2023-06-20 –, Palais Atelier
During this talk, I will take you on my over-a-decade-long journey in search. Starting from having witnessed the inception of Elasticsearch to my current endeavors with Weaviate, I will share my first-hand experience of the evolution, challenges, and lessons learned along the way.
The future of search lies in machine learning-based approaches, a realization that has led me to the world of semantic search. As part of my current endeavors with Weaviate, I’ve come to understand the transformative potential of this advanced technology and how it’s reshaping our digital experiences.
My journey into this field began during an internship in the early stages of my programming career. A group of my then colleagues ventured out to form a new company called Elasticsearch. Recognizing their potential, my mentor recommended that I focus my personal development on search technologies. This advice sparked my exploration of Lucene, Solr, and Elasticsearch, among others.
In the subsequent years as a search consultant, I wrestled with the inherent challenges of keyword-based systems. The tasks were anything but straightforward, from managing semantics, synonyms, and typos to trying to decipher user intent. However, this endeavor was far from fruitless - it led to a deep understanding of the intricate workings of search technologies.
This talk will take you through significant advancements in search over the years, peppered with practical insights and hard-earned wisdom I’ve accumulated along the way. The goal is not to argue that vector search replaces keyword search but to illustrate how combining both can yield the best results. Attendees can look forward to a nuanced understanding of search
technologies, their evolution, and their potential to shape our future digital experiences
Byron Voorbach has spent over a decade in the search domain, providing consultation to companies and aiding in implementing large-scale search systems. As the current Head of Sales Engineering at Weaviate, he collaborates with customers globally to harness the power of semantic search in their operations.
A regular conference speaker and active contributor to open-source projects, Byron enjoys tackling complex problems and venturing into diverse domains. His work also includes building projects demonstrating cutting-edge search technologies’ potential and functionality and committing new functionality to Weaviate.