OK, Great Green One:
i am traveling along in my car, on I-89 in Vermont, because Mr. Umbrella has kidnapped me and is insisting we buy a camper. He suddenly decides we might have a bit of time for some letterboxing. i whip out my handy dandy iPhone and do a travel search on "I-89" on AQ on my Safari browser. Parameters are within 1 mile of the highway.

Here's the oopsie:
i get 25 pages of search results - in England, in Guam, in CA, in NJ, in TX, in Africa, in Asia, in just about everywhere BUT along I 89 in Vermont.

i try again, this time, thinking, we're heading down I-91 next, i'll try that.

nope.

same exact search result.

Is this an iPhone thing? is this a glitch of the geocoder thingy? Did AQ burp and was having a bad day?
Just thought perhaps you should know. . . .
still a loyal fan, tigs

I had the same experience on my blackberry last week. I-91 and boxes from South Korea and the state of Washington were coming up.

Also last week tried location searches of drivebys for Manchester CT and would get Manchester, NH.
When spelled without the H it gave me the correct area. That one seems to be fixed now.

What's the URL of your search results page?

-- Ryan

try box radar. it finds boxes where are actually are located

Sorry, had to figure out how to find it again on the phone.

www.atlasquest.com/results.html?gTypeId=1;gSort=5;gSubFlag=56;gTitle=Traditional+Letterboxes;gRad=5

that's all the gobbledygook at the top. I think the problem is you never get to put in a begin or end spot, like at home, where the search worked just fine.
Thanks, tigs

try box radar. it finds boxes where are actually are located

But only if you have a Droid.

Yeah, I could have done that, or used Clue Tracker, which I ended up doing, fleet. The idea behind going on AQ directly was to do a route search and not one by every town.
~tigs

I think the problem is you never get to put in a begin or end spot, like at home, where the search worked just fine.

That URL doesn't even show a route in it. That's the search for "Show All Letterboxes."

What was the exact location you typed in for your search? I'm thinking maybe you merely tried to type "I-89" and nothing else, which got me the results at http://www.atlasquest.com/results.html?gTypeId=1;gSort=5;gSubFlags=59;gTitle=I+89%2C+Bonounim%2C+C%26ocirc%3Bte+d%27Ivoire+%2830+mi%29;gCoord=5.3687771,-3.9700499;gRad=30;gLocation=i-89.

Not exactly what I had in mind--it does a 30-mile search around "I 89, Bonounim, Côte d'Ivoire"--wherever that is!

When you want to run a trip planner search, though, you need to signal to AQ that the location your searching for is a route by searching for "Along I-89", which generates the results at http://www.atlasquest.com/results.html?gTypeId=1;gSort=5;gSubFlags=59;gTitle=Along+I-89+%28offpath+%26lt%3B+30+mi%29;gCoord=76,0,10000;gRad=30;gLocation=along+i+89.

Which I suspect is more the kind of thing you were expecting. That word "Along" is very important to force AQ into running a trip planner search!

On a related note, it is still possible to specify a begin and end spot in such a search. For instance, searching for Along I-89 from Hartford, VT to Burlington, VT generates a search along I-89 from Hartford, VT, to Burlington, VT. You do, however, have to use the key word "FROM" to specify the start spot and the keyword "TO" to specify the end spot.

-- Ryan

What i did was this:
i went to AQ on my browser
i went to Simple Search
i went to Trip Search
i chose "I-89" from the list when asked to "select route"
i chose "5" from the "miles" selection and hit search

At home, when i do this, a little "to" and "from" window pops up, and asks me if i want to look the whole length of the thing, or just between several cities. That doesn't happen on the iPhone. Instead, you get a list 25 pages long of boxes all over the world.

So where exactly, whilst i am out and about boxing, would i type in "along I-89" into to pull up the results i want? into the plain old "Location-based Search" box? And then set the distance at 5 miles?
Ah, that works. . .
~tigs

i went to Trip Search
i chose "I-89" from the list when asked to "select route"
i chose "5" from the "miles" selection and hit search

Just to see if there was some "mobile difference", I tried it on my Android phone, but it does as one would expect, and gives the "from", "to", and the correct results.

So it is possible that it is specific to safari (or at least the pared-down iPhone safari). If you want to send me an iPhone, I would be HAPPY to test it for you!

If you want to send me an iPhone, I would be HAPPY to test it for you!

Oh, my friend, if i were independently wealthy, i would, just for the laughs you have given me over the years!

At home, when i do this, a little "to" and "from" window pops up, and asks me if i want to look the whole length of the thing, or just between several cities. That doesn't happen on the iPhone.

Hmm..... I'm not sure why the iPhone doesn't work like it's supposed to, and I don't have one to test this on. You're running Safari on the iPhone? Do you know what version?

I tried installing Safari on my test machine and using the Trip Planner search, but it still works correctly. Granted, I'm not running it on an iPhone, but at least I can confirm that the most recent version of Safari it still works okay.

So where exactly, whilst i am out and about boxing, would i type in "along I-89" into to pull up the results i want? into the plain old "Location-based Search" box? And then set the distance at 5 miles?

Yep.

-- Ryan

You're running Safari on the iPhone? Do you know what version?

um, no
the one it came with? the one it updated to the last time i synched it with iTunes? when was that?

can you spot the non-techy in this picture? LOL

at least now i know how to do it from the other box.

~tigs

... or used Clue Tracker, which I ended up doing, fleet. The idea behind going on AQ directly was to do a route search and not one by every town.

By the way, if you are using Clue Tracker, and you are viewing letterboxes on a map, you can tap on the pin and then on its arrow to view the clue for that box. I love the map view when I'm traveling!

um, no
the one it came with? the one it updated to the last time i synched it with iTunes?

That's probably Safari. *nodding* =)

-- Ryan

Just for kicks and giggles and that fact that I have an iPhone I decided to go to simple search and ask for I89 and 5 miles and got the same thing as tiggs.

1) tiggs is not going insane
2) I don't think Ryan's test counts since it wasn't on an iPhone
3) safari has got problems

GG

Just for kicks I thought I'd try this too.

I followed the same instructions and I have only 131 listings, active and unknown, along this route. I am using an IPhone 3GS with v 4.3.4, and Safari as the browser.

This was the entire route - http://www.atlasquest.com/results.html?gTypeId=1;gSort=5;gSubFlags=8;gTitle=Along+I-89+%28offpath+%26lt%3B+5+mi%29;gCoord=76,0,10000;gRad=5;gLocation=ALONG+I-89

you can tap on the pin and then on its arrow to view the clue for that box.

i didn't know that. . . learn something new every day. thanks for the info!!
~tigs

see, now, ss, your little codey thing is definitely different than mine was - my SubFlags were 56 and there was no Along+I-89 in there anywhere (i know cuz i typed it into my reply by hand! LOL)

And my iPhone is a 4, so maybe the version of Safari is different?

Although, just to be fair to Ryan, when i did it the way he suggested - by going to Simple Search, then Location-Based Search, and typing in "Along I-89", i got the same result you did, ss: the right one. Try doing the trip search instead - that one is MUCH more fun!! (and the one we're all talking about)

peace, tigs

Okay, I thought I was losing *my* mind. I did the simple, trip search before. I went back to my phone. If I don't log into my AQ account, I do get 24+ pages of results. If you don't log in (3GS) you don't have the option to put in the starting and end points. Try logging in and see if you don't get different results.

1) tiggs is not going insane

Never said she was. =) I suspect it's a browser problem, though--so far as I can tell, all of the newest browsers support that trip planner search on the simple search page just fine. It's the older browsers where things might break.

And while I don't have a good solution for older browsers, with a little thought, I managed to update that particular search so at least if the JavaScript that makes those start and end points fails, at least it'll show all of the boxes along the selected route.

So if you try your iPhone now, "tiggs," you should get the boxes along I-89. You won't be able to select a start or end point with that browser--I'm not sure how to fix the JavaScript to make it work for your particular browser version--but at least the routes should work correctly! As a great designer once said, "It fails gracefully." =)

-- Ryan