How do stop words influence the search results?

How do stop words influence the search results?

In search functionalities, 'stop words' play a crucial role in filtering out unnecessary words to enhance the accuracy of search results. Stop words are common words (like 'and', 'the', 'a') that are often ignored in search queries to streamline the search process. They are set up in the system to prevent these words from skewing search results.

To illustrate the impact of stop words, let's consider an example using synonyms and stop words set in the Admin Panel.

1. Setting Synonyms: In the Admin Panel → System → Manage Synonyms grid, there are synonyms such as 'capri', 'ABC' and 'A B C' set up to yield similar search results.



2. Adding a Stop Word: In the Admin Panel → System → Manage Stop Words, 'B' is added as a stop word.



3. Executing Search Queries:

a) Search Query 1: 'ABC':



b) Search Query 2: 'A B C':



Due to the presence of 'B' as a stop word, the system alters the 'A B C' query to 'A C' before processing it through Elasticsearch. Since 'A C' is not specified as a synonym for 'ABC', different search results are obtained for each query.