Searching on the Dash Express
As many reviewers and customers have noted, connected search is one of the more compelling features about the Dash Express. In this post, I’m going to talk more about how search works and what we display to give users the most relevant information that we can.
Like most navigation devices, the Dash Express comes with a set of preloaded points of interest in various categories (such as airports, parking, hospitals) to help you get where you’re going if you are not connected.
However, the real power of our search functionality is unleashed through our partnership with Yahoo! Local.
If you’re looking for a specific place like Starbucks, you can just enter that as a keyword and all the Starbucks near you or near your destination will be listed. Or, if you’re not addicted to double tall mocha lattes, you can enter a more general term like “coffee” and find all sorts of places for your caffeine fix. Now, what’s even better is the true contextual searching you can do. For example, I’m one of the last people on the planet who doesn’t have a Nintendo Wii. By entering “Wii” as a search term, I can find all the places near me that actually sell a Wii.
Notice that none of the results have the word “wii” in the title, as you would expect from the normal search on a navigation device. Also notice that the results come back with the Yahoo! ratings for each location, giving me even more contextual information to decide where to go.
Finally, we give you a few sort options so that you can decide for yourself how you want the locations presented. Relevance is a characteristic that we get from Yahoo that takes into account distance and the search keyword. In addition to that, you can sort by distance to you or your destination, alphabetical, or by Yahoo rating. Additional sort options are available for some of our other connected search terms. For example, price is a sort option when you search for gas.
This is just the tip of iceberg with regard to search on the Dash Express. I’m happy to answer additional questions as you have them, and I’ll be posting again soon to talk more about our dynamic search content and the creative ways customers are getting the information they care about into the Dash.
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:25 am
What about zillow searches, can you show screenshots like you did with the yahoo search.
April 23rd, 2008 at 12:11 pm
The Zillow search is just a demo to show what the Dash API can do. It didn’t make it to the retail units due to legality.
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Hi Mike,
Indeed Howard is correct. Zillow was a demo to show the power of the API, but we do not currently have a relationship with Zillow to provide their information on retail devices. That being said, we have a number of partners who have created content for the Dash via the API and we will be rolling out that content and opening up the API more broadly very soon. I’ll also be posting more about Dynamic Search (via GeoRSS) to give folks a better sense of what the Dash can do in that area…with screenshots, of course!
Brandon
Dash Service Marketing
May 14th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
The “fuzzy” search feature has limited usefulness thanks to some questionable results. For instance, if I search “Ice cream” near my home, I would expect to get the Baskin Robbins and Marble Slab locations, the closest ones to where I live. Those don’t turn up when I search for “ice cream”, but they do show when I do a specific name search. The same goes for “computers” — I have a Best By and a Fry’s Electronics very close to where I live, and neither of them turned up with a search for the word “computers.” This is probably a fault with the Yahoo’s data, but it’s still something you guys should take a look at.
June 1st, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Hi. We at Povo.com are/were very excited about the DASH API. We run a hyperlocal wiki (Boston/NY only so far) that uses some advanced search techniques, including selective refinement of tag based searches. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like we could offer this via the API because the even the simpler version you describe here is not available to us right?
We’d love to be involved in pushing the API to be able to handle our app, we’ll do as much heavy lifting as necessary.
June 2nd, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Hi Max,
I encourage you to download the API documentation at http://www.dash.net/product/mydash-dashapps.php if you haven’t already. Also, get in touch with Chris, Dash’s manager in charge of the API and developer community. He can be reached at chris(at)dash.net
Look forward to seeing what Povo can put together for Dash users!
Brandon
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:15 am
Thanks Brandon, I’ve done both of those things. No response yet from Chris, and also sent a mail about a week ago to the general contact email.
June 12th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Hi everyone.
As a note, Max and I talked last week.
If anyone else does want to engage regarding content for the device please feel free to contact me directly (chris at dash.net).
Thanks!
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:22 pm
WHAT !? No Zillow ?
ummm….. thats the only reason I bought the unit.
I have it and am now trying to figure out how to get zillow on it. I am confused by the legality issue, they have a free open api to share their data ?
signed,
deceived and disappointed
July 11th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Hi Keith.
One of our user-developers, Mike Tuckman, created a DashApp that puts the Zillow inforamtion right in your Dash device. It is called “House Values v2″ or just search for “zillow” in the Saved Search area of MyDash.
Enjoy!
Thanks.
November 12th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
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