Search experience in Elastic before vectors

Before the introduction of vector search in Elastic, the primary relevancy model was based on text search and analysis capabilities. Elasticsearch provides various data types (https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/mapping-types.html) and analyzers (https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/analysis-analyzers.html) to provide efficient search. In this part, we will level-set and make sure we all have an understanding of what the “before state” looks like.

Data type and its impact on relevancy

There are various data types in Elasticsearch, but for the purpose of this part, it wouldn’t be useful to go through them one by one. Instead, we will divide them into two categories: the type that directly drives the relevancy ranking and the types that indirectly influence the ranking. The goal is to understand how they are related to relevancy models.

The first type that...