The All-New Locationscout Search

Search is the heartbeat of Locationscout and the most used feature of the platform. Whether you are looking for a specific location, a whole country, or just inspiration, the search bar is where the journey begins.

For a long time, I relied on a third-party provider (Algolia) to handle this. It was good, but it was a "black box" and I couldn't always tweak it exactly how I wanted. So, I decided to take the leap and build a completely custom search engine from scratch, tailored specifically for our community.

After weeks of coding, testing, and fine-tuning, I’m thrilled to roll it out. It’s a lot smarter and finally under our full control.

One List to Rule Them All

The biggest change you will notice is the structure. Previously, results were strictly grouped: a block for Countries, a block for Locations, etc. Now, I’ve moved to a Unified Result List. The engine simply puts the best match at the top, regardless of whether it’s a region, a country, or a theme. If you search for "Iceland," you get the country first, followed by the most popular regions. Prefer the old way? No problem, as you can now filter by result type with a single click.

Smarter Under the Hood

I wanted the search to "understand" you better. Here are a few upgrades I’ve baked in:

• Language Detection: Searching for "Deutschland" now correctly finds "Germany."
• Synonyms: The engine now understands that different words can mean the same thing, helping you find spots even if you don't know the exact name.
• Country Codes: You can finally search for 2 letters and a simple ISO code like "DE" for Germany or "IT" for Italy.
• Smart Highlights: Popular locations are visually highlighted, and your search terms are shaded in yellow in the results so you can scan the list faster.

I had to sneak in a little Easter egg and add 'Gotham' as a synonym to New York City...

Designed for Speed & Privacy

The interface got a total overhaul to be easier on the eyes, but I also added some major quality-of-life improvements:

• Editable Input: No more re-typing the whole word if you made a typo. The search term stays in the box, ready to be tweaked.
• Privacy-First History: Identical to the app, I’ve added a "Recent Searches" feature so you can jump back to previous queries. Crucially, this is saved locally in your browser. I don't track your search history on the server because your privacy comes first.

Next Steps

Since it's our own search engine now, I plan to add spots directly to the search results. I didn't before, because this would have exploded the costs for Algolia, but more importantly, I wouldn't have been able to make sure "Cologne" as the city is in front of a spot with the name "Cologne", resulting in new users thinking that this single spot is everything there is for the entire city.

As soon as I'm happy with the results, I will add the new search engine to the app too, which was the most important reason I started this project: You are currently unable to find "Iceland" when you use the German version of the app, because it's called "Island" in German, and since I can't change how results rank for individual languages, all islands will be shown before Iceland is even a valid result.

A great example for the old search results: Paris is the first location but hidden behind countries and themes that have nothing to do with Paris. The results are still correct though, because "Paris" is similar to the Spanish word for the Netherlands: "Países Bajos".

I Need Your "Human Algorithm"

Here is the most exciting part: Because this search engine is now 100% our own code, I can fine-tune it endlessly. But I can’t test every possible keyword combination on my own.

This is where I need your help.

I have tuned it as much as I could by adding weights to various parameters, but nothing beats real-world usage. As you use the new search, please keep an eye on the results.

• Did you search for something and get zero results when you expected one?
• Did a totally irrelevant location show up at the top?

If something feels off, please drop me a short line, either here or directly to [email protected]. With the new system, I can often fix these ranking issues in minutes. Your feedback helps me to further fine-tune the results and make them better for everyone.

Give it a spin and let me know what you find!

Happy Scouting and have a wonderful Christmas time with your loved ones!
Manuel