Searching for places made easy on StreetAdvisor

Many new community members like to seek out familiar places and see what they look like on StreetAdvisor, especially as they can look at the street they grew up on via StreetView. When searching for streets and cities, the search results that Google maps (and hence StreetAdvisor) provides can be confusing. That's why it's really important to give the search engine as much information as possible. Here's one scenario that illustrates how small changes in your search query can yield very different results.

I type in a search for "Madison" (click on the link to go to the search results page). Below is a screen image of the search. It shows that I have found the town of Madison, Wisconsin, United States (CityScore 76.72).

Maybe I wanted a street, such as Madison Ave in New York City. In that case, I should search for "Madison Ave" (click on the link to go to the search results page). That takes me to Madison Avenue, New York, New York, United States (StreetScore 97.33).

Maybe I was looking for a town, not a street. In that case I should make the search service find a city by adding a state to my search. I want Madison Missouri, so I search for "Madison MO" (click on the link to go to the search results page). I find exactly what I was looking for - the town of Madison, Missouri.

It can be frustrating when searching is not as simple and intuitive as we want it to be. But while we may be smart, computers are not, and they need all the information we possess in order to deliver a useful service to us. That's why adding a street type (st, rd, ave) or a state (full name or abbreviation) can make all the difference to your search results.

How do you feel about where you live? Log in to StreetAdvisor and tell us all about it, or upload a photo to show us!