5 ms·

Confused by their claim to be the 'first' vector database. These things have been around forever? For example FLANN (not a DB server, but example lib) is from 2

by baobob 4y ago

Confused by their claim to be the 'first' vector database. These things have been around forever? For example FLANN (not a DB server, but example lib) is from 2009

opisthenar84 4y ago
I think the difference is in the layer of abstraction i.e. FLANN is just the underlying search functionality whereas vector databases are fully managed solutions. Even so, Weaviate came out in 2018, so saying that they are the "first" vector database is just flat out wrong since Pinecone was founded in 2019.
- gk1 4y ago
  Weaviate calling themselves a vector database is a fairly new thing.
  - opisthenar84 4y ago
    The fact that Weaviate only recently started calling themselves a vector database is completely irrelevant here. They had this type of vector data infrastructure before Pinecone did, and that's all that matters. Example: I'm going to start a new company called Conifercone and do pretty much exactly what you do, but call it a "vector datastore" instead. Apparently I've now created the first ever vector datastore even though functionally I have done nothing novel.
  - thirdtrigger 4y ago
    I'm affiliated with Weaviate, so maybe nice to get this out here for the record :) We call Weaviate a "vector search engine" (i.e., we prefer "vector search engine" because it describes the type of database) since around Aug, 2020 Github: https://github.com/semi-technologies/weaviate/tree/a3967aff5ef6db380ed3b93e9879fead3ac777d6 https://github.com/semi-technologies/weaviate/tree/a3967aff5... The reason was simple; our community started to say that the mixed vector and scalar filter search capabilities were what they liked most. Also, our benchmarks are available for quite some time here: https://weaviate.io/developers/weaviate/current/benchmarks/ann.html https://weaviate.io/developers/weaviate/current/benchmarks/a... They are based on ann-benchmarks.com but adjusted for full databases.
- zcw100 4y ago
  Same difference as ElasticSearch and Lucene. re: difference in layer of abstraction.
faizshah 4y ago
There’s also Vespa from yahoo that has been used at scale for years (decades?): https://docs.vespa.ai/search.html?q=Vector https://docs.vespa.ai/search.html?q=Vector
- utopcell 4y ago
  Interesting connection considering that some of the Pinecone founders are ex-Yahoos.

by baobob 4y ago

Confused by their claim to be the 'first' vector database. These things have been around forever? For example FLANN (not a DB server, but example lib) is from 2009

opisthenar84 4y ago

I think the difference is in the layer of abstraction i.e. FLANN is just the underlying search functionality whereas vector databases are fully managed solutions. Even so, Weaviate came out in 2018, so saying that they are the "first" vector database is just flat out wrong since Pinecone was founded in 2019.

gk1 4y ago
Weaviate calling themselves a vector database is a fairly new thing.
- opisthenar84 4y ago
  The fact that Weaviate only recently started calling themselves a vector database is completely irrelevant here. They had this type of vector data infrastructure before Pinecone did, and that's all that matters. Example: I'm going to start a new company called Conifercone and do pretty much exactly what you do, but call it a "vector datastore" instead. Apparently I've now created the first ever vector datastore even though functionally I have done nothing novel.
- thirdtrigger 4y ago
  I'm affiliated with Weaviate, so maybe nice to get this out here for the record :) We call Weaviate a "vector search engine" (i.e., we prefer "vector search engine" because it describes the type of database) since around Aug, 2020 Github: https://github.com/semi-technologies/weaviate/tree/a3967aff5ef6db380ed3b93e9879fead3ac777d6 https://github.com/semi-technologies/weaviate/tree/a3967aff5... The reason was simple; our community started to say that the mixed vector and scalar filter search capabilities were what they liked most. Also, our benchmarks are available for quite some time here: https://weaviate.io/developers/weaviate/current/benchmarks/ann.html https://weaviate.io/developers/weaviate/current/benchmarks/a... They are based on ann-benchmarks.com but adjusted for full databases.
zcw100 4y ago
Same difference as ElasticSearch and Lucene. re: difference in layer of abstraction.

faizshah 4y ago

There’s also Vespa from yahoo that has been used at scale for years (decades?): https://docs.vespa.ai/search.html?q=Vector https://docs.vespa.ai/search.html?q=Vector

utopcell 4y ago
Interesting connection considering that some of the Pinecone founders are ex-Yahoos.