Database vs. Text Search

Traditional Database Search
- Number-oriented: trouble with multi-word searches, especially phrases, Boolean "And", etc. which are incredibly slow.
- Field Limitations: must request all appropriate fields, which may be slow
- No relevance ranking: results sorted by date, price, product ID, but not similarity to search query.
- Other assumptions (e.g. blank search = get everything)
Text Search
- Search functions: all the search features, including phrases, Booleans, synonyms
- Grouping Fields: each record is indexed with all fields together
- Relevance Ranking: sorting results according to which record is most likely to be useful for this search

Traditional Database Search