Search now remembers you

Hello,

On 3 October 2026, I added memory to Highstreett's search, so when you're logged in it can draw on earlier recommendations as well as what you've logged.

I realised I'd forgotten to add this when I asked it to tell me a book it had recommended before, but which I hadn't logged. I could go back through my chat history and find it, but the agent didn't have access to that history when I started a new chat. A fairly obvious thing to have missed when you're trying to build something that gets to know you.

Before this, personalisation came from the places you'd tasted and reviewed, or for books, your shelf and ratings. If you hadn't logged a recommendation, the next chat started without it.

Now there's a record across your chats of the places and books it's shown you, what you were looking for at the time and any feedback you've given. A new chat starts with context about your recent picks, what you liked and what wasn't for you. You don't have to add something to your shelf just for it to remember showing it to you.

If, like me, you've been looking for books on British India, your shelf still matters. But there's also context from earlier recommendations, so when one comes up again it can remind you when and why it suggested it. You can tell it what landed through the feedback on place cards and the existing book ratings.

Within a chat, asking for more places also gives you new ones for that request. That works whether you're logged in or not; remembering across separate chats needs an account.

I'm also thinking about letting you personalise how it talks to you a bit. Things like how it greets you, whether you want a warmer response or something more blunt and straight to the point. I haven't built that yet, but I don't think everyone wants the same personality from something they're going to use regularly.

My goal is to create a digital friend who knows what you like and can help you find better picks while supporting local businesses. Remembering what it's already recommended feels like a fairly basic part of that. So this is a step towards it.

Try the search, and let me know how you get on.

Alex