Snippet · Building with models
Search by meaning
When keyword search misses the obvious answer.
Users search my <content> and keyword search misses results where they used different words. Roughly <n> items. Before building anything: at my size, would better keyword search fix this more cheaply? Say so if it would. If semantic search is right: - Where do the vectors live, given my scale — a dedicated store, or a column in my existing database? - What gets embedded: the whole item, or chunks? - Combining with keyword search, so exact matches still rank first. - Re-embedding when content changes, and the cost of that. Then: 20 real queries I should test before and after, so I can tell whether it actually improved.
Combine both. Pure semantic search famously fails on exact identifiers — product codes, names, error numbers — which keyword search gets right instantly.