** Search Technology Evolves: Lexical and Semantic Search Explained
Search technology has advanced beyond simple keyword matching, introducing two distinct approaches: lexical search and semantic search. Lexical search focuses on exact word or phrase matching, excelling in structured databases or documents with well-defined terminology. Its main advantage is speed and precision.
On the other hand, semantic search leverages sophisticated computing techniques to understand intent and contextual meaning behind a query. It uses techniques like word representations and knowledge networks to capture relationships between concepts. Semantic search is particularly powerful for handling natural language queries and understanding conceptual relationships.
Both approaches have their strengths and limitations. Lexical search excels in speed and precision when dealing with specific terms or structured data, while semantic search shines in handling natural language queries, understanding context, and exploring related concepts. Many modern applications benefit from combining both methods to leverage the best of each approach.
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