Company name search returning unexpected results

Hi,

We’re using SOAP and this API - http://xmlgw.companieshouse.gov.uk/v1-0/schema - NameSearch, and CHMD5 authentication, asking for 50 SearchRows.

We search for Companies by entering the Company Name and then calling the API. This has worked for years, however over the last few weeks we’ve noticed different behaviour. We’ve made no changes on our side and therefore assume that there’s been a change on the Companies House side?

For example previously we would search for ‘APPLE’ and at the top of the list would be ‘APPLE LTD’, then other companies that match ‘APPLE’, then companies that closely relate to the name ‘APPLE’.

Now we’re seeing results for anything BUT ‘APPLE’. For example we complete the same search, but now we see; ‘APPLAUSE MEDIA LIMITED’ and other items that match the first 4 letters of ‘APPL’, but never retrieve ‘APPLE’ in the results…