There’s more to fuzzy search than correcting typos | Algolia | Algolia

Fuzzy search is a technique used in search engines to match words that do not exactly match the query, such as misspellings or typos. It enhances relevance and improves overall user experience by correcting poorly formulated queries, recognizing colloquial vocabulary, expanding prefixes, and building loose category relationships between a query and the content being searched. Fuzzy matching involves approximate string matching, typo tolerance, synonyms, prefix matching, filtering, optional filtering, and filter scoring. While powerful, fuzzy logic may return too many results or unexpected ones; therefore, search engines prioritize exact matches over fuzzy ones to maintain relevance for users.