iATN updates search engine

BREA, Calif. (Sept. 24, 2014) — The International Automotive Technicians Network (iATN) has revised its website search platform to make it easier for premium members to find real-world knowledge from service industry professionals.

Members exchange knowledge and help each other with automotive service issues 24 hours a day on iATN's TechHelp and Forums. The Knowledge Base houses this information in its TechHelp, Forum Archives and Waveform Library for members to access and use in their day-to-day business, iATN said.

The new search engine features:

• Search related vehicles. The system automatically groups all vehicles equipped with the same engine platform, eliminating the need to define a specific model year range. If the user is performing research on systems that are not limited to a specific engine, they can include all vehicles equipped with any of the available engines, or expand their search to other related vehicles.    
• Smart vehicle builder. Rather than selecting from a series of drop-down selections to build a vehicle, a user can type the vehicle just like they talk about it in the repair bay, for example, "07 F250" will immediately produce a list of 2007 Ford F-250 models to choose from, iATN said.
• Related DTCs. When initiating a search, the user will see a list of related items along the left pane, including a DTC list where the top 10 related DTCs appear. If a DTC is included in a search, the list automatically updates to show the number of records that have that DTC along with other DTCs reported.
• Supercharged search technology is provided by iATN's sister company, Identifix, and enables the search engine to adapt to misspellings and find documents based on auto terminology similar to the words typed by the user. For example, “misfire” will also match “misfires,” “miss,” “missing,” “misses,” “skipping,” and similar terms.

“Being able to quickly define a vehicle is a major time-saver. With a few keystrokes, a vehicle can be quickly defined, then one can simply type in a DTC, symptom, component, signal, etc. or select from any of the dynamically displayed attributes in the left pane. Since this search interface spans across all of iATN simultaneously, it increases the chances that you'll find something relevant to your interest,” said iATN President Scott Brown.

More information is available on the network's website.