Filtering, Hybrid Search, and Recall
Real search is never pure vector similarity. Users want "similar documents from this project, updated this year" and they expect an exact product code to match exactly. Combining similarity with metadata filters and keyword search — without wrecking recall — is where academic ANN meets production requirements, and it's harder than it looks.
Real search is never pure vector similarity. Users want 'similar documents from this project, updated this year' and expect an exact product code to match exactly — combining similarity with metadata filters and keyword search without wrecking recall is where ANN meets production.