Search

List vs. Map Search

The map search is simple, if a task or organization is located on the map, we put a pin there. If you zoom out to show the entire U.S. and there’s 10,000 tasks, we have 10,000 pins. No problem.

But for the list search, showing 10,000 tasks would be unusable. Showing 20 tasks in the list is arguably too much. So for the list search we use an AI to determine the 20 (or less) tasks and show that curated list.

Where this gets interesting is if you switch to the map, then change the center of the map, the list now will be rebuilt finding the 20 best tasks for you, near the new center of the map.

This is what you will expect - most of the time. But if you’re not expecting that change, it can be confusing. To undo the change in the center, click the Search in the menu to reset the search.

And there is one other difference between the two. The map view cannot show tasks that do not have an address (where would you put the pin?) while the list view does.

Advanced Search

Your search can include, in addition to the search text, the following criteria. Normally you place the following at the end of the search, but that is not required. These criteria limit the returned Organizations or tasks to the ones that match these criteria and have the search words in them. You can have a search with just these criteria.

Searches of Organizations only use the zipcode, distance, and filter criteria. Task searches use all of the below.

• [tag] The text inside the brackets must be the name of a tag. You can have multiple tags such as “[Climate Change] [LGBT+]”. If there are any [tag] elements, then the returned tasks will all have one or more of the tags. A returned tasks does not need to have all the specified tags, just one.
• {interest} The same as a [tag] except it is returning tasks that are set to one of the passed interests.
• @OrganizationName The text is the name (not the UniqueId) of an organization with all spaces removed. This limits the search to the organization(s) and their child organization(s), then every returned task must be a child of one of the specified organizations.
• Start:2023-07-04 All returned tasks must start on or after this date. For a series, it must have one or more instances that start after this date.
• End:2023-07-05 All returned tasks must start on or before this date. For a series, it must have one or more instances that start on or before this date. If Start and End are specified a series must have an instance that meets both criteris.
• zipcode:20001 Use this as your location instead of your address.
• distance:50 Use this as the maximum distance from your location to an task instead of the maximum distance you set in your profile.
• signup:attending or signup:”attending, interested” where you can set one signup mode, or several separated by commas. The allowed values are: attending, interested, unknown, and never. This will return tasks that have your signup commitment to the task set to any of the specified values. If not specified the search uses signup:”attending, interested, unknown”.
• filter:owner or filter:”owner, host” where you set the filter criteria. The allowed values are: * following (only organizations you are following, only tasks of organizations you are following), owner (tasks you are the owner of), host (tasks you are hosting), and admin (tasks of organizations you have a manager claim on). If you set several filters, this will return tasks that match any one of the filters (i.e., it does not need to match all filter criteria).

Notes

• If there is a match between an {interest}, [tag], and/or @organization, it will require both.
• We use the 2023-07-04 format for the dates because it is unambiguous. If we used 07-04-2023 that means July 4 in the U.S. and April 7 in the rest of the world.
• The zipcode setting does not limit the results to tasks in that zipcode. It merely sets the location that it then draws a circle around at distance miles to return all organizations/tasks within that circle.
• If you do not set the zipcode and you do not have an address in your profile, then, and only then, there is no limitation in the search results by location.
• Tasks that are set to remote or hybrid will be returned if outside the location/distance specified. But their ranking in the returned results will be lowered by their distance. If that ranking is low enough, they will not be returned in the results.
• If you do not specify any [tags], it then uses the tags you follow in your profile. Same for {interest} and @organization. If you follow no tags, interests, or organizations, and you do not specify them in the search, then and only then it ignores the task tag, interest, and/or parent organization.
• When you set a date range for a search, it uses the local date of the task, regardless of your location. So a task at 10:30pm in Denver on 23 January, is occurring on 24 January in Europe. But a search by a user in Europe for 24 January will not get that task. You need to set the date range based on the date(s) where the task is located.
• A date range search is inclusive. A search from 3 January - 7 January includes tasks on 3 January and 7 January.