How Discover Works
Human Guide · v1.0
What happens when you search on Discover — and what the labels on the screen actually mean. This is a plain-language guide. The institutional rules live in NoFakeBiz Discovery Principles.
One ordinary search
Imagine you are in St. Joseph County, Indiana, and you type truck repair into Discover.
Discover is NoFakeBiz’s own place to find public presence nearby — who is listed, what they say they do, and why they matched what you typed. It is not trying to crown one “best” shop for you.
Place comes first
Before Discover shows matches for “truck repair,” it needs a place. In the United States MVP, that place is a county.
If you have not chosen a place yet, you will see something like Select a place first. Your search text is kept while you set the place — choosing St. Joseph County scopes the search; it does not throw away “truck repair.”
Discover does not quietly open the whole country (or the whole world) when location is missing. Local first is intentional.
What a match is
Once the county is set, Discover looks for eligible public identities in that place whose public information supports what you searched for — for example, a Business whose public name, category, or description relates to truck repair.
You are looking at public layers people chose to present — not their private account settings. A result is a public presence you can open and judge, not a private dossier.
Why matched
On each result card, Why matched should tell you, in plain terms, what evidence connected that identity to “truck repair” — for example, that its category or description supports what you searched for.
That evidence comes from the public identity itself. It is not a vague “our algorithm thinks this is best,” and it is not the same thing as a government filing or a trust score.
Order on the screen
Results follow a labeled sort you can change (for example, by name). The chrome on the page reminds you: the first card on page 1 is not an institutional “best truck repair in the county.”
Sort helps you browse qualifying matches. Position one is not a winner’s podium.
Provenance
Provenance answers a different question from Why matched: where does this claim come from?
Often that is something like a self-described public profile — useful context when you decide whom to contact. Provenance is not the same as “verified trustworthy,” and it does not, by itself, decide who appears higher in the list.
Filters
After matches appear, you can use available filters to narrow what you see. Filters trim the matched set according to choices you make; they do not secretly rewrite the county or invent a new ranking of winners.
When the list is empty
“No matches for truck repair in this county” means something different from “this county has thin coverage on NoFakeBiz,” and both are different from “you have not selected a place yet.”
An empty Discover list is not a map of the whole real world. It is an honest report of what is findable on NoFakeBiz for that query in that place.
Expand nearby counties
If you want a wider look, Discover can offer Expand nearby counties — an explicit one-step widen you choose.
The map does not silently grow behind your back. You can also go back to the single county when you want a tighter scope again.
Sponsored is not organic
Paying NoFakeBiz does not buy a higher place in ordinary Discover results, and does not buy the right to look like an ordinary organic match.
If a paid placement ever appears near Discover results, it must be clearly labeled Sponsored. That label means paid placement — not “recommended,” not “best,” and not the same as an organic Why matched result.
Verified facts or other provenance information, when present, are also separate: they are not an entrance fee just to appear as an eligible organic result, and they are not a secret boost that invents winners.
Discover is not Marketplace
Discover helps you find public presence that matches a question in a place. Marketplace is a different door — commercial listings and exchange. Even if related information shows up in both places later, they are not the same product.
Where the rules live
This guide explains what you see. The durable institutional commitment is NoFakeBiz Discovery Principles. If product behaviour contradicts those principles, that is a defect — not a ranking experiment that “just didn’t work out.”