A new and improved history search is now live on OldMapsOnline, making it easier and faster to find exactly what you’re looking for—whether that’s battles, rulers, notable people, or historical regions. The updated search works as a modern all-in-one discovery tool, bringing diverse historical data together in a clear and coherent way.
One Query, All Result Types
Previously, you had to search different entity types separately. Now you get everything in a single response—battles, regions, rulers, notable people, and place names used for geolocation all appear together in one unified list.
Smarter Relevance Ranking
All results are now ranked together so the most relevant item surfaces first, regardless of its type. Battles, rulers, and historical figures use internal weighted scoring based on historical significance, with additional boosts when their name or Wikipedia slug closely matches the query. Exact and starts-with matches are prioritized over weaker textual hits.
Dynamic Expansion of the Search Area
If the first pass doesn’t provide enough results to fill the requested page size, the system automatically widens the search area and re-ranks everything again, ensuring that users still receive a complete and relevant set of results.
Faster Autocompletion for the PWA
For the PWA search box, the server returns up to 5 top results. This keeps autocompletion fast while still mixing the highest-ranked entities side by side.
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