Concept· 2 min
What is vector search?
Vector search finds items by meaning, not exact words — by comparing numeric embeddings.
Key idea
Text (or images, audio) is embedded into a high-dimensional vector. Similar meaning ⇒ vectors close in that space.
Example
Searching 'how to reset my password' matches 'forgot my login' because their embeddings are near each other.
What to remember
- Backbone of modern semantic search and RAG
- Common indexes: HNSW, IVF, ScaNN
- Combine with keyword (hybrid) search for best recall