Service Search

The Service Search page helps you find public services and activities offered by other members.

Main filters

Location: Country is required. City is required for Any and In Person. For Online, leave city empty to search all matching online services in the selected country, or select a city to search only online services from that city.
Category and Subcategory: If you leave category empty and click Search, AI infers one from your intent (fallback: Other). If you enable "Let AI auto-select category even if it is already selected", AI can replace your current category too. For saved searches, select category manually before Save or Update. Use subcategory only when you choose a category.
Mode: Choose Any, Online, or In Person.
Minimum rating: Leave it at Any or set a minimum with the star selector.
Pricing: When enabled, you can filter by all, paid only, or free only.

How search criteria work together

When you fill multiple search fields, the system combines them with AND logic—all criteria must be met. For example, if you select category "Technology", enter "electric" in the title field, and "fix plugs" in the description keywords, the system finds services that match all three conditions. It will not return services that match only the category, or only have "electric" in the title. Every matching service must have Technology as its category AND contain "electric" in the title AND contain "fix plugs" in the description.

AI search and manual keywords

Fallback requirement: If category is empty, you must provide AI intent text so AI can infer a category.
Minimum text length: If AI intent, title keyword, or description keyword is provided, it must be at least 3 characters.
Tell AI what you need: Describe the outcome, timing, location, or companionship you want. You can write in your own language.
AI rerank switch: "Let AI rerank and filter out irrelevant ones from the found services" is optional. Vector search still runs from your AI intent either way. If this switch is off, results come directly from Azure AI Search without AI rerank/elimination.
Advantages and trade-offs: With rerank enabled, ranking and relevance are usually better. Trade-offs are slower response and, rarely, unnecessarily more restricted results.
Notifier distinction: Weekly Active Need notifier searches (every Monday, UTC) never use AI rerank/elimination, even if the rerank switch is enabled on this page.
Keyword search: Expand the keyword section only when you want tighter manual matching in the service title or description.
AI Search-backed searches count against a monthly search quota.

Saved searches

Apply: Select a saved search from the dropdown to load its filters.
Save: Use "Save this search" to name the current filter set. All mandatory fields must be provided before saving.
Update: After loading a saved search, change the filters and click "Update search". All mandatory fields must be provided before updating.
Delete: Select a saved search and click "Delete".
Mark Active Need: If the current search expresses your active need, save it first, then select it as Active Need.

Active Need (saved search)

Select one or none: In the saved-search panel, use "Active Need (saved search)" to select one saved search, or choose "None" to disable it.
Schedule: The system performs this saved search weekly every Monday (default schedule: 02:00 UTC on Monday). Users do not choose custom days.
Email behavior: If there is any match at run time, one email is sent with all found services and direct links. These notifier runs never use AI rerank/elimination.
Always reads latest selection: If you switch from one saved search to another, the next run uses only the currently selected saved search.

Results

Results appear only after you click "Search". Each result shows the service title, description, location, mode, rank, rating, and a link to session comments.

Service search will return at most 20 services per search.

Search results include only services whose owners currently have active membership access. If a cancelled provider reactivates the account, their services stay hidden until access is activated again.

If a provider later loses membership access, their services disappear from search, their pending requests are closed as Cancelled (provider unavailable), and their scheduled or started sessions are closed as Cancelled (provider unavailable).