likely to be searched for that makes all the difference to speed and usability. The company rebuilds these “biases” each day so the engine should continually evolve and adapt to keep returning the most likely address matches. For speed reasons, the beta version reviewed has a bias towards exact matching and introducing deliberate phonetic or typographic errors in the search term saw the intended address disappear from the list of suggestions. According to the vendors, the final release will recognise possible keying errors and return results for what it thinks is the correct search term. It will also inform users what is happening and give them the option of reverting to their original input – another Google-style interaction they will be familiar with. Perhaps the most impressive element is how that simple interface incorporates comprehensive international functionality. The default country is based on the user’s IP address and is denoted by a flag on the search bar. This determines the reference data set employed and also the language and character set.
Each user can choose their own country manually by clicking on that flag. The tool remembers this – useful where the IP may not accurately reflect location – as well as knowing and recognising the order address components
www.dmarket.co.uk
should appear in for international formats. With a full Unicode database underneath,
search results also match the entry characters: type in Cyrillic for a Russian address and the suggested matches will also be in Cyrillic: “Ìîñöîâ”. Enter transliterated Latin characters and you get “Moskva”. The same applies for Chinese scripts, Arabic and so forth. With US ZIP+4 and a combination of
TomTom- and UPU-sourced reference data for elsewhere, the tool covers 240 countries with over 120 different formats. The daily-updated PAF employed for the UK also has BFPO and Alias data, expanding the range of possible addresses. The interface’s massively increased usability over form-type inputting probably makes it even more effective overseas than it is in the UK.
An individual search history is held for each user and Capture+ will list the most recent address selections as part of its suggestions (these can be cleared by the user). Hovering over a previously selected address and clicking the pin icon that appears lets the user save it as a sticky address. So when they next make an online purchase from a new ecommerce site that also employs Capture+, they can enter their address with a couple of clicks.
The application also exploits the location
awareness of many modern devices. Depending on how accurate the device is, clicking the target icon returns the town or a list of nearby street addresses to choose from – so reducing the often frustrating task of mobile address entry to a couple of clicks.
Building in the web service should take developers under a minute: drag-and-drop a small piece of code and select a couple of options for the form. Linking to extra or custom reference files is simple while companies can also access further address-related fields, such as Royal Mail barcodes, or can customise which fields are displayed to the end user.
NEW ERA There have been interactive interfaces before in the addressing world, but these were local, PC- based apps. None have come close to this one, either in international ambition, location awareness or in intuitive, responsive, integration- friendly, web service-based execution. The vendors have taken much of their inspiration from a certain successful search engine, and they certainly picked an excellent role model. Just as Google made search easy and effective for all users, so its combination of simplicity and power means Capture+ can satisfy today’s demanding Internet generation. n
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