Evermore

Do you ever get frustrated with your existing search app(s) because you can't view the results of multiple searches on a single map (e.g., display all the nearby quality restaurants *and* nearby Starbucks)? Or frustrated that you can't specify a specific location rather than something as amorphous as a city (e.g. show me everything near the local convention center)?

Evermore is a trip planning app which can create and execute multiple searches and present the results all on a single map. With this approach, the location of each result, relative to some point of interest, is immediately apparent. In Evermore, the map isn't just a way to present information -- it is the heart of the app. The map is a container into which you can progressively add more and more information. This makes it ideal for planning both short and long trips -- you can search for restaurants, museums, bars and gas stations all at once and figure out what you want to do based on their proximity to you and to each other.

Evermore is designed to provide an extremely intuitive interface for understanding and manipulating search results. Searches can be easily refined and repeated. You can drill down on search results, making it easy to get more information about a result, get directions to it or even make a phone call to it. Search types currently include Yelp and Contact searches (searches through your address book).

Using Evermore is easy. Just tap on the map to create one or more targets (areas where you'd like to have a search performed) and then click on a Search button to do a Yelp search or click on the Contacts button to do a search for your contacts. Evermore will then show you all the results within a short distance of each of the targets you provided.

For instance, let's say you are going to visit the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA. On Evermore's main screen you can tap on Moscone Center to create a target and then do separate searches for highly rated Mexican and Japanese restaurants. You can add a Contacts search to find people you know who live or work in the area. Evermore will display the results of all three searches together on the map, in the form of colored pins. With everything on a single map, it becomes extremely easy to see how far each item is from Moscone center and in which direction. Clicking on any of the pins allows you to drill down to the corresponding Yelp page or Contacts page and get more detailed information or take action from there.

Evermore also provides a separate List screen which displays the search results in a list format. This display is, however, far more than just a static list. Items in the list are ordered according to their proximity to your current location and the list is updated dynamically as you travel. At the end of each row is the current distance to the item as well as a color-coded arrow pointing in the physical direction of the item (green to indicate it is ahead of you, yellow to indicate it is somewhere nearby and red to indicate that you have passed it). The list is fully interactive -- you can click on any line to drill down for more information.

Extensive documentation, including tutorials, FAQ and a detailed reference section, is available at http://barryholroyd.com/android/apps/evermore/help.html. Please send all questions, requests, bug reports, complaints and general musings to me at [email protected] and I'll do my best to respond in a timely manner.