What I’ve done to compare other search engines with RRE and Quepid is to put a proxy in the middle that converts your query into what looks like a Solr request/response ;-). This works great for custom Search API’s, and I *guess* you could do it with database backed search?
Now we are probably getting beyond what Sam was hoping to do! > On Mar 17, 2022, at 11:56 AM, Alessandro Benedetti <[email protected]> > wrote: > > This is an interesting question. > I second both comments so far (from Eric and David), but I am afraid at the > moment the open-source tools for search quality evaluation can't really > compare Postgres to Solr. > As far as I know, both Quepid(Eric correct me if I am wrong) and RRE( > https://github.com/SeaseLtd/rated-ranking-evaluator and also the Enterprise > version) are able to compare only Apache Solr and Elasticsearch backed > systems (against each other, or against different configurations). > > In general, I would recommend following David's suggestions: > - collect your requirements(both functional and performance-wise) > - compare > > I have seen in the past many times DB used as terrible search engines and > search engines used as terrible DB. > Many times I have seen queries on a search engine to perform poorly because > they were designed as they were DB queries. > > Cheers > > -------------------------- > Alessandro Benedetti > Apache Lucene/Solr PMC member and Committer > Director, R&D Software Engineer, Search Consultant > > www.sease.io > > > On Sat, 5 Mar 2022 at 05:04, David Smiley <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Hello Sam, >> >> You are a familiar name from my MITRE days :-) >> >> Check out Solr's feature list and see how it compares to that of Postgres. >> If you are only doing the most basic default relevancy ranked top-N search >> with default text analysis, then the tech/maintenance overhead might not be >> worth it. I'm looking at this as such an example: >> https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvekey.cgi?keyword=solr >> >> On the other hand, if you want to ensure that you're able to make search >> the best it can be for your users, then keeping Solr and using it more will >> get you there; a database won't. To a database, full-text-search is just >> one checkbox of many concerns. The capabilities there are usually very >> simple. It's fine for a demo/POC -- getting started. >> >> One feature in particular I want to call out is faceting. To some apps, >> it's a game changer that can pivot the UX from merely having a basic search >> box to having navigation filters and everything else, at which point Solr >> is the foundation of what's driving the UX. I've seen people/apps miss >> this -- the user experience is so clumsy without it for rich/structured >> data in particular. If you've ever used a Maven repository manager like >> Nexus or it's competitors (last I checked), they are still stuck in the >> stone-age -- it's painful when you've been exposed to so much better. On >> the backend, if all you know is a database, you may not see how to make a >> faceting UI work because it's rather unnatural for SQL. >> >> Eric's response was great too. >> >> ~ David Smiley >> Apache Lucene/Solr Search Developer >> http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidwsmiley >> >> >> On Fri, Mar 4, 2022 at 9:33 AM Bayer, Samuel <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Hi all - >>> >>> In the interest of reducing my technology stack, I'm exploring whether >>> using Postgres full-text search instead of Solr might be an option when I >>> need both complex querying and full-text search. In my experience, so >> far, >>> Postgres can't compare to Solr, but I'm trying to understand why, in >> order >>> to have more of an ability to evaluate the functionality/complexity >>> tradeoffs. I know something about search technologies, but I'm not an >>> expert by any stretch of the imagination, and I've been looking for >> sources >>> that talk about the comparison in an informed way - people, blogs, >>> articles. So far, everything I've found is extremely basic. Does anyone >>> have any pointers for me? >>> >>> Thanks in advance - >>> Sam Bayer >>> The MITRE Corporation >>> [email protected] >>> >> _______________________ Eric Pugh | Founder & CEO | OpenSource Connections, LLC | 434.466.1467 | http://www.opensourceconnections.com <http://www.opensourceconnections.com/> | My Free/Busy <http://tinyurl.com/eric-cal> Co-Author: Apache Solr Enterprise Search Server, 3rd Ed <https://www.packtpub.com/big-data-and-business-intelligence/apache-solr-enterprise-search-server-third-edition-raw> This e-mail and all contents, including attachments, is considered to be Company Confidential unless explicitly stated otherwise, regardless of whether attachments are marked as such.
