RSS Parrot

Can agents replace the search stack?

http://softwaredoug.com/blog/2026/04/28/search-apis-replaced-by-agents.html

Published: April 28, 2026 00:00

Instead of deploying the traditional query understanding + reranking combo, can we let an agent do all the work?

Metadata: the 3rd kind of retrieval

http://softwaredoug.com/blog/2026/04/21/metadata-the-3rd-kind-of-retrieval.html

Published: April 21, 2026 12:15

In search we talk about lexical embedding retrieval But we miss another retrieval philosophy metadata And with LLMs its never...

What is psuedo-relevance feedback?

http://softwaredoug.com/blog/2026/04/13/what-is-psuedo-relevance-feedback.html

Published: April 13, 2026 12:15

After retrieving BM25 or any ranked search results you might not realize it but you have new information about the...

Is grep all you need for RAG?

http://softwaredoug.com/blog/2026/04/06/agentic-search-is-having-a-grep-moment.html

Published: April 6, 2026 12:15

With enough work you can build a search system with just grep. But it’s not for the faint of heart.

Stop evaluating search with queries

http://softwaredoug.com/blog/2026/03/30/session-vs-query-based-search-evals.html

Published: March 30, 2026 13:56

To evaluate search we typically build a judgment list We transform clickstream data into evaluation data This labels a result...

Agents put the Resilient in RAG

http://softwaredoug.com/blog/2026/03/26/classic-rag-s-achilles-heel-lack-of-resilience.html

Published: March 26, 2026 12:15

Classic RAG expects a linear process 1 An LLM translates the user’s prompt into a query 2 We search on...

We can learn from this late interaction win

http://softwaredoug.com/blog/2026/03/23/we-can-learn-from-this-late-interaction-win.html

Published: March 23, 2026 12:15

Late interaction is having a moment The team at LightOn including superstar developer Antoine Chaffin has demonstrated how a 150M...

How to actually choose a retrieval engine

http://softwaredoug.com/blog/2026/03/20/how-to-actually-choose-a-retrieval-engine.html

Published: March 20, 2026 12:15

How do teams choose vector databases search engines People wrack their brains between Elasticsearch OpenSearch Solr Vespa Pinecone Turbopuffer Weaviate...

Content understanding IS Query understanding

http://softwaredoug.com/blog/2026/03/18/content-understanding-is-query-understanding.html

Published: March 18, 2026 12:15

A user searches for red shoes they click on some products Now you have a set of relevant products Great...

Bayesian BM25 is cool

http://softwaredoug.com/blog/2026/03/16/bayesian-bm25-is-cool.html

Published: March 16, 2026 12:15

Look at this math and grasp at its majesty P(R) = prob(embeddings) * prod(lexical)

Vector search means query understanding!?

http://softwaredoug.com/blog/2026/03/13/vector-search-means-query-understanding.html

Published: March 13, 2026 12:15

Good vector search means more than embeddings Embeddings don’t know when a result matches doesn’t match Similarity floors don’t work...