Release Note

New search algorithm - a solid foundation for the future

Related products: Navigation and Search
New search algorithm - a solid foundation for the future

New year, new search algorithm. We’re excited to release a new search algorithm for Guru. It’s a change you won't see, but you should feel. This algorithm sets the stage for us to build and iterate on search faster than ever before, and paves the way for us to roll out some exciting new machine learning components that we can’t wait for you to see.

 

Specific enhancements that accompany this new algorithm include:

  • Improvements to how Guru search handles punctuation and spaces between words. Guru isn’t the grammar police (that’s a different green G 👀) but previously, many grammar issues could interfere with your search results. You shouldn’t have to worry about whether it’s self serve or self-serve when looking for resources in Guru. Spaces or hyphens aside, we get what you mean.
  • A new method for determining how to weigh different inputs when determining Card relevance. Inputs like Card usage or where in a Card a match was found inform a Card’s relevance – aka where it appears on the search results page. Adding a new method for weighing these inputs makes it easier for Guru to set the right balance for search result relevance as it takes more and more data into consideration. (Psst! If this sounds super interesting to you, you have something in common with our Data Scientists! Watch Nina and Jenna talk about this cool new technique at the 2021 Haystack Search Relevance Conference to learn more.)
  • A new synonym architecture. Speaking of grammar, we took this opportunity to re-think how Guru supports identifying synonyms and have given ourselves a new structure that makes it easier for us to iteratively improve this part of search in the future.
  • And most importantly, support for new machine learning components. This new algorithm will make it easier for us to build new search elements into Guru, particularly components that get at the meaning of your search, more so than the individual words. More on this soon!

 

We hope this algorithm update improves your search experience in Guru. If you don’t notice a difference, that means the algorithm is doing its thing. We’ll keep you posted on our next round of updates! Happy searching :)

Love learning about what you’re doing with the search algorithm & lol’ing at “a different G👀@Tim Subealdea this will help with the Check-in searches + I think you’ll enjoy the attached video! Also @Laura Desmond-Black to clarify is this improvement for all special characters in titles?


Hi @Lindsey Hart! Glad to hear this may help with a particular issue your team has had. I can’t take credit for the “different green G,” that is the genius of @Chandler Sopko from our Product Marketing team :slight_smile:

The improvement related to delimiters also applies to most special characters (for example @, #, !, $) and it applies to all parts of a Card that Guru searches: titles, tags, attachments, and content.