Company
Date Published
Author
Aditi Ahuja, Software Engineer
Word count
1386
Language
English
Hacker News points
None

Summary

Semantic search needs selectivity to improve its effectiveness. Traditional vector similarity search is limited by the need for exact predicates, whereas pre-filtering allows users to specify filter queries as part of the kNN attribute in the query, restricting the documents over which a kNN search will be performed. This enables users to limit their search to specific locations or criteria, such as city fields, and improves the accuracy of search results. Pre-filtering works by first filtering out documents that do not match the specified filter queries at a segment level, and then performing a kNN search on the remaining eligible documents. This approach allows for more efficient searching and better recall rates, making it an important development in semantic search technology.