Articles

Adding passage vector search to Lucene
Here's how to add passage vectors to Lucene, the benefits of doing so and how existing Lucene structures can be used to create an efficient retrieval experience.

Aggregate data faster with new the random_sampler aggregation
Aggregate billions of documents in milliseconds instead of minutes with Elastic. Learn more about how the new random_sampler aggregation gives you statistically robust results at a lower cost.

Bit vectors in Elasticsearch
Discover what are bit vectors, their practical implications and how to use them in Elasticsearch.

Making Elasticsearch and Lucene the best vector database: up to 8x faster and 32x efficient
Discover the recent enhancements and optimizations that notably improve vector search performance in Elasticsearch & Lucene vector database.

Scalar quantization optimized for vector databases
Optimizing scalar quantization for the vector database use case allows us to achieve significantly better performance for the same retrieval quality at high compression ratios.

Understanding Int4 scalar quantization in Lucene
This blog explains how int4 quantization works in Lucene, how it lines up, and the benefits of using int4 quantization.

Introducing kNN Query: An expert way to do kNN search
Explore how the kNN query in Elasticsearch can be used and how it differs from top-level kNN search, including examples.

Bringing maximum-inner-product into Lucene
Explore how we brought maximum-inner-product into Lucene and the investigations undertaken to ensure its support.

Save space with byte-sized vectors
Elasticsearch is introducing a new type of vector that has 8-bit integer dimensions. This is 4x smaller than the current vector with 32-bit float dimensions, which can result in substantial space savings.

Scalar quantization 101
Understand what scalar quantization is, how it works and its benefits. This guide also covers the math behind quantization and examples.

Understanding scalar quantization in Lucene
Explore how Elastic introduced scalar quantization into Lucene, including automatic byte quantization, quantization per segment & performance insights.

Looking back: A timeline of vector search innovations
Looking back at Elastic's vector search innovations in Elasticsearch and Lucene