Bug 510039

Summary: fuzzy matching in application search gives nonsensical results for short queries
Product: [Plasma] plasmashell Reporter: Nicolas Fella <nicolas.fella>
Component: Application Launcher (Kickoff) widgetAssignee: Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs-null>
Status: ASSIGNED ---    
Severity: normal CC: mikel5764, nate, noahadvs, postix
Priority: NOR Keywords: regression
Version First Reported In: 6.4.80   
Target Milestone: 1.0   
Platform: Other   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:
Attachments: Screenshot

Description Nicolas Fella 2025-09-29 08:06:30 UTC
Created attachment 185354 [details]
Screenshot

Since the introduction of fuzzy matching in the application search the results have become very poor and unpredictable, particularly with short search terms.

For example:

"ru" gives "Systemmonitor" as first result instead of something sensible like "Ruqola"
"do" gives "Oracle Virtualbox" instead of something sensible like "Dolphin"
"e" gives "Kate" instead of something sensible like "Element"
Comment 1 Bug Janitor Service 2025-09-29 08:22:45 UTC
A possibly relevant merge request was started @ https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-workspace/-/merge_requests/5871
Comment 2 postix 2025-09-29 12:37:18 UTC
What about a combination of both: Use the old algorithm for short terms and fuzzy for longer?
Comment 3 Bug Janitor Service 2025-10-01 10:10:44 UTC
A possibly relevant merge request was started @ https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-workspace/-/merge_requests/5880