# Higher edit distances for Phrase suggester

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/higher-edit-distances-for-phrase-suggester/19960>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [September 25, 2014, 10:41am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/higher-edit-distances-for-phrase-suggester/19960 "2014-09-25T10:41:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![felixbarny](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/felixbarny/32/27341_2.png) [@felixbarny](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/felixbarny)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2014, 10:41am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/higher-edit-distances-for-phrase-suggester/19960/1 "2014-09-25T10:41:19Z")

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Hi,  
the problem I'm facing is, that my customer is complaining about the  
quality of "did you mean" suggestions.

He is typing 'sammsuh' and expects to see a suggestion for 'samsung'. He is  
arguing, that google is able to suggest samsung  
([https://www.google.de/webhp#q=sammsuh](https://www.google.de/webhp#q=sammsuh)).

I think the issue is, that the phrase suggester only allows for edit  
distances \<= 2, whereas the edit distance of 'sammsuh' and 'samsung' is 3.

So my question is whether it would be possible to allow for higher edit  
distances.

Felix

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**Author:** ![Mark\_Harwood\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c77e96/32.png) [@Mark\_Harwood\_2](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Mark_Harwood_2)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2014, 11:08am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/higher-edit-distances-for-phrase-suggester/19960/2 "2014-09-25T11:08:17Z")

</div>

> He is arguing, that google is able to suggest samsung

Not a fair comparison. Google suggestions rely heavily on recycling user  
behaviour (people who searched for X typically clicked/re-searched on Y)  
rather than simple string comparisons of your content.  
See [http://searchengineland.com/how-google-instant-autocomplete-suggestions-work-62592](http://searchengineland.com/how-google-instant-autocomplete-suggestions-work-62592)  
If you have a lot of user behaviour data that is typically a smarter way of  
making suggestions.

On Thursday, September 25, 2014 11:41:19 AM UTC+1, Felix wrote:

> Hi,  
> the problem I'm facing is, that my customer is complaining about the  
> quality of "did you mean" suggestions.
> 
> He is typing 'sammsuh' and expects to see a suggestion for 'samsung'. He  
> is arguing, that google is able to suggest samsung (  
> [Google](https://www.google.de/webhp#q=sammsuh)).
> 
> I think the issue is, that the phrase suggester only allows for edit  
> distances \<= 2, whereas the edit distance of 'sammsuh' and 'samsung' is 3.
> 
> So my question is whether it would be possible to allow for higher edit  
> distances.
> 
> Felix

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**Author:** ![felixbarny](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/felixbarny/32/27341_2.png) [@felixbarny](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/felixbarny)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2014, 11:41am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/higher-edit-distances-for-phrase-suggester/19960/3 "2014-09-25T11:41:24Z")

</div>

Thx for that argument.

2014-09-25 13:08 GMT+02:00 Mark Harwood [mark.harwood@elasticsearch.com](mailto:mark.harwood@elasticsearch.com):

> > He is arguing, that google is able to suggest samsung
> 
> Not a fair comparison. Google suggestions rely heavily on recycling user  
> behaviour (people who searched for X typically clicked/re-searched on Y)  
> rather than simple string comparisons of your content. See  
> [http://searchengineland.com/how-google-instant-autocomplete-suggestions-work-62592](http://searchengineland.com/how-google-instant-autocomplete-suggestions-work-62592)  
> If you have a lot of user behaviour data that is typically a smarter way  
> of making suggestions.
> 
> On Thursday, September 25, 2014 11:41:19 AM UTC+1, Felix wrote:
> 
> > Hi,  
> > the problem I'm facing is, that my customer is complaining about the  
> > quality of "did you mean" suggestions.
> > 
> > He is typing 'sammsuh' and expects to see a suggestion for 'samsung'. He  
> > is arguing, that google is able to suggest samsung (  
> > [Google](https://www.google.de/webhp#q=sammsuh)).
> > 
> > I think the issue is, that the phrase suggester only allows for edit  
> > distances \<= 2, whereas the edit distance of 'sammsuh' and 'samsung' is 3.
> > 
> > So my question is whether it would be possible to allow for higher edit  
> > distances.
> > 
> > Felix
> 
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> .
> 
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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 1:00am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/higher-edit-distances-for-phrase-suggester/19960/4 "2017-07-06T01:00:02Z")

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