Relevant Search

Chapter 6. Term-centric search

This chapter covers

• Examining why field-centric search doesn’t capture naïve expectations
• Exploring cases in which your source data model confuses search users
• Comparing the pros and cons of term-centric methods
• Explaining the tension between term-centric and field-centric methods
• Combining users’ naïve search expectations with smarter capabilities

The previous chapter introduced you to signals and multifield search. Signals measure criteria such as “Is the search an exact title match?” or “Does the search mention a specific actor or director?” These sorts of signals depend on your ability to control querying and construct fields to model users’ intent. We called this process signal modeling. Once fields ...