Boost results

This page outlines boosting of search results.

Boosting tutorial

This tutorial shows you some examples of product boosting.

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Guide me

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Example dataset

This page uses the following dataset as an example. Only the fields necessary for explanation are included.

Example product dataset

id	title	brands	categories	price_info.price
"nest_mini_2nd_gen"	"Nest Mini (2nd gen)"	["Google", "Nest"]	["Nest > speakers and displays"]	49.00
"nest_audio"	"Nest Audio"	["Google", "Nest"]	["Nest > speakers and displays"]	99.99
"nest_hub_max"	"Nest Hub Max"	["Google", "Nest"]	["Nest > speakers and displays"]	229.00
"nest_hub"	"Nest Hub"	["Google", "Nest"]	["Nest > speakers and displays"]	88.99
"google_home_max"	"Google Home Max"	["Google", "Nest"]	["Nest > speakers and displays"]	299.00
"google_home_mini"	"Google Home Mini"	["Google", "Nest"]	["Nest > speakers and displays"]	49.00
"google_pixel_5"	"Google Pixel 5"	["Google", "Pixel"]	["Pixel > phones"]	699.00
"google_pixel_4a_with_5g"	"Google Pixel 4a with 5G"	["Google", "Pixel"]	["Pixel > phones"]	499.00
"google_pixel_4a"	"Google Pixel 4a Phones"	["Google", "Pixel"]	["Pixel > phones"]	349.00
"google_pixel_stand"	"Google Pixel Stand"	["Google", "Pixel"]	["Pixel > featured accessories"]	79.00
"google_pixel_buds"	"Google Pixel Buds"	["Google", "Pixel"]	["Pixel > featured accessories"]	179.00
"google_pixel_5_case"	"Google Pixel 5 Case"	["Google", "Pixel"]	["Pixel > featured accessories"]	40.00
"google_pixel_4a_5g_case"	"Google Pixel 4a (5G) Case"	["Google", "Pixel"]	["Pixel > featured accessories"]	40.00
"google_pixel_4a_case"	"Google Pixel 4a Case"	["Google", "Pixel"]	["Pixel > featured accessories"]	40.00

Prerequisites

See Filter and order results for the filter expression syntax.

Boost

With boosting, you can control the result ranking by apply a boost to prioritize or deprioritize the results.

For example, if you search for "Google speaker", then you would get "nest_mini_2nd_gen", "nest_audio", "nest_hub_max", "nest_hub", "google_home_max" and "google_home_mini" in no specific order.

Java

public static SearchResponse searchProductsWithBoostSpec(String query, int pageSize,
    String condition, float boostStrength) throws IOException, InterruptedException {
  SearchServiceClient searchClient = getSearchServiceClient();

  BoostSpec boostSpec = BoostSpec.newBuilder()
      .addConditionBoostSpecs(ConditionBoostSpec.newBuilder()
          .setCondition(condition)
          .setBoost(boostStrength)
          .build())
      .build();

  SearchRequest searchRequest = SearchRequest.newBuilder()
      .setPlacement(DEFAULT_SEARCH_PLACEMENT_NAME)
      .setBranch(DEFAULT_BRANCH_NAME)
      .setVisitorId(VISITOR_ID)
      .setQuery(query)
      .setPageSize(pageSize)
      .setBoostSpec(boostSpec)
      .build();

  SearchResponse response = searchClient.search(searchRequest).getPage().getResponse();

  searchClient.shutdownNow();
  searchClient.awaitTermination(2, TimeUnit.SECONDS);

  return response;
}

Suppose that you want to prioritize the cheaper products (less than 95 dollars) and deprioritize the expensive ones (higher than 95 dollars). You can apply a boost spec as:

JSON

{
  condition_boost_specs {
    condition: "price: IN(*, 95.0e)"
    boost: 0.5
  }
  condition_boost_specs {
    condition: "price: IN(95.0e, *)"
    boost: -0.5
  }
}

In the result, "nest_mini_2nd_gen", "google_home_mini" and "nest_hub" might be the first three, while "nest_audio", "nest_hub_max" and "google_home_max" might be last three. However, no specific order is guaranteed, which is different from ordering by price, as discussed in Filter and order results.