Jeff Adams
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I am using a theme called primer. But I’m only using it because the geodirectory tutorial video suggested it.
I set up a site to experiment on called CharlotteBanquetHall.com
However I may have not totally set it up right
Thanks again, I’m sorry if I got off track. I’m just trying to find ways to express my ideas and desires. I hope you understand and thank you for your time and patience!
I had a feeling you would go there, lol… No, I actually didn’t say that at all. All the search engines I’ve used behave just like google, does that make them all the biggest tech corp of the planet? no, it does not. And, we’re talking about that.
The google analogy demonstrates my expectation, specifically:
When I search in google I always (at least 99.9% of the time) get results, they may not be exactly what I am wanting to find, but it’s the closest thing possible and it really always makes sense. GD too often gives me nothing when it could in fact at least give me something close to it which would make it more intelligent because it’s at least giving the visitor something to consider/options. Maybe I just need to redesign the site and try to use different GD tools in different ways. I know it really could be just how I am implementing them. I just really want a search field like the advance search to work very simply/intuitively. And, right now it doesn’t work consistently and sometimes it doesn’t work at all.
Sure, GD is $199 a year for each and every subscriber. Google is free for all that subscribe to it… Just like the other analogy, page builders cost money and wordpress is free. And the other analogy you/or whoever made that post said that they think gutenburg will basically dominate the market, is that going to happen here? I’m not asking you, just sharing this is what I’m asking myself. We’re way off track here though, I was just responding to your comment. Please, let’s try to see if we can figure out a way to make GD work as intuitively as possible for my needs.
At this point I suppose I’m just going to have to attempt redisigning my site for a 3rd time now in about 6 weeks just to make it work with GD tools rather than my easy/simple expectations. Before I start though I need to finish setting up GDV2 on a test site so I can start working with it and maybe I’ll find a way in that process to make things work more intuitively. Furthermore, I’m having a developer make a plugin for my site, it will need to work with GD, I suppose GDV2 really. So, I’m going to get busy with that now and hopefully not have to come back to this because maybe I’ll have found a better way through GDV2.
Oh, and is there a way to force autocomplete? or is that a bad idea?
I’m going to turn autocomplete back on now so at least region can be searched…
Thanks Stiofan,
By disabling autocomplete there is no way to search a region using the near field. So that actually exacerbates the issue.
If it in fact this uses a 200 mile radius (which is the distance I have it set at) why is it confined within a single city? If I search a small city like “horshoe” for an event on veganlinked.com and nothing comes up when in fact there is an event in flat rock within 9 miles from there do you think I am the only directory owner that would have a problem with this functionality? Do you think all the other directory owners would rather not show their visitors this event when it’s only 9 miles away?
I completely understand that this needs to work for everyone, not just one person. I also bet every single directory owner would want this search field to render relevant results as much as possible. This may be a stretch of an analogy, but do you think if you search for an event in a city on google if their algorithms can’t find an exact match google will show no results? Maybe if you use quotes and type something crazy it will. Otherwise google will always work to deliver the best results possible, like all the other search engines. This search field is a search engine inside our directories.
Maybe it would be easier to express it like this. If I search “Food and Drink in North Carolina” on google I get lots of tasty relevant results for this state. If I search “Food and drink in charlotte” I get lots great results for that city. If I search this way with my site I get nothing “unless I use autocomplete”. However I still will get nothing if I search a city that does not have listings even if a very nearby city does.
Last night I was reading a post on here, I think you may have written it. I enjoyed the post a lot. Whoever wrote it, I thought they did an awesome job. It read well and really drew me in. It was about the future Gutenburg and Page Builders. I really enjoyed reading it and the comments. Right now I find it ironic though. Maybe you’re thinking Google is so much better no one will need GeoDirectory? Just like Gutenburg will be so great that no one will need Page Builders? But, some of the commentators were saying the developers can basically specialize in making their plugins better. Shouldn’t GeoDirectory’s search functionality the most powerful part of GD? And for the purpose of a relatively small compared to google directory, shouldn’t GD be as good if not better than basically free alterantives like google. Afterall, google is just a big, free directory. I have had my video business listed on there for at least a decade. Most businesses are listed on google, many are and don’t even realize it, lol.
I hope you don’t mind me expressing myself this candidly. I really am only trying to understand all of this the best I can and how I can make it work the best it can for my project… thank you so much for your time, patience, and professionalism.
Hey, thanks guys. I may just jump into Version 2. I read through it last night and got pretty excited about it. I’m hoping to have time to dig into it today. That is, unless there’s reason not to. Any news on V2?
I just did a quick test and it does seem to work pretty good if you put a street address in. Maybe I could just suggest that inside the field kind of like you suggested. I still find it odd that searching the city alone without using autocomplete breaks it. And it’s also odd that it doesn’t search within a radius when using autocomplete for a city like using a street address does. It seems street address works the best, rendering the most intuitive results like I would imagine City should do. Using a zip code alone doesn’t work as good as using a street address either. The ZIP code works like using the city autocomplete I forcing you to only search inside the city it seems. So yeah street address is the only one that behaves correctly in my opinion.
You said the search only works in when you use autocomplete after saying that I keep saying in. I don’t understand why you said I keep saying in and then say in only works when you use autocomplete.
I haven’t had time to test other things like zip codes and addresses. I think it’s easier to just type a City and everyone I’ve watched use the site has done that as well. I may feel differently if there was millions of listings in millions of events but that’s not likely ever going to be the case.
As far as you explaining how the Field Works from the center of the city and then rendering Within a radius from that Center that doesn’t seem to be working like you’re suggesting either. It stays in that City.
For example horseshoe is a city in North Carolina 9 miles from Flat Rock. If I search for events in horseshoe nothing comes up. But there’s an event in Flat Rock. So it appears to stay in the city like you said I keep saying, after all it keeps working that way and it only works when you use autocomplete.
Also, Autocomplete seems to only work when a city is in a database. So forcing autocomplete will only work if the city is in the database. And radius only works within a city. So if someone is going to a city that is not in the database autocomplete won’t work and they will be forced to search without it. And because near appears to be forced within a city they will see nothing even if something really is near only a few miles away in a nearby City where there is relevant listings.
So in light of these circumstances it seems ideal if autocomplete would be forced. And if autocomplete would work on all cities even if they’re not in the database, like on the ad listing page. And it would be ideal if radius was in fact 200 miles from the center of a city even if that extended beyond the city into another one. This way someone can successfully search for listings or events by putting in a city and still see relatively close listings and events even if they are in a different city. It’s always better to show at least relatively close results then no results. If I’m saying looking for a vegan restaurant in a city and there’s not any but there is one in an adjacent City I am very likely going to go to that restaurant even if it’s a few miles further into another city so I would want to see those listings.
Many times I don’t know the ZIP code of the city I am in like when I’m on vacation. But everyon usually knows the cities are in. So if the ZIP code behaves more like I prefer I’m not sure if that’s going to resolve it but it could be better than the way it’s behaving now. I will test it more tomorrow after I get some sleep thank you for your time
The search only works if you use autocomplete. The problem is it’s far too easy not to use autocomplete. This gives me an idea, is there a way to force using autocomplete? I’m not sure if that would really be the best fix but maybe that could be the ultimate resolve!
It is very intuitive and far too easy to just type a city in that near search field and hit search right away and not use autocomplete. And this renders a tragic error by showing no results when in fact there should be.
I understand the field works based off of the center of the city and the radius and therefore near that point. That is to achieve the goal of rendering results “in” the city. And it in fact behaves this way when autocomplete is used. It just breaks when autocomplete is not used. It doesn’t matter how I word it when articulating it to you what matters is that there is a problem with how the field behaves. I think forcing autocomplete would be cool, I haven’t looked to see if that’s an option is it? I am not capable of looking at the moment as it is yet another extremely late night and I have to and it here and unfortunately still not get enough sleep again… Thanks for helping me think this through though! I’m excited to know if there is a way to force autocomplete 🙂
Guust, I understand what you’re saying but I was responding to what used to be specifically when you said:
The NEAR search is for searches near landmarks, like statue of liberty, world trade center etc.
That’s why I said “according to your logic”. So I don’t know why you said that. Nothing you said really explains or justifies the functionality issues I am presenting. Thank you for trying to help me.
I really want to thank you all for your help and want you to know I appreciate everyone for working with me. I’m investing a lot in this site and GeoDirectory plugins are the core of this. Therefore it is crucial that they work as intuitively as possible. Otherwise I’m going to be forced to have to start completely over which would be devastating. So your help is EXTREMELY APPRECIATED! I’ve spent thousands on this project in the last month and a half. The search features are very important to me. Thanks again!
