When you're using vectors you're doing search

The blog post discusses the evolution and challenges of using vector databases for search, emphasizing that while vectors are often used to enhance data retrieval, reliance solely on vector-based search is insufficient. It highlights the superiority of hybrid search approaches that combine lexical and vector similarity for better results, particularly in text search, and underscores the importance of combining various signals, including structured data and text matching, into a comprehensive ranking score. The post argues against a divided approach to handling search tasks due to scalability issues and advocates for a unified platform that integrates all necessary components to efficiently manage and deploy search applications, which is the rationale behind the design of the Vespa platform.