Global Search Tuning (Doc ID 1039991.1)

Last updated on AUGUST 18, 2022

Applies to:

Symptoms

The OOB dictionary rules work very well to bring back articles for user questions.  However in some situations custom rules or concepts need to be added to give scoring weight to specific results.  This is called dictionary tuning.  Only 10 results are returned for each question, however there are many more results that may not be not ranking the way you want. Some things to investigate:

--Can you facet/filter to the result?

--Can you see the result in your testdrive testing?

OOB the product works very well to match terms. But the product scores things by concepts.
When you use business terms in your search you want these terms to score high...so they come to the top and are weighted the most.
These concepts need to be created. If all terms are scored high as concepts then all terms are of equal in value. You want to save high scoring terms as our most important business words.
Rules can also be used to create certain results in specific situations.  But rules can also dilute the system and dont always give you the impact you expect.
Generally when results are not as you want them it is because something else is scoring higher or a rule is changing the answers.

The dictionary tool and testdrive are for the purpose of tuning.
Here are your resources for tuning:
1. The documentation under Inquira Search: https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E38110_03/index.htm
There is the Language Reference Guide, Language Tuning Guide, Optimizing Intelligent Search
2. KMs that have been written on the various parts of tuning. The main ones I have already attached. But there are more on boost rules and different concept ideas etc.
3. There is an Oracle Class for the people at your business that will be doing tuning. This class is very good and highly recommended. I have taken it a couple times over the years.
4. Professional services. There are skills both inside and outside oracle in this area.
NOT support, we dont handle these types of questions.

This question of why are my results not the way that I want them is like saying why is my code not working. This is the debugging a dictionary person does.  There is a specific Oracle University class to learn to do this tuning.  Support does not assist in tuning.  If you think something is working incorrectly then we assist with that, but you need to understand what is not working the way you think it should.

Changes

Some general guidelines are:

Here are some tips and guidelines about asking questions and getting answers from a OK language specialist:

-- Enter complete questions in your own words. For example: What [ProductType] has a [FeatureType]?
-- If you are interested in a particular [ProductModel] or [FeatureModel], include that information in your question to get the most precise results. For example:
Does the [ProductModel] come with a [FeatureModel]?
-- Make your question concise. Simple directed questions work better than complex or multi-part questions. For example:
Is the [ProductModel] [RelevantQuality]?
or
Do you have a [ProductType] for [PriceValue]?
-- Use correct spelling and grammar to get the most accurate answers. Correct capitalization is not required, but can sometimes help to locate names and acronyms.
-- Boolean operators are not necessary. Many search engines use words and symbols (such as AND, NOT, +, and -) as logical operators to define complex searches. [ApplicationName] does not rely on logical operators to construct search queries, but treats these words as ordinary parts of the question.

Cause

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