The advent of the AI has brought about a sea change in how we do tasks. While keyword search ruled the roost in the past, it is now falling behind to quick, snappy AI search which takes up less of the user’s time.
This is a very important lesson to keep in mind if you are running an e-commerce business. A user-friendly search in a website can help businesses to offer better user experience to their customers and thus increasing their sales.
It is crucial to understand the differences between a keyword search and AI search as the two can often be confused.
Here are some of the fundamental differences between a keyword search and an AI search:
- Keyword search works based on the keywords in the query. AI search works based on natural language processing (NLP) techniques.
- The result of keyword queries is the set of documents containing at least one of the words of the query. AI search queries return results matching user’s intent.
Here is a list of examples that aims to help you distinguish the two.
1. Find upcoming games
Search miami heat games
Keyword search results:
1. MIAMI HEAT RED, WHITE & PINK GAME Basketball
AI search results:
1. Miami Heat at Philadelphia 76ers | FEB 21 Thu 7:00p 2. Toronto Raptors vs. Miami Heat | APR 7 Sun 12:00p 3. MIAMI HEAT RED, WHITE & PINK GAME
As you can see, keyword search contains results with all the words in the query while AI search results match users intent to find Miami heat of NBA games.
2. Find games in the city
Search nba in miami
Keyword search results:
1. FEB 28 Thu 7:00p / Houston, TX - Toyota Center - TX / Miami HEAT at Houston Rockets 2. MAR 23 Sat 7:00p / Washington, DC - Capital One Arena / Washington Wizards vs. Miami Heat 3. MAR 30 Sat 7:30p / New York, NY - Madison Square Garden / New York Knicks vs. Miami Heat 4. APR 1 Mon 7:30p / Boston, MA - TD Garden / Boston Celtics vs. Miami Heat 5. MAR 13 Wed 7:00p / Detroit, MI - Sound Board at MotorCity Casino Hotel / Detroit Pistons v. Miami Heat Viewing Party 6. MAR 22 Fri 7:30p / Milwaukee, WI - Fiserv Forum / Milwaukee Bucks vs. Miami Heat 7. MAR 10 Sun 3:30p / Miami, FL - AmericanAirlines Arena / Miami Heat vs. Toronto Raptors
AI search results:
1. MAR 10 Sun 3:30p / Miami, FL - AmericanAirlines Arena / Miami Heat vs. Toronto Raptors
It is evident from the above results that keyword search displayed results matching keyword “miami” whereas AI search results contains NBA games played in the city Miami.
3. Find home games
Search nba home games
Keyword search results:
Sorry, we found no matches for "nba home games"
AI search results:
1. MAR 10 Sun 3:30p / Miami, FL - AmericanAirlines Arena / Miami Heat vs. Toronto Raptors
The keyword search above could not find any matches. But AI search found the nba games played in user’s home city, Miami, FL.
4. Find games next week
Search miami heat games next week
Assuming we are searching on Feb 22nd, 2019. Keyword search results:
1. FEB 28 Thu 7:00p / Houston, TX - Toyota Center - TX / Miami HEAT at Houston Rockets 2. MAR 23 Sat 7:00p / Washington, DC - Capital One Arena / Washington Wizards vs. Miami Heat 3. MAR 30 Sat 7:30p / New York, NY - Madison Square Garden / New York Knicks vs. Miami Heat 4. APR 1 Mon 7:30p / Boston, MA - TD Garden / Boston Celtics vs. Miami Heat
AI search results:
5. FEB 28 Thu 7:00p / Houston, TX - Toyota Center - TX / Miami HEAT at Houston Rockets
Here Keyword search found all the Miami heat games, whereas AI search came to the rescue. It found the games played by Miami heat of NBA next week.
5. Find events in a venue
Search events in American airlines arena
Keyword search results:
Venue: AmericanAirlines Arena Miami, FL
AI search results:
1. FEB 14 Thu 8:00p / Andrea Bocelli Classical / Classical / AmericanAirlines Arena Miami, FL 2. FEB 14 Thu 8:00p / Andrea Bocelli - Xfinity East Plaza Simulcast / Classical / AmericanAirlines Arena Miami, FL 3. FEB 21 Thu 8:00p / Premio Lo Nuestro presented by T-Mobile World / AmericanAirlines Arena Miami, FL 4. FEB 23 Sat 7:30p / Miami Heat vs. Detroit Pistons / Basketball/ AmericanAirlines Arena Miami, FL 5. FEB 25 Mon 7:30p / Miami Heat vs. Phoenix Suns / Basketball/ AmericanAirlines Arena Miami, FL
The results above vary in the type of returned documents and you can clearly see keyword search found a venue while AI search found the events in the venue, American airlines arena.
6. Find games to buy tickets
Search 2 tickets for miami heat game
Keyword search results:
1. FEB 23 Sat 7:30p / Miami, FL - AmericanAirlines Arena / Miami Heat vs. Detroit Pistons / Sold out 2. FEB 28 Thu 7:00p / Houston, TX - Toyota Center / Miami HEAT at Houston Rockets / Tickets available 3. MAR 10 Sun 3:30p / Miami, FL - AmericanAirlines Arena / Miami Heat vs. Toronto Raptors / Tickets available
AI search results:
1. MAR 10 Sun 3:30p / Miami, FL - AmericanAirlines Arena / Miami Heat vs. Toronto Raptors / Tickets available
As you can see keyword search found all the miami heat games, while, AI search found games matching user’s intent to buy 2 tickets for a miami heat of NBA game played in user’s home city, Miami, FL. Also, AI search didn’t show sold-out or away games.
7. Find tickets for a music concert
Search Backstreet boys concert in feb for 6
Keyword search results:
1. AUG 23 Fri 8:00p / Sunrise, FL - BB&T Center / Backstreet Boys: DNA World Tour / Tickets available 2. FEB 8 Fri 9:00p / Las Vegas, NV - Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood / Backstreet Boys: Larger Than Life / sold out 3. FEB 9 Sat 9:00p / Las Vegas, NV - Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood / Backstreet Boys: Larger Than Life / Tickets available
AI search results:
1. FEB 9 Sat 9:00p / Las Vegas, NV - Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood / Backstreet Boys: Larger Than Life / Tickets available
Based on the above results, you can see that AI search can also detect entities like music bands, dates, etc. in search queries.
8. Find a musical with a city name
Search chicago musical in chicago
Keyword search results:
1. APR 28 Sun 2:00p Chicago, IL - CIBC Theatre Hamilton (Chicago) 2. FEB 12 Tue 7:30p / Evansville, IN - Old National Events Plaza / Chicago the Musical 3. APR 22 Mon 7:30p / Morgantown, WV - Lyell B Clay Concert Theatre / Chicago the Musical 4. FEB 9 Sat 2:00p / Chicago, IL - CIBC Theatre / Chicago the Musical
AI search results:
1. FEB 9 Sat 2:00p / Chicago, IL - CIBC Theatre / Chicago the Musical
You can see the AI search results generated above is clear and concise and we can easily see that it can differentiate between a show (Chicago musical) and the city (Chicago).
Knowing the fundamental differences between a keyword-based search and an AI-based search is a great step to do it right and improve your customer experience. Your effective site search functionality will help your overall marketing goals by providing huge insight into the user’s behavior.
Do you prefer keyword search or AI search? Why?
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