This document has been created to help you with some common mistakes we’ve noticed in Autocomplete tasks. Please read it carefully and make sure you understand these concepts.
If you are having difficulty understanding anything in this document, or our guidelines in general, please reach out to us using the homeworker support portal and we will do our best to help you.
Spelling Corrections and Typos
The Autocomplete feature is intended to save users time by showing them suggestions of what they could be searching for as they type. Suggestions can come in the form of any category of result: Address-type results, Business/POI results, Query suggestions, or Category suggestions.
Sometimes, users will make a typo or spelling error in their query. When there is clearly something wrong with how the query is spelled, we should do our best to try and interpret what they were trying to type. When there is clearly a spelling error, do not simply rate all results as Bad for not exactly matching the query.
Tip: If a query is clearly misspelled but you’re having trouble figuring out what the user intended to type, look at the keys on your keyboard near the parts of the word that are most confusing. This might give you a hint as to what letter the user intended to type. You can also try putting the misspelled query into a search engine and see if that gives you any ideas for user intent.
Query [st jean sur richeilu]
There are some serious spelling errors in this query, but it is clear that the user intended to type Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, a city southeast of Montréal.
Autocomplete suggestions need to be something the user would plausibly be searching for. A result that is very far away from the user’s location intent is very unlikely to be a useful suggestion, unless it is extremely prominent.
Query [brasser]
Viewport is fresh and placed over Montréal. The user is inside the viewport.
Result #1: Brasserie Bellanger, 140 Rue du Faubourg Poissonnière, 75010
Paris, France
Correct Rating: Bad with distance/prominence checked.
Explanation: Location intent is near the user in Montréal, and the result is in France. Although the result is a great match for the query, it is extremely far away. The result is not particularly prominent. It appears to be an ordinary neighbourhood bar. Even if this was a very popular and well known bar in Paris, it still wouldn’t have the prominence required to make it an Acceptable suggestion. A user would be very surprised to see this as a query suggestion.
Result #2: Brasser Road, Williamson, NY 14589
Correct Rating: Bad with distance/prominence checked.
Explanation: This result is an exact match for the query. You might be tempted to give this a better rating because it is an exact match, but that would be a mistake. In Autocomplete tasks, it’s typical for a user to not be done typing.
This is a sparsely populated rural road in New York and has a very low prominence. Of all the possibilities for user intent, how likely this one? Extremely low. Our user would be very surprised to see this as a query suggestion.
Sometimes we will have multiple results that match the query and satisfy location intent.
Query: [shawini]
User and viewport in Trois-Rivieres,QC
Result #1: Shawinigan, QC
Correct Relevance Rating: Excellent
Explanation: Of all possible query matches, the locality of Shawinigan is the most prominent, and it should be given the highest possible rating.
Result #2: Gare de Shawinigan
Correct Relevance Rating: Good
Explanation: This result is Shawinigan’s train station. It matches the query, and transit POIs are considered to be prominent, although less prominent than the locality itself. A demotion of -1 for lower prominence is appropriate.
Result #3: Cégep de Shawinigan, 2263 Av. du Collège, Shawinigan, QC
Correct Relevant Rating: Bad
Explanation: This result matches the query as well as the train station, but a Cégep is much less prominent than the locality or a major transit POI. It’s very unlikely that this is a user typing this query would be looking for this, so we should demote it to Bad.
Rating with Location Modifier in Query
When a query contains a location modifier we do things a little differently. Since the user has specified explicitly where they want to see results, we ignore the viewport and user location.
Query: [starbucks terreb]
User and viewport in Mirabel, QC.
Result #1: Starbucks, 102 Mont des Pionniers, Terrebonne, QC
Correct Relevance Rating: Excellent
Explanation: The intent is for a location of the chain coffee shop Starbucks, and the only reasonable interpretation of “terreb” is that the user was intending to type Terrebonne, a locality just north of Montréal. This result is a Starbucks in the requested locality, and so can be rated Excellent. If this was a Search 2.0 task, we would actually rate this as Navigational, since research indicates this is the only Starbucks in Terrebonne.
Result #2: Starbucks, 2 boul Céline-Dion, Charlemagne, QC
Correct Relevance Rating: Good, with Distance/Prominence checked.
Explanation: As we said in the explanation for Result #1, the user intent here is Starbucks locations in Terrebonne. Since there is only one valid suggestion within the requested area, the next closest Starbucks location outside the requested area is considered Good. Research indicates that this is the closest Starbucks to Terrebonne, outside of Terrebonne.
Query: [montreal starb]
User and viewport in Mirabel, QC.
Result #1: Starbucks, 5291 Av. De Courtrai, Montréal, QC
Correct Rating: Excellent
Explanation: The most likely intent for “starb” is that the user was typing “starbucks”. Therefore, user intent is a location of the chain store Starbucks in Montréal. Since the user has specified in the query where they want to see results, we ignore the user and viewport. This result is a Starbucks in Montreal, which is all we need to know to rate it Excellent.
Result #2: Starbucks, 900 Boul. Le Corbusier, Laval, QC
Correct Rating: Bad, with Distance/Prominence checked.
Explanation: As established above, the user intent is for Starbucks in Montreal. This Starbucks is in Laval, located close to Montreal. As per section 2.3.1 of the guidelines, we rate differently depending on how many possible suggestions exist within the requested area. In this case, there are many Starbucks locations in Montreal to choose from. Because of that, we can demote any Starbucks location outside of Montreal to Bad.
Query: [BMR Sorel Tr]
User and Viewport in Trois-Rivieres, QC
Result #1: BMR Express Yamaska, 100 rue de Mgr Parenteau, Yamaska QC
Correct Rating: Excellent
Explanation: User intent is a location of the chain hardware store BMR, and the user has specified the locality they want results in, Sorel-Tracy. Research indicates that there are no BMR locations in Sorel-Tracy. In this situation, the , closest BMR location outside of Sorel-Tracy will be rated Excellent. Research confirms that this is the closest BMR outside of Sorel-Tracy.
Result #2: BMR Express Saint-Guillaume, 73 Route de l’église, Saint-Guillame, QC
Correct Rating: Good, with Distance/Prominence checked.
Explanation: User intent is a location of the chain hardware store BMR, and the user has specified the locality they want results in, Sorel-Tracy. Research indicates that there are no BMR locations in Sorel-Tracy, and that Result #1 is the closest outside Sorel-Tracy. This one is a little further away from Sorel- Tracy, so we apply a -1 demotion for distance.