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Coffee, Coffee, Coffee!
From The Noisy Channel

Coffee, Coffee, Coffee!

In 1984, Robin Williams starred in Moscow on the Hudson as a Russian saxophonist who decides to defect from the USSR during a shopping trip to a New York department...

Learning from Friction to Improve the Search Experience
From The Noisy Channel

Learning from Friction to Improve the Search Experience

When we design search applications, we aspire to make the user experience frictionless. A search engine should “just work”, enabling searchers to easily express...

Thanks. And sorry that slide was cryptically brief.
From The Noisy Channel

Thanks. And sorry that slide was cryptically brief.

Thanks. And sorry that slide was cryptically brief. What I mean is that spelling correction should not restrict itself to correcting each token separately. Many...

In this case, I’m imagining that the only match of the string “black” against one of the attributes…
From The Noisy Channel

In this case, I’m imagining that the only match of the string “black” against one of the attributes…

In this case, I’m imagining that the only match of the string “black” against one of the attributes is for the “color” attribute. If the string matches multiple...

The typical integration approach I’ve seen is to use a separate query rewriting service that then…
From The Noisy Channel

The typical integration approach I’ve seen is to use a separate query rewriting service that then…

The typical integration approach I’ve seen is to use a separate query rewriting service that then either filter the Solr query to the preferred categories / attributes...

If the results for two queries expressing the same intent are similar, then they should map to…
From The Noisy Channel

If the results for two queries expressing the same intent are similar, then they should map to…

If the results for two queries expressing the same intent are similar, then they should map to similar vectors. If not, then it’s more complicated. You might still...

Indeed, the devil is in the details, But I can tell you that I’ve successfully used this idea to…
From The Noisy Channel

Indeed, the devil is in the details, But I can tell you that I’ve successfully used this idea to…

Indeed, the devil is in the details, But I can tell you that I’ve successfully used this idea to drive lift for my clients, and I recommend exploring it.

As I suggested in the post, you can use the embeddings of result titles for the results searchers…
From The Noisy Channel

As I suggested in the post, you can use the embeddings of result titles for the results searchers…

As I suggested in the post, you can use the embeddings of result titles for the results searchers engage with when they perform the query. I realize that the devil...

I’ve written a few posts that at least touch on voice interfaces:
From The Noisy Channel

I’ve written a few posts that at least touch on voice interfaces:

I’ve written a few posts that at least touch on voice interfaces: Query Understanding and Voice Interfaces Why Voice isn’t Selling…Yet Query Understanding and Chatbots...

Search Queries and Search Intent
From The Noisy Channel

Search Queries and Search Intent

Mapping Search Queries To Search IntentsEvaluating and improving search experience starts with analyzing the queries searchers are making. But search queries are...

MMM, Search!
From The Noisy Channel

MMM, Search!

This morning, I had the pleasure of being hosted by Grant Ingersoll to talk about search with his team at the Wikimedia Foundation.Wikipedia is an indispensable...

Opportunity Analysis for Search
From The Noisy Channel

Opportunity Analysis for Search

I’m a big fan of opportunity analysis. I’ve seen far too many organizations underinvest in opportunity analysis and thus waste enormous — and avoidable — effort...

Thank you for the kind words!
From The Noisy Channel

Thank you for the kind words!

Thank you for the kind words!If I follow you, then you are pointing out that, by generating revenue through promoted search, a business can funnel that revenue...

Promoted Search: A Follow-Up
From The Noisy Channel

Promoted Search: A Follow-Up

My post on promoted search results drew some pointed feedback. People asked me what kind of promoted search behavior I deem acceptable, as well as whether I saw...

Thoughts on Promoted Search Results
From The Noisy Channel

Thoughts on Promoted Search Results

I’m not a fan of ads. So you might expect me to be violently opposed to promoted search results — search engine results that are optimized for something other than...

When There’s No Conversion Rate
From The Noisy Channel

When There’s No Conversion Rate

If your business depends on search, it’s critical to track search effectiveness using an evaluation methodology. In my experience, most organizations rely on implicit...

Measuring Search Effectiveness
From The Noisy Channel

Measuring Search Effectiveness

Delivering effective search starts with defining how to measure effectiveness.The information retrieval community has been evaluating search for decades. Established...

Defining relevance is a topic in its own right.
From The Noisy Channel

Defining relevance is a topic in its own right.

Defining relevance is a topic in its own right. You typically collect either explicit human judgments or implicit judgements from behavior, and then you use those...

Supporting the Searcher’s Journey: When and How
From The Noisy Channel

Supporting the Searcher’s Journey: When and How

Sometimes, search is simple. The searcher types a few words into the search box, retrieves a ranked list of results, and selects the right one. Easy peasy.Other...

I think the even more interesting case for using supply or demand is where supply vastly outstrips…
From The Noisy Channel

I think the even more interesting case for using supply or demand is where supply vastly outstrips…

I think the even more interesting case for using supply or demand is where supply vastly outstrips demand and most intents are in the tail, e.g., searching through...
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