What is a Vector Database?
A vector database is a specialized data store optimized for indexing and querying high-dimensional vectors (embeddings). Unlike traditional databases that match exact values, vector databases find the most similar vectors using distance metrics.How It Works
1.Storage — Embeddings are stored with metadata (source URL, content snippet)
2.Indexing — Special algorithms (HNSW, IVF) organize vectors for fast retrieval
3.Querying — A query vector is compared against stored vectors using cosine similarity or Euclidean distance
4.Results — The most similar vectors (and their associated content) are returned
Popular Vector Databases
•pgvector — PostgreSQL extension (used by SiteSupport)
•Pinecone — Managed vector database service
•Weaviate — Open-source vector search engine
•Chroma — Lightweight embedding database