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 only for In Person searches. For Online or Any, leave city empty to search all matching services in the selected country, or select a city to narrow results to that city.
Category and Subcategory: Category is optional. Select it when you want service-type matching. Subcategory is available only after 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

Choose the required filters first. Then use at least one search option: select a category, describe what you need, or enter search terms.

Country, mode, city, category, rating, and pricing narrow the result set. User Intent lets you describe the outcome in plain language and is the option to use for international or cross-language matching. Keyword Search is a separate text search for exact words in service titles, descriptions, categories, and subcategories. Start with either User Intent or Keyword Search; combine them only when you want the text terms to narrow the results. AI refinement only applies when User Intent has text.

User Intent and text search

Minimum text length: If User Intent or Keyword Search is provided, it must be at least 3 characters.
User Intent: Describe the outcome, timing, location, or companionship you want. Use this field for international or cross-language searches because it matches meaning, not only exact words.
Keyword Search: This text-search panel is collapsed by default. Open it when you want to search exact words, names, or categories. It does not provide international or cross-language meaning matching by itself. Use it independently, or combine it with User Intent only when you want to narrow the result list.
AI refinement switch: "Use AI to refine results" is checked by default and appears directly under User Intent because it only applies when that field has text. You can turn it off when you want direct user-intent results without AI refinement. Saved searches remember this choice for manual searches on this page.
Advantages and trade-offs: With refinement enabled, relevance is usually better. Trade-offs are slower response and, rarely, results that are more selective than expected.
Notifier distinction: Weekly Active Need notifier searches (every Monday, UTC) never use AI refinement, even if the saved search has AI refinement enabled for manual page searches.
Service 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 up to 20 found services and direct links. These notifier runs never use AI refinement.
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". They are ranked by relevance to your filters and search options, with the strongest matches shown first. Each result shows the service title, description, location, mode, rank, rating, and a link to session comments.

Category and keyword searches can return up to 50 services. Searches based only on User Intent return a shorter set when AI refinement is off, and up to 20 final matches when AI refinement is on. The page shows the first 10 cards, and a Show more button reveals the rest without making another search request.

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).