#2

The problem is that there really is no sensible metric for “relevance” in this context, so it really doesn’t make a lot of sense to offer it as an option in the system.

If there was some way to build your own “relevance metric” within the system, possibly by reference to a set of rules which you assemble for yourself, it might have a purpose. But I have yet to find a relevance metric for searching PKM systems which is actually useful for me all the time.

Some kind of modular metric mechanism that can be used for all sorts of things? Maybe useful. But definitely outside the current scope of Obsidian as I understand it.

#3

@LexTenebris: do not think we need sophisticated metrics for this feature. Just basic order that I suggested might be such “metrics” (rules). E.g. when search term is part of the title of the note, we can consider it to be more important and to appear first. The same is valid for headers etc. So if searched term belongs to one of such groups, the note would appear in respective order as these groups are (= found searches in: note titles - headers - bolded - multiple occurrences etc …). I believe there is general accord that words in titles, bolded etc. have higher relevance (actually, that is why they appear in title, as bolded text etc - because we consider them relevant.)

As for more complicated “relevance metrics”, I believe it could be done later (maybe using some plugin/AI/third party app via API) as it is done in DevonThink. But I agree, it is outside current Obsidian scope now.

But simple relevance as suggested above could be easily implemented (and in fact, in basic form - in which found searches in note titles have precedence before found words in note text - is already implemented in majority of similar apps - Notational Velocity, FSNotes, The Archive etc)

2 Likes
#4

+1 to this request.

Any note taking app that offers a ‘relevance’ search is just the developer’s opinionated answer to that question. Sure, there’s no single metric that works for all cases, but working reasonably well in a lot cases is better than not having it at all.

1 Like
#5

As I add more notes this is becoming a bigger and bigger issue for me. The search brings up way too many results even though there is a clear correct, most relevant result. It’s starting to feel a little like I am doing all the hard work with the links and tags and folders and naming conventions, etc. but I know that’s not necessary to get good results. A good search engine can rank based on interpreting the searcher’s intent. I think this is a core “must have” feature.

1 Like
#6

I’ll agree with this.

An example:
I have work and personal stuff in my notes. I searched for family meeting. I had hundreds of meeting results at the top of the results (work meetings).

Exact match should be more relevant than fuzzy match.

To find what I wanted I had to search "family meetings" (quotes). That worked in this example b/c I knew exactly what I probably typed.

1 Like
#7

Use case or problem

When I search for something, I don’t necessarily put it between quotes. I expect that close-enough matches will appear in some kind of relevant order. Currently, Obsidian shows partial matches before complete ones, making me mistakenly believe that the search was unsuccessful.

I’ve used the Help Vault as an example: searching for this is a heading without quotes seems to return no close matches, but those are actually “hidden” behind that "…and 247 matches"; if we expand it, several full matches appear further down the list.

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Proposed solution

I don’t know the inner workings of Obsidian’s search. Even if I did, I’m not sure I’d be able to propose a solution. I just think it could use some more love.

Current workaround (optional)

We can always expand the results one by one, or explicitly search for a phrase using quotes. But it seems counterintuitive and unforgiving.

9 Likes
#8

I’ve seen requests for Smart sorting of search results. This is the simplest (and most common) example.

We need it for large vaults, as our work in Obsidian expands.

1 Like
#9

It would be helpful to be able to quickly see in which note a topic is discussed THE MOST. Similar to how Devonthink and Evernote can sort by ‘relevance’.

So a note that has the word ‘Agency’ in it 20 times would show above a note that just happens to have ‘Agency’ in it once.

It wouldn’t be the only way to sort results and links, the existing ones are excellent, but as a sort option.

13 Likes
#10

Running into this same feature gap right now - what I’m searching for my #todo tag, I want to see the note with the most such tags in it at the top, rather than date or alphabetical sorting.

1 Like
#11

+1

Also, I’d love if I could hit up,down (or cmd+j, cmd+k) to navigate the search results without having to click on the results with my mouse.

(Apologies if this should be a different request)

#12

Using search you can change sort order. But there is no option to sort by frequency. what I mean is if a search keyword has many occurrences in a note. you can to be able to get that note first in sort order when searching.

2 Likes
#13

Add your support to the feature request here:

#14

+1 for this. Giving results alphabetically is annoying

1 Like
#15

+1 for the feature to have the sort option by hits for each file. The file with the most hits for a search pattern should be the first. Would be absolutly great <3 :heart_eyes: and thank you for this great software! :slight_smile:

1 Like
#16

Hey, just here to say this is a common frustration for me too. If I type exactly the name of a note in search, there is no sort order mode that shows said note at the top of the results – and search feels broken like this.

1 Like
#17

Use case or problem

I have a note in a subfolder called “Timestamps/2021 Investing log.md”.
When I use the Open Quick switcher and I type “investing 2021” the note doesn’t appear in the results lists, it only appears if I type “2021 Investing”.

Proposed solution

Make Open Quick do basic tokenization or use fuzzy logic so that when I type “Investing 2021” it recommends notes called “2021 Investing.md”.

Current workaround (optional)

I have to manually type different note variations. I cannot realistically use the directory browser on the left side because I have too many notes and it would take me forever.

#18

There’s a new plugin that may help:

#19

Another vote for sensible search ranking. The current way Obsidian filters / sorts search results is quite frustrating!

I’m including my post to the Reddit forum here.

—

Hello,

I’m really enjoying Obsidian! I’ve spent the last two weeks consolidating 15 years and half a dozen applications worth of writing into one, sensible, well organised set of notes. Such a relief! :slight_smile:

The one thing that I’m quite frustrated by is Obsidian’s search. I’m baffled by the fact that it allows you to sort search results by everything except relevance. For example I have a page called “X3” in a folder called “Wiki” (my default home for new notes):

  • if I search for “x3” it shows up as the very last result (fair enough I had results organised alphabetically).
  • if I search for “title: x3” (or "title: X3) it doesn’t show up at all.
  • if I search for “path: x3” it’s the only result.

All the other note applications I’ve used over the years use relevance as the primary way to sort search results. I’d expect that if there’s a note called “X3” that it would be the top result of a search for “X3”.

I feel like I must be missing something? Am I doing something wrong? If this is just the way Obsidian works, is there a way to add relevance based search?

Many thanks for any pointers,
Adam.

#20

Use case or problem

Search is one of the most important features for an app like Obsidian. Once I’ve made a lot of notes, I need to be able to search through them and efficiently find my old notes. The whole point of the knowledge storage system is to be able to retrieve information and ideas from the big archive I am creating.

Unfortunately, when I type anything I want to look for in the search panel, I’m getting extremely irrelevant results. They seem to match parts of the words (for example if I search for “make it work”, the top results are my notes on writing, because the word “write” has “it” in it), and they seem to be sorted by file name, not by relevance.

Putting my search query in quotes helps sometimes, but that doesn’t work very well if I only remember a part of the phrase I’m looking for, or several important keywords in the note, and not the exact perfect match for a phrase.

Proposed solution

I’m not sure what to recommend here. I can only say that quality search is a key feature for an app like Obsidian, it is extremely important to be able to retrieve the notes I have created quickly and conveniently, it is critical to have search that returns the most relevant results first. So this feature should just work better.

#21

@lumenwrites : I do not have that experience. At my end Search works well, and words between quote marks represent a specific word combination that Obsidian searches for an finds. If, in your example, there is a note that has make it work but in a phrase like make it bloody work then Obs will not list it in your make it work query.

Furthermore, Obs Search also supports the very powerful regular expressions - Regex.