The autocomplete that couldn't finish a word
· 4 min read
We turned the demo into a real geocoder. You type an address and get a rooftop coordinate, computed in your browser without a server. The last feature was autocomplete. It completes the city name while you type. We had shipped autocomplete as a command-line tool days earlier and seen it rank San Francisco above San Diego, so we considered it done. We connected the same function to the search box, typed New Yor, and it suggested Denver.
This raised three questions. Why does a function that handles San correctly fail on New Yor? How does completing a word differ from completing the word a person is still typing? How does an autocomplete that knows ten thousand cities fail to complete one of them?