Video and slides synchronized, mp3 and slide download available at URL http://bit.ly/2juApkk.
Daniel Tunkelang talks about what search looks like when viewed through a query understanding mindset. He focuses on query performance prediction, query rewriting, and search suggestions. Filmed at qconsf.com.
Daniel Tunkelang is a data science and engineering executive who has built and led some of the strongest teams in the software industry. He's currently working on a stealth startup while advising various companies on search and discovery. Previously, he worked for Endeca as a chief scientist, led a local search team at Google and was director of data science and engineering at LinkedIn.
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query-manifesto
3. Purpose of QCon
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Strategy
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Highlights
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Presented at QCon San Francisco
www.qconsf.com
4. Overview
• What is query understanding?
• Query performance prediction.
• Query rewriting.
• Query suggestions.
• Search is a conversation.
tl;dr: Query understanding is about focusing
less on the results and more on the query.
21. So you have a poorly performing query. Now what?
Rewrite it!
22. Rewriting to improve precision:
query segmentation, field restriction, query classification.
tag: skill OR title
related skills:
search, ranking, …
tag: company
id: 1337
industry: internet
verticals:
people, jobs
intent: exploratory
28. Searchers are people. People are lazy.
All else equal, help them type as little as possible.
29. But don’t let searchers be too lazy!
It’s easy to create miscommunication.
30. Search suggestions offer strong information scent.
But searcher may not recognize query ambiguity.
31. Reduce the likelihood of a bait-and-switch:
only offer high-performance search suggestions.
32. Should you score search suggestions based
on total engagement or query performance?
33. Total engagement is the value delivered by search.
But low query performance means unhappy users.
34. Can combine as single utility function. Or score using total
engagement but require minimum query performance.
35. Finally, let’s remember that search is more than
a single query and response. It’s a conversation.
36. Don’t focus so much on single-query performance
that you forget to optimize for the overall journey.
37. The best journey is a sequence of small successes.
Not a sequence of frustrations followed by success.
38. Summary
• Query understanding means figuring out what the
searcher wants.
• Measure and optimize for query performance.
• Use query rewriting to improve precision and recall,
in order to improve query performance.
• Query suggestions have two jobs: reduce searcher effort
and improve query performance.
• Search is a conversation.
tl;dr: Query understanding is about focusing
less on the results and more on the query.