In the previous update, we mentioned bfloat16 and int8 tensor value types, case-sensitive attribute search, attributes with hashed dictionary and Hamming distance metric for ANN search.

This month, we’re excited to share the following updates:

HTTP/2

HTTP/2 is now available for both search and feed endpoints. HTTP/2 delivers more efficient network usage and increases security. With HTTP/2, it becomes possible to feed equally efficiently using the document/v1 REST API as with the Vespa HTTP client. There is also a new, simplified vespa-feed-client. Read more.

ONNX RUNTIME in the Vespa Container

We have integrated ONNX RUNTIME also in the stateless Vespa container which allows ONNX models to be used with:

• Automatically generated REST API for stateless model serving.
• Creating lightweight request handlers for serving models with some custom code without the need for content nodes.
• Model evaluation to Searchers for query processing and enrichment.
• Model evaluation to Document Processors for transforming content before ingestion.
• Processing results from the content nodes to add additional ranking phases.

Read more.

factory.vespa.oath.cloud

factory.vespa.oath.cloud/ is the automated build and test system for Vespa.ai - now open for everyone. Use factory.vespa.oath.cloud/releases to inspect changes in each release as Vespa.ai normally releases 4 times a week. The Vespa Factory is useful to track performance improvements tested in the performance test suite, see e.g. testrun/31415803.

Berlin Buzzwords 2021 recordings

Approximate nearest neighbor with filtering and real time updates has generated much attention, and Vespa’s real time indexing structures is well explained in these talks at Berlin Buzzwords 2021. The search engine debate is a follow-up to the Haystack event last January:

• Jo Kristian Bergum, Anshum Gupta, Josh Devins & Charlie Hull: The Debate: Which Search Engine?
• Lester Solbakken: From text search & recommendation to ads & online dating; approximate nearest neighbors in real world applications
• Jo Kristian Bergum: Search and Sushi; Freshness Counts

About Vespa: Largely developed by Yahoo engineers, Vespa is an open source big data processing and serving engine. It’s in use by many products, such as Yahoo News, Yahoo Sports, Yahoo Finance, and the Verizon Media Ad Platform. Thanks to feedback and contributions from the community, Vespa continues to grow.