# Optimize search speed / resource usage by writing good queries?
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/optimize-search-speed-resource-usage-by-writing-good-queries/78695
**Category:** Kibana
**Created:** [March 15, 2017, 11:56am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/optimize-search-speed-resource-usage-by-writing-good-queries/78695 "2017-03-15T11:56:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@asp](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/asp)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2017, 11:56am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/optimize-search-speed-resource-usage-by-writing-good-queries/78695/1 "2017-03-15T11:56:44Z")
Hi,
I would like to increase my the search speed in kibana.
Since I am not that familar with lucene indexes / elasticsearch yet, I would like to ask you for your opinion.
Searching is real easy via kibana. Just type in a word and all events containing the word are given back.
Now my events have several fields, just like type, payload, message, username, etc.
For example, if I am searching for a username, does it improve the speed if I search for:
username: xyz instead of searching for xyz?
I mean, now ES would know, that it only needs to search within that field, but I am not sure, if the indexing is based on fields or on top level of the document.
I just want to optimize my saved queries and want to give the other team members hints to query as resource nicest as possible 😉
PS:
I am aware of the fact, that I may get also additional events, where the username may occur in a different filed, if not setting the filter for the name. Just think of an example where xyz is ONLY found in the username.
Thanks Andreas
---
### Author:  [@Brandon\_Kobel](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Brandon_Kobel)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2017, 11:01am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/optimize-search-speed-resource-usage-by-writing-good-queries/78695/2 "2017-03-16T11:01:46Z")
@asp specifying the field that you are searching for text within will generally increase performance. When you don't specify a field, it uses the [Default Field](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-query-string-query.html#_default_field) of the index which defaults to [\_all](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/mapping-all-field.html).
The difference in performance between the two really depends on your data. To see how your queries are performing, you can use the "Spy Panel" highlighted below
which will show you the Request that is executed against Elasticsearch
and some pertinent Stats, particularly the Request duration
If you're interested in the performance of a specific query, we have a tool discussed here that will allow you to inspect the specific parts of the query that are taking the most time: [https://www.elastic.co/blog/a-profile-a-day-keeps-the-doctor-away-the-elasticsearch-search-profiler](https://www.elastic.co/blog/a-profile-a-day-keeps-the-doctor-away-the-elasticsearch-search-profiler)
---
### Author:  [@asp](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/asp)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2017, 11:45am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/optimize-search-speed-resource-usage-by-writing-good-queries/78695/3 "2017-03-16T11:45:24Z")
thanks a lot for the reply.
Then I can write some guidelines for my team, how to use queries the best way.
Also the profiler looks very interesting.
Time to download the xpack basic 😉
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2017, 11:45am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/optimize-search-speed-resource-usage-by-writing-good-queries/78695/4 "2017-04-13T11:45:30Z")
This topic was automatically closed 28 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.