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Improve Game Search Accuracy

šŸ“‹ Summary

Improve LaunchBox search so it handles exact titles, punctuation, short titles, and close spelling variations more accurately.


ā— Problem

Search results can sometimes be too broad or miss expected matches.

For example, searching for a title without punctuation may not find the same title with punctuation, while searching for a very short game title can return every game containing that letter.

This makes it harder to quickly find specific games, especially in large libraries.


šŸ’” Proposal

Improve search matching and ranking behavior.

Search should better support:

  • Exact title matches

  • Titles with or without punctuation

  • Very short game titles

  • Common spelling mistakes or close variations

  • More relevant result ordering

For example, searching for Alien Resurrection should still find Alien: Resurrection, and searching for D should provide a way to find the game named D without returning every title that contains the letter D.


🧩 Use Cases

  • Find a game even if the user omits punctuation

  • Search for a one-letter or very short game title

  • Surface exact title matches before loose partial matches

  • Reduce irrelevant results in large libraries


šŸ“¦ Benefits

  • Faster game discovery

  • Better search experience for large libraries

  • Fewer missed results from punctuation differences

  • More predictable search behavior

  • Less frustration when looking for a specific title


āš ļø Considerations

Search should balance fuzzy matching with precision. Exact matches and strong title matches should be prioritized, while broad partial matches should be ranked lower or require longer search terms.

Status: Open To Community1 comment

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Comments1

  • chinagreenelvis

    •

    Jun 27

    Search Needs Improvements

    Searching for ā€œAlien: Resurrectionā€ returns ā€œAlien: Ressurectionā€.

    Searching for ā€œAlien Resurrectionā€ does not return ā€œAlien: Resurrectionā€.

    Searching for ā€œDā€ returns every single game that has the letter D in it.

    There is no way to search for a game named ā€œDā€.

    And many more.