Semantic search vs keyword search
Keyword search asks “which channel names contain these letters?”. Semantic search asks “which channels are about this?”. For anything longer than a single word, the second question gets far more useful answers.
| Keyword search | Semantic search | |
|---|---|---|
| What it matches | The exact letters you type, inside usernames and titles | The subject of the channel, from its title, topics and description |
| Long queries | Rarely work: a name has to contain the whole phrase | Work best: more words, clearer meaning |
| Other languages | Only if you type the word in that language | A query in one language finds channels in others |
| Synonyms and paraphrases | Missed | Found |
| Brand names, nicknames, usernames | Strong | Weak: a nickname has no meaning to match |
| Brand-new channels | Found right away | Found after the next index update |
Same queries, two searches
We ran ten everyday queries through name search alone and counted the channels it found. With semantic search on, each of them returns hundreds of relevant channels.
Counts from TGScope search on 10 October 2026.
- Six of the ten queries found nothing at all by name. Nobody names a channel “crypto for beginners”, even when that is exactly what it is.
- “Apartment renovation” found no names, but by meaning the top results are renovation and interior design channels written in Russian, such as “My Renovation | Moscow”.
- The shorter and more generic the query, the better names do: “anime” alone matches hundreds of channel names.
Where keyword search still wins
When you already know the channel. A username like durov or a brand name means nothing by itself, so meaning cannot help, but the letters match perfectly. That is why we did not replace name search: both run on every query, and an exact username always comes first. How the results are merged.
Where semantic search wins
When you know what you want but not what it is called: a topic, a hobby, a kind of content, a question you want answered. Describe it in a few words, the way you would ask a friend. How to phrase a query.