
Tell HN: Algolia search stemming issue - sexy_seedbox
See screenshot: http:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;t6Ydooc.jpg<p>I don&#x27;t think I needed that &quot;Chicago&quot; result. Does algolia  need manual filters for errors like this or is it some ML anomaly?
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redox_
What you're actually experiencing is the result of Algolia's typo-tolerance &
prefix searching (both enabled on the HN Search). Indeed, both " _chica_ go"
and " _chine_ se" are 1 letter away from "china". We've configured the search
to disable the prefix search once you press "Enter" (maybe not easy while on
mobile).

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diggan
> We've configured the search to disable the prefix search once you press
> "Enter"

I thought you were joking but it's true. Try removing all characters here:
[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=china&sort=byPopularity&prefix...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=china&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story)
and type out "china", look at the bottom results and then press "Enter", now
you get different stories.

What awful UX, what was the thinking behind that? People who search for the
same thing gets different results, depending on if they actually searched or
if they just typed it out.

~~~
slashvar2701
No, that's the price of typo tolerance and search-as-you-type, until the user
validate the query you have no way to distinguish between prefix and full
word.

Search-as-you-type is much more a guide during the search, it shows you a
preview of possible results from what you've currently typed both as a whole
query and as the beginning of a query.

All other variation are worth: no prefix during search as you type means that
you'll have an empty result most of the time or things that are completely
irrelevant; keeping prefix on the final search means that you'll see a lot of
irrelevant results (especially with typo-tolerance).

