Having trouble boosting Vertex search results by URL

[uta-danevil]

I have a Vertex search engine app with website data, and I'm trying to have it boost certain pages whenever a certain keyword is in the query, but I can't quite get it to work.

I created a boosting control from the Google Cloud Console (go to Agent Builder, choose your search app, then click Configurations > Controls > New Control). However it doesn't seem to be working.. ☹️

I set a condition for matching a keyword (for example "puppies"), and then in the Actions, I put this filter:
url: ANY("https://www.my.site/page-to-boost-PUPPIES")

And I set the boost value to +1 which I'm thinking should boost that page significantly, probably to the #1 spot. 

When I save the control there are no errors, so it seems to be created successfully. But when I try a search for "keyword", the page I want to boost is not affected - it's still the #4 result, just like before I had created the boost control.

The search app is using basic web search - do I maybe need advanced indexing for the boost controls to work? Or is something wrong with my boost filter?

[MJane]

Hi @uta-danevil , 

Welcome to Google Cloud Community!

It seems that you’re on the right track with creating the boosting control in Vertex AI, but there might be few things to check that might causing your boost control to not work as you expected : 

Check your condition URL - Make sure that the URL in your filter matches the same case of the URL you want to boost. If you use a keyword like "PUPPIES" in the URL, the match may not work as expected if the query or index doesn't exactly match the case. 

Check your Boost Value - The boost value you set might not be strong enough to move the page to the #1 spot. Experiment with different boost values to see what works best for your data

Review Boosting Control Configuration - Ensure that the boosting control is active and configured properly. Since you mentioned that there are no errors shown when you save the control, make sure that the configuration is not set to test or inactive state. 

Ensure that indexing has been updated - After you apply changes ,there may be a delay in when the changes take effect in the search results. Make sure to wait for a few minutes and test again. 

For more information that may provide additional insights into how controls work read this documentation. 

I hope the above information is helpful.

[uta-danevil · Accepted solution]

The problem turned out to be, boosting controls don't work on basic web data stores. They only work on web data stores that have advanced indexing turned on. I did not see this mentioned in the Google cloud docs anywhere, so hopefully that gets updated.

To test this I created two identical data stores (and corresponding search apps), except that one was basic, and one advanced. I created the same boost control for each store. It did not affect searches with the basic data store, but worked correctly in the advanced one.

When you create the boost control, the suggested filter syntax is:
siteSearch:"https://www.mysite.com"

[phani_2223]

Hi, 

I have similar issue, I got it working the URL and query with boost value in one data store. However the same query and same control id or different id on a different data store not returning expected page.

What could be the reson.

Thanks,

Phani