Implementing Semantic Search in Postgres in 15 Minutes

Semantic search performs well at capturing documents keyword search misses. As noted in the article, when searching for exact keywords, keyword will outperform semantic search. It is when users do not know the exact phrase they are looking for that keyword search shines.

Semantic search should only be a part of your search system, not your entire search system. We find that combining keyword search + semantic search and then using a reranker gives the best results. It is best if the reranker is fine tuned on your search history, but general crossencoders perform surprisingly well.