Use Multipliers to Boost Relevance
You can add multipliers to individual query terms to boost the relevance of results that match these terms accordingly.
To apply a multiplier to a query term, use this format:
queryTerm[*N]
where:
queryTerm
|
is the query term whose weight to multiply. |
N
|
is the factor to multiply the specified query term weight by. This weight can be any positive number. |
For example:
http://IDOLhost:port/action=Query&Text=bread[*2.5]+brown+loaf
This action multiplies the weight of the query term bread
by 2.5. The weight of the query terms brown
and loaf
does not change.
When results return for the query, the relevance of documents that contain the term bread
is boosted relative to those that do not.
http://IDOLhost:port/action=Query&Text=SOUNDEX(bred)+bred[*4]
In this example, a supermarket wants to ensure that an online search for bread
returns appropriate results. The supermarket has found that customers tend to misspell bread as bred. If a customer queries for bread
, appropriate results return as usual. If a customer queries for bred
, the term is submitted twice; once as a Soundex keyword search, and once with a multiplier. This ensures that if results exist that match bred (for example, a new CD by a band called bred), they return with a higher relevance than results that match bred phonetically.
Similarly, you can use multipliers to reduce the influence of individual query terms. For example:
http://IDOLhost:port/action=Query&Text=cat[*0.5]+dog
In this example, the weight of the query term cat
is halved by multiplying it by 0.5. The weight of the query term dog
does not change.
When you return results for the query, the relevance of documents that contain the term cat
is reduced relative to those that do not.