Search Tools
The City's search tools are the first public-facing products developed through its software development initiative. SandySpringsGA.gov offers a unified search experience that includes two search tools.
Instant Search
Experience fast, real-time results with Instant Search, the default search tool for the Sandy Springs website. In addition to its speed, Instant Search includes filters that help narrow results and make it easier to find information.
Best for: Casual users who need fast results.
How It Works: When you visit the Sandy Springs website, website content is preloaded into your browser's cache and made ready for searching. This allows search queries to return results immediately without requiring a request to the City's servers. This approach provides a modern and efficient experience for medium-sized websites.
Current Build: 1.0 (released August 14, 2023)
Deep Search
Deep Search is designed for users who want to explore City information in greater detail. It currently provides two primary functions:
- Searching within documents hosted on the City's website
- Searching external datasets located in third-party repositories
Deep Search currently indexes agenda items and related documents from the City's third-party public meeting repository. The long-term goal is to expand the number of available datasets so Deep Search can serve as a unified search experience for all public City information.
Best for: Power users and researchers looking to explore City records in depth.
How It Works: The City's Unified Platform is a custom-developed data repository that aggregates information from multiple sources and distributes it to websites, digital signage, and search tools. Every hour, the Unified Platform retrieves information from external databases and builds a metadata table used by Deep Search.
To create a comprehensive search experience, Deep Search combines multiple data sources into a unified reference table. When a user performs a search, Deep Search queries this reference table and links users back to the original source of the information.
What's Next: The next major Deep Search update will integrate Instant Search data into the Deep Search database. This will allow Deep Search to function as a single search tool for all currently available datasets.
While Deep Search will not operate as quickly as Instant Search, it will provide significantly broader access to information for users conducting advanced research.
Once all currently accessible data is available through Deep Search, the City plans to expand the user experience further and evaluate additional public data sources for inclusion.
Current Build: 0.3.1 Beta (released August 14, 2025) | Deep Search Release Notes
Accessing the Search Tools
To use the search tools, select the search icon (magnifying glass) at the top of the screen.
Search Tool User Feedback
If you have questions about the search tools or would like to share suggestions for future improvements, please email Jason Green.