computer science

Swiftype

Swiftype is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Swiftype rather than just read about it. In short: Swiftype is a search and index company based in San Francisco, California, that provides search software for organizations, websites, and computer programs. Notable customers include AT&T, Dr.

Key takeaways

Swiftype belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Swiftype to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Swiftype from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Swiftype is a search and index company based in San Francisco, California, that provides search software for organizations, websites, and computer programs. Notable customers include AT&T, Dr. Pepper, Hubspot and TechCrunch.

History Swiftype was founded in 2012 by Matt Riley and Quin Hoxie. The company participated in Y Combinator’s incubator program and received investment from a number of prominent sources. Their site search uses semantic understanding of queries to differentiate the meaning of words based on their use. In September 2013, Swiftype obtained Series A funding from New Enterprise Associates (NEA). In March 2015, Swiftype raised an additional $13 million in Series B funding led by NEA for a total of $20 million in funding. In 2013, Andreessen Horowitz invested in Swiftype as part of the company's early funding. They used some of these funds to expand into areas outside of site search, especially for knowledge bases, customer support and e-commerce. Swiftype's site search can be used for faceted search, full text search, real-time search, and concept search queries. The company's plans offer on-demand and live recrawls and indexing of websites. Other features include drag and drop result customization, real-time analytics and adjustable weights. In an effort to further grow outside of site search, Swiftype introduced an enterprise search service in February 2017. It aimed to help organizations find their data across different services like G Suite, Office 365, Dropbox, Zendesk and more. It also offers an API for searching custom data sources. Swiftype also introduced an artificial intelligence that interprets the queries and builds an "enterprise knowledge graph" from the data it accesses. Swiftype was acquired by Elastic in November 2017. Elastic powers Elasticsearch, a tool Swiftype had previously used to index and store their search content. While the acquisition didn't provide any drastic changes, they did set a new introductory price and work to incorporate some of Elastic's search features into their Enterprise Search. In May 2018, Swiftype introduced Elastic App Search Service, a new search product for developers.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Swiftype

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Swiftype claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Swiftype before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Swiftype ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Swiftype

In research: Swiftype appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Swiftype in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Swiftype is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2012 establishments in California, American companies established in 2012, Companies based in San Francisco, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Swiftype outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Swiftype in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Swiftype means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Swiftype out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Swiftype in simple terms?

Swiftype is a search and index company based in San Francisco, California, that provides search software for organizations, websites, and computer programs. Notable customers include AT&T, Dr.

Why does Swiftype matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Swiftype?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Swiftype.