[KongchangAI]
ConceptHybrid Search

Hybrid Search

A retrieval approach that combines keyword search and vector search, merging the results of both to compensate for the respective shortcomings of literal matching and semantic matching. It is generally more robust than either approach alone.

Core Facts

Timeline (last 90 days)

Oct 18

Hybrid search runs dense vector search and classic keyword search (BM25) simultaneously, and typically uses Reciprocal Rank Fusion to merge the results, with the fusion formula summing 1 / (k + rank) over each document's rank in each list.

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Oct 18

Hybrid search plus reranking is the upgrade every team pursuing better RAG should prioritize, rather than chasing fancier agent architectures.

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Oct 15

When the evaluation set shows that vocabulary-mismatch errors dominate, hybrid search (keyword plus vector) has sufficient justification, and the benefit can be quantified.

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All Facts (5)

Source Articles