Hi Team,
Was reading up on synonyms in this Hitchhikers module and noticed a few interesting things.
Pertaining to the title of this post specifically, one of the units (How Synonyms Work) laid out how synonyms work within the algorithm. In particular, it mentioned one of the steps the algorithm takes is to look for matches by searching across textSearch and NLP searchable fields. Does this mean that, if I’m using Document Search on the Body field for a Help Articles vertical, any synonyms I’ve configured won’t be taken into account unless I have another searchable field configured with either Text Search or NLP Filter?
Additionally, I think the module itself is somewhat confusing in how it presents the functionality of synonyms. In the “What are Synonnyms” track, it seems like synonyms are being described in the way that most clients (and myself until just recently) view them e.g., if you create a synonym set for A, B, and C, searches for A, B, and C will return the same results. However, this isn’t how synonyms are described in the following track, “How Synonyms Work”. In this track, it is explained that when the algorithm recognizes a synonym in a query, it performs an “Expanded Search” that searches on all defined terms. If I’m understanding this all correctly, I think that perhaps explaining this from the outset would improve the current understanding of synonyms for both clients and the Yext team in general.
Thanks,
Jon