Skip to content

Commit 52e9956

Browse files
committed
rephrase relevance tuning
1 parent 616be8b commit 52e9956

File tree

1 file changed

+6
-3
lines changed

1 file changed

+6
-3
lines changed

articles/search/search-relevance-overview.md

Lines changed: 6 additions & 3 deletions
Original file line numberDiff line numberDiff line change
@@ -13,11 +13,14 @@ ms.date: 07/23/2025
1313

1414
# Relevance in Azure AI Search
1515

16-
In a query operation, the relevance of any given result is measured by a ranking algorithm that determines the strength of a match based on how closely the result aligns with the query’s content or characteristics. An algorithm assigns a score, and results are rank ordered by that score, with the most relevant matches returned in the response.
16+
In a query operation, the relevance of any given result is determined by a ranking algorithm that evaluates the strength of a match based on how closely the indexed content and the query align. An algorithm assigns a score, and results are ranked by that score and returned in the response.
1717

1818
Ranking occurs whenever the query request includes full text or vector queries. It doesn't occur if the query invokes strict pattern matching, such as a filter-only query or a specialized query form like autocomplete, suggestions, geospatial search, fuzzy search, or regular expression search. A uniform search score of 1.0 indicates the absence of a ranking algorithm.
1919

20-
***Relevance tuning*** is primarily directed at textual content, applying scoring profiles or semantic ranking to enhance the quality of search results. For vector content, there's no explicit relevance tuning capabilities, but you can experiment between Hierarchical Navigable Small World (HNSW) and exhaustive K-nearest neighbors (KNN) to see if one algorithm outperforms the other for your scenario. HNSW graphing with an exhaustive KNN override at query time is the most flexible approach for comparison testing. You can also experiment with various embedding models to see which ones produce higher quality results.
20+
You can enhance the quality of ranked results through ***relevance tuning*** that boosts search scores based on extra criteria or analysis. In Azure AI Search, relevance tuning is primarily directed at textual and numeric (nonvector) content when you apply a [scoring profile](#custom-boosting-logic-using-scoring-profiles) or invoke the [semantic ranker](semantic-search-overview.md).
21+
22+
> [!NOTE]
23+
> In Azure AI Search, there's no explicit relevance tuning capabilities for vector content, but you can experiment between Hierarchical Navigable Small World (HNSW) and exhaustive K-nearest neighbors (KNN) to see if one algorithm outperforms the other for your scenario. HNSW graphing with an exhaustive KNN override at query time is the most flexible approach for comparison testing. You can also experiment with various embedding models to see which ones produce higher quality results.
2124
2225
## Levels of ranking
2326

@@ -33,7 +36,7 @@ This section describes the levels of scoring operations. For an illustration of
3336

3437
## Custom boosting logic using scoring profiles
3538

36-
[Scoring profiles](index-add-scoring-profiles.md) are an optional feature for boosting scores based on extra user-defined criteria. Criteria can include weighted fields, or functions that boost by freshness, proximity, magnitude, or range. There's no extra charge for using a scoring profile. To use a scoring profile, you define it in an index and then specify it on a query.
39+
[Scoring profiles](index-add-scoring-profiles.md) are an optional feature for boosting scores based on extra user-defined criteria. Criteria can include weighted fields where a match found in a specific field is given more weight than the same match found in a different field. Criteria can also be defined through functions that boost by freshness, proximity, magnitude, or range. There's no extra costs associated with scoring profiles. To use a scoring profile, you define it in an index and then specify it on a query.
3740

3841
Scoring logic applies to text and numeric nonvector content. You can use scoring profiles with:
3942

0 commit comments

Comments
 (0)