90di.com launches natural language search for travel
We have just released text based search on our website. In this feature you can submit your search query in simple text and you will be shown relevant search results. So it is no longer necessary to fill in a detailed search form and submit. You can quickly type in a few words and search your route/fare. This feature is aimed at giving our users the flexibility to search more targeted and filtered routes (And also aimed for people who hate using mouse). To illustrate this let us see some examples of how this can be used:
Normal search: A normal search query can look like
Now you can have more targeted search strings as
Bangalore To Delhi on 28th October by train
Or
Or instead you can write
Or
People more familiar and comfortable with airport and station codes can search like,
You can even just type
Or if you just want to check the schedule of a train you can search by typing train name or number like,
Or just the train or flight number,
There are many more ways you can construct your query and I am sure you will find this by giving it a try. And as always we will eagerly wait for your suggestion/feedback about this feature.
Incidentally this feature release coincides with the 1st anniversary of 90DI website release.
Tags: free text search, natural language search NLP, text based travel search
August 27th, 2008 at 9:41 AM
This is super cool. Kudos!!
You might want to test the AJAX search more thoroughly. It sometimes does not refresh the search results after the search query has been changed.
August 29th, 2008 at 7:38 PM
The facility is more userfriendly and easy to access the desired information
September 8th, 2008 at 9:13 AM
I am unable to find a train from Howrah to Benares on 3rd Oct,2008
September 8th, 2008 at 8:18 PM
@Mr. Mukherjee
Actually the search would have worked if you had given Varanasi …
But now it should work for Benares too.
Try it out:
http://www.90di.com/travel/#search_type%3Dfreetext%26search_query%3DHowrah%20to%20Benares%20on%203rd%20Oct%2C2008
September 9th, 2008 at 2:03 PM
Great Site.. its very helpful to see all possible ways to reach your destination in a single search page.. Keep it up.. you people have long way to go….
September 11th, 2008 at 4:08 PM
how i search tatkal
September 12th, 2008 at 10:46 AM
Hi,
You can get the train availability by clicking on the “Get Availability” link in the route details right hand side.
In case your train is within the next 7 days and the seat is in waiting list. We automatically show a link to CRIS site which can tell you the Tatkal availability for that particular train. Just try that out.
Thanks!
September 12th, 2008 at 10:49 AM
@Mukesh
Thanks for your generous comments and encouragement!!
September 21st, 2008 at 12:10 AM
DEAR FRIEND
I WANT TO TRAVEL THROUHOUT INDIA, ALONG WITH MY WIFE, FROM MARCH IST 2009 ONWARDS.MY PLANIS LIKE THIS
HYDERABAD STARTING
PURI
KOLKATA
DARJEELING
VARANASI
HARIDWAR RISHIKESH
KURUSHETRA
AMRITSAR
DELHI
AGRA
MADHURA
JAIPUR
JAISALMIR
UDAYPUR
NATDWARA
MUMBAI
MANGLORE
TRISOOR
COIMBATOTRE
PALANI
RAMESWARAM
TIRUCHENDUR
CHENNAI
HYDERABAD
I AM PLANING TO STAY FOR TWO DAYS AT EACH STOP MAKING ROUGHLY
45 TO 60 DAYS VISIT
AS I AM TRAVELING IN SUMMER I PREFER TO TRAVEL BY 3 AC
PLEASE SUGGEST ME THE SHORTEST ROUTE WITH TRAIN FACILITY
I PREFER TO TRAVEL BY NIGHT TRAINS WHEREVER POSSIBLE
AND PLEASE LET ME KNOW CAN I GET A CIRCULAR TICKET CONCESSION
THANKING YOU
PRASAD S S
September 22nd, 2008 at 11:09 AM
Dear Mr. Prasad,
Whoa! That’s quite a tour.
I suggest, you contact some local & good travel agent of your choice to do the bookings etc. That should be the best and easiest for you. You could also pick up a travel agent from this page (http://www.90di.com/travelagent/) if this has your city (If its Hyderabad, then we have it).
Before that: What you could do is try to create your itinerary using the “Plan My Trip” feature we have. Just go to our home page and click on “Plan My Trip”. You should be able to create your tour and also choose an available train of your choice for each of the legs of the journey. Even for some legs if it doesn;t show the correct train you can leave that journey leg half filled (i.e. without the train details) and your travel agent should be able to advise you regarding that.
Once you have planned it. You can email your itinerary to yourself (or your travel agent). You can save it Or take a printout of your tour.
PLEAS NOTE: You need to register with us first, before you can save/email your trip from the “Plan My Trip”. You can register by clicking on the “Register” link on the top right corner of our home page.
We can help you out with the planning part too. If you save your trip and mail it to our feedback@90di.com id.
Hope this is useful.
Have a nice trip!!
October 17th, 2008 at 9:15 AM
Excellent and very useful site.
October 17th, 2008 at 10:17 AM
Thanks Mr. Sastry!
October 20th, 2008 at 5:39 PM
Awesome site. Keep up the good work guys.
Please add Calicut (= Kozhikkode) to your database.
Thanks.
October 20th, 2008 at 5:55 PM
Thanks Niyaz! The alias of Kozhikode to Calicut is now created.
March 1st, 2009 at 6:24 AM
Bookmarked! I’ll be back, great job.
March 29th, 2009 at 10:03 PM
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader.
April 28th, 2009 at 3:14 AM
Look forward to reading more from you in the future,keep up the good work.
July 1st, 2009 at 3:45 PM
Dear Sir,
I want to travel from Chennai-New delhi-Kalka-Kullu-Manali-Rotonpaz. Kindly tell me the itenerary report. All these routes by train only. Kindly advice by my return mail.
thanks
Chandrika