Improve search by matching query better and prioritizing more popular movies/shows
Here's what made me think of writing this. Check out this screenshot:
I searched for "sleepers", intending on finding the Thriller from 1996. The first 5 results include the word or are the word "sleeper", while the 6th result is the word "sleepers" (which is exactly what I searched for). Not only that, but as you can see in the screenshot, the most popular result is "Sleepers" from 1996, the movie I wanted to find. It has the most votes and plays of all the results there. Why wasn't that one listed first?
Seems like trakt should prioritize movies that are more popular, and be better about matching search queries.

Pushed some updates to the search which should improve the results. The title has a higher boost when matched, popularity is used as a tie breaker, and people aren’t returned by default anymore.
You can also wrap multiple works in quotes to make it more exact. Also, type the / key as a shortcut to get to the search field.
Lastly, I like the comparison to IMDB search and once e have a dedicated team focusing on search, we’ll get there :)
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Matt commented
Nice work. This is already much MUCH better!
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Matt commented
Another example.. search for "It", and if you filter by "All", the Stephen King TV series is the 12th result even though it has more votes and plays than the first two "It"s that appear before it.
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Matt commented
Another example... search for "escape from" and "Escape from New York" doesn't show up until Page 2. "Escape from New Jersey" which doesn't even have Kurt Russell in it, shows up before the original, on Page 1.
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Matt commented
iMDb is real good about prioritizing better/more popular movies in their search results.
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gamingexpert13 commented
I was gonna suggest the same thing, with the same example.
They should be sorted by most users
(most ratings, or most collected, or most watchlisted, or a combination of the above, since "most ratings" or "most collected" wouldn't show popular upcoming movies that haven't been released yet).They should also probably prefer exact title matches.
(although people do sometimes get titles slightly wrong, or not search the whole exact title, so it should show most popular non-exact matches as well) -
aTrooper commented
Maybe include the views or ratings in the algorythm.
Another Example: I have searched for the movie "Prisoners" from 2013. The results are:
1. Prisoner (Show, 2008, 11 Watchers!)
2. Prison (Movie, 1988, 31 Watchers)
3. Prisoners (Movie, 1975, 0 Watchers)
4. Prison (Show, 6 Watchers)
5. Prisoner (same Show as 1., 1979, 48 Watchers
6. Prisoner (Movie, 2007, 6 Watchers)
7. Prisoners (Movie. 2013, 13.1k Watchers!) -
Patrick commented
I agree. Been having a lot of troubles searching for things the past week. Also you are basically forced to filter by show or movie now since actor results show up first.