Search is everywhere, yet effective Information Retrieval remains one of the most underestimated challenges in modern technology. While Retrieval-Augmented Generation has captured significant attention, the foundational element - Information Retrieval - often remains underexplored.

In this talk, we put Information Retrieval center stage by asking:
How do we know that user queries and data 'speak' the same language?
How do we evaluate the relevance and completeness of search results? And how do we prioritize what gets displayed? Or do we even want to hide specific content?

We try to answer these questions by introducing the audience to the art and science of Information Retrieval, exploring metrics such as precision, recall, and desirability. We’ll examine key challenges, including ambiguity, query relaxation, and the interplay between sparse and dense search techniques. Through a live demo using public content from Sendung mit der Maus, we show how hybrid search improves upon vector and keyword based search in isolation.