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Same memory, two searches
Each row types the same words into the prototype's plain-search baseline and into Retrace, live, in this page. The target is the photo the person was trying to find.
| The photo | What they typed | Plain search prototype baseline | Retrace | Why the difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Freshers' party, first year of college | "party 2018" Typed by a survey respondent, word for word | ✗ Not found in 1 result | Working out when... | |
 Doctor's prescription Mom photographed during dengue | "prescription when I was sick" The brief's own example | ✓ Found: #3 of 4 | Working out when... | |
 The mandap at night, sent later by a cousin | "Riya wedding night 2023" Photos forwarded on WhatsApp keep the arrival date | ✗ Not found in 1 result | Working out when... | |
 Beach café on the Goa trip, year misremembered | "goa cafe sunset 2019" 7 of 21 survey photos showed a different year | ✗ Not found in 2 results | Working out when... | |
Same mandap, when you know the exact word | "mandap" Control: keyword search works when the word is known | ✓ Found: #2 of 6 | Working out when... |
Why this matters
- The clue people hold is the moment, and the date is often wrong. In our survey, 7 of 21 found photos showed a different year from the one remembered; in 4 the person could not tell whether their memory or the app was wrong (n = 30, self-reported). Public posts about wrong dates: 28 of 126 forum posts vs 21 of 255 Play Store reviews.
- Current photo search is primarily designed to search the timeline your library already has. Photos copied from an old phone or saved from WhatsApp can end up filed under the day they arrived. Current tools let you correct timestamps by hand, including in batches, but they generally require you to already know which photos are wrong and what the correct date should be.
- Retrace is designed to question that timeline when other evidence suggests it may be wrong (your life moments, your Google account, the file itself), and to repair it for good.
Keyword search here is a stand-in that matches labels, people, text in images, places and the stored year. A sentence-understanding search such as Ask Photos would read "when I was sick" better, but the photos filed under the wrong date would still sit outside the year being searched.