with the help of the already existing POI data.

I can't, for instance search on a name and then refine the returned list by picking a category (or categories); I'd have to refine my search by correctly remembering & typing the name of a category. I'd expect to be able to search by name string (or substring), category, sub-category, in any order and with equal ease, preferring to use selection to refine the search criteria over lots of navigation, using my memory, return navigation and error free typing.

In case you @vshcherb already read this explanation but don't see the "pressure point", I try to rephrase and add the following explanation (might deviate from what the topic author means) to it.

It would be very helpful for a user if the search would be more interactive. E.g. let's assume the user doesn't know the name of the shop category "drug store" (since similarly often used synonyms exist in the currently selected language or since it is not the user's mother tongue). But the user does know one representative shop brand "ABC". One improvement would be the ability to edit / refine the "ABC" search result which might return a mixture of different POI types with "ABC" in their POI tags (name, type, sub-type, etc.). This refinement would be in a way that the user doesn't have to go back to the beginning of the search and manually type "drug store". Instead, the user would simply click on the "drug store" string ("link") of one of the suitable / desired elements in the result list and get all drug store POIs. An additional / optional choice after clicking the "drug store" link could be to refine the search and return all drug stores with the string "ABC" in one of their POI tags (name, type, sub-type, etc.).

Does this make sense, both @vshcherb and @NohWayJose?

[vshcherb]

In order to improve ABC poi types we've introduced "brand" search lately. So for most common brands we don't try to match search by address but suggest brand instead. For example immediate search "Aldi" was searching lots of cities, villages which was unrelated. So we've introduced a group (brand) "Aldi" and it's displayed on top.

So we could do it for other groups if we know the classification.

For individual (most prominent) POI we're planning to use ranking system based on wikidata, as Explore search.

[NohWayJose]

What would work for me is: BEFORE developing a new version or adding a refinement to search is a carefully drawn up list of all the search use cases/patterns.

For example:

1. While stationary, John (car driver) plans his trip to his relative 200km away. A route is suggested and off he goes. While diving, he notices he's low on fuel. He wants a search that is very quick or by voice recognition that will find him a list of petrol stations that are on or near his route. They are ranked firstly by total distance and secondly by extra distance (off route). Entries need name and type, so John can pick his favourite brand from the list. The list of petroleum stations is part of a hierarchy that helps John narrow his search, so: Type 'Fuel station' Type 'petrol' Type 'with rest and food area" Jolly Rest (Waitrose, Subwy, MacD.) UnhappyStop ( Bill's greasy spoon) Type 'with shop" Type 'just fuel" Type 'diesel' Type 'with rest and food area' Type 'with shop" Type 'just fuel" Type 'electric' Type 'with rest and food area' Type 'with shop" Type 'just fuel" I'm sure you can fill in the gaps. He needs to search for actual place name (multi word) and separately search the type of place he's after. He mustn't type while driving but could respond to a voiced prompt, and he shouldn't need to stop if he's on a motorway.
2. Edna also a car driver is looking for the venue for her choir's Christmas carol contribution she knows it is called Little London Care Home. She wants to enter its name as a name, its type of place as a type and as much location detail as she has. She doesn't want London in the name to pollute the set of responses with London Road, London City, London Florist, Little Windmill Street. She needs to unambiguously know what her search is, so Including the field semantics and treating strings on a field as "multi word searches" (as if they were in quotes) not an arbitrary collection of words mixed in with an arbitrary collection from 'category'.

Sorry, got to stop! Typing this on my phone, late at night. Happy to chat if that would speed things up and make it clearer. It's a nom-trivial problem and needs careful UX and interaction design

Cheers, Greg

On 23 November 2024 22:29:52 GMT, ferromint @.***> wrote:

About tree hierarchy I didn't understand

Let me direct your attention to the following part of @NohWayJose 's issue text which explains the effort / complication / suggestion for improving the usability solely with the help of the already existing POI data.

I can't, for instance search on a name and then refine the returned list by picking a category (or categories); I'd have to refine my search by correctly remembering & typing the name of a category. I'd expect to be able to search by name string (or substring), category, sub-category, in any order and with equal ease, preferring to use selection to refine the search criteria over lots of navigation, using my memory, return navigation and error free typing.

In case you @vshcherb already read this explanation but don't see the "pressure point", I try to rephrase and add the following explanation (might deviate from what the topic author means) to it.

It would be very helpful for a user if the search would be more interactive. E.g. let's assume the user doesn't know the name of the shop category "drug store" (since similarly often used synonyms exist in the currently selected language or since it is not the user's mother tongue). But the user does know one representative shop brand "ABC". One improvement would be the ability to edit / refine the "ABC" search result which might return a mixture of different POI types with "ABC" in their POI tags (name, type, sub-type, etc.). This refinement would be in a way that the user doesn't have to go back to the beginning of the search and manually type "drug store". Instead, the user would simply click on the "drug store" string ("link") of one of the suitable / desired elements in the result list and get all drug store POIs. An additional / optional choice after clicking the "drug store" link could be to refine the search and return all drug stores with the string "ABC" in one of their POI tags (name, type, sub-type, etc.).

Does this make sense, both @vshcherb and @NohWayJose?

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