What is Answer Search Bias?

Environment:

Answers, Configuration, End-user Searching
Oracle B2C Service, February 2011 and later

Resolution:

Answer Search Bias is functionality that improves search results based on the following:

• Browsing behavior (solved_count)
• Content recency (date_updated)

This improves result quality by focusing on useful and recent content and extends our Patented self-learning techniques to search results.

The following configuration settings are part of this:

SEARCH_USAGE_BOOST -

Specifies the amount that answer usage will bias the final search weights, meaning that answers that are more often accessed may come ahead of other answers even if the phrase match is not as high. Higher values for this setting means usage bias will overpower query matching.

A value of 0 disables usage boosting.  Recommended value is 1. Default is 0.

SEARCH_RECENCY_BOOST -

Specifies a boost factor for recency of when an answer has been last updated for answer searches. Higher values for this setting means recency bias will overpower query matching. 

A value of 0 disables recency boosting.
Recommended value is 1. Default is 0.

This setting also uses ANS_UPD_INC_DURATION as an indicator of recent content. This specifies the number of days that the solved count of updated answers will not be aged (reduced). If this value is set to 0 no answers will be considered updated. Default is 30. 

Path to setting(s): Select Configuration from the navigation area > Site Configuration > Configuration Settings > and search by Key.