Smart Search is an AI-assisted, natural language search available in All Search, Bible Search and Books Search, all without additional search syntax.
Note: This feature is available in all subscription tiers.
For a Bible search it returns the most relevant results in your current Bible.
For the All and Books searches it returns highly-relevant information from Verbum resources and generates a synopsis from the most relevant results. You can also get an AI-generated summary of these results with a single click.
Smart Search is the default engine for all these search modes with the option to select Precise searching in a Bible or Books search.
The Search mode will automatically switch from Smart to Precise if any of the following apply:
- The search string is a Bible reference
- The entire search string is in Aramaic, Greek or Hebrew
- The search string contains special syntax
Skip ahead to:
All Search
When you open a Smart Search driven All Search, the search hints provide guidance on how to enter your query, showing the very simple syntax required.
Enter a search query to obtain relevant results from Verbum resources. The first card in the results is a synopsis of the most relevant results which is followed by a set of individual results.
Note: All Search includes results even from books you don't own.
Synopsis of Results
This section provides a short paragraph containing a synopsis of the information found in the top five most relevant articles. Footnotes are provided to these books making it easy to open and examine the articles themselves.
The synopsis can present different views on a topic in a single, consolidated summary. This is particularly helpful when there are a range of perspectives on how to understand the topic or question you entered. It is similar to a search summary but draws together insights from multiple articles as opposed to just one.
The Copy button at the bottom right enables you to copy the synopsis to your clipboard.
If you hover over one of the linked results, you get a popup with the first part of the relevant section. You can click it to open the book directly to that location.
If you hover over a book you don't own, you won't get the popup. But you can click the link to see a preview and the opportunity to purchase it.
If you don't see the synopsis, click the Show synopsis button.
Individual Results
Three different types of individual results can be returned:
- Books for which you don't have a license (indicated by a padlock)
- Books you own
- Relevant Factbook articles
Click an unowned entry to see a preview with the option to purchase the book:
Hover your cursor over results for a book you own to see a preview of what it says. Click the result to open the book to that location.
Click a Factbook result to open that entry.
Bible Search
When you have a smart Bible search open, the search hints provide guidance on how to enter your query, showing the very simple syntax required. There is also a toggle enabling you to select Precise searching if you wish.
Enter a natural language query - such as Jesus restores Peter - to find relevant passages. It is interesting that, in this case, the first result is the most obvious one but the next few also add additional insight to what is going on.
Or you can find where something is referred to within a section of the Bible.
Books Search
The Books Search has a toggle enabling you to switch between Smart or Precise searching. A new Books Search panel will open to the same mode as the last Books Search you executed.
A Smart Search operates exactly the same as in All Search, but only returns results from books you own.
Summarizing Search Results
In All and Books Search types,, Smart Search provides the ability to summarize results. In All Search, this even works in books you don't own.
Hover your mouse at the top-right of a search result to expose a Summarize button:
Click it to generate the summary of the linked article:
Skip ahead to:
All Search
To run an All Search, open a Search Panel and select the All option:
Then simply enter a query and run the search. The first card in the results is a synopsis of the most relevant results which is followed by a set of individual results.
Note: All Search includes results even from books you don't own.
Synopsis of Results
This section provides a short paragraph containing a synopsis of the information found in the top five most relevant articles. Footnotes are provided to these books making it easy to open and examine the articles themselves.
The synopsis can present different views on a topic in a single, consolidated summary. This is particularly helpful when there are a range of perspectives on how to understand the topic or question you entered. It is similar to a search summary but draws together insights from multiple articles as opposed to just one.
Tap the More button on the left to expand the synopsis or tap the Copy button at the bottom right to copy the synopsis to your clipboard. Tap the link to one of the cited articles to open the book to that place.
Note: As the All Search includes results from books you don't own, some of the books used and cited in the synopsis may not be in your library. If you try to access those you will receive a message advising you of this.
If you don't see the synopsis, click the Show synopsis button.
Individual Results
The individual results returned are of three different types:
- Books for which you don't have a license (indicated by a padlock)
- Books you own
- Relevant Factbook articles
If you tap the padlock next to a search result in a book you don't own, you get a message confirming you don't have a licence for it. The search snippet might help indicate if you would find the book useful (but see also the section on summarizing search results below).
For results in books you own, you can tap the link at the top of the search result to open the book to the relevant article:
When Factbook cards are returned in search results, you can tap one of the linked entries to open the Factbook to that article:
Bible Search
To run a Smart Bible Search, select the Bible Search option in a Search Panel and choose the Bible you want to search in.
Then, tap the search mode toggle and select the Smart search option.
Enter a natural language query - such as Jesus restores Peter - to find relevant passages. It is interesting that, in this case, the first result is the most obvious one but the next few also add additional insight to what is going on.
Or you can find where something is referred to within a section of the Bible - using, for example, the search string complaining of the people in the Pentateuch.
Books Search
To run a Smart Books Search, select the Books Search option in a Search Panel and then tap the Search Mode Toggle.
Select the Smart search option.
In Smart Search mode, it operates exactly the same as the All Search but only returns results from books you own. As before, tap a link to open the relevant article:
Summarizing Search Results
In All and Books Search types, Smart Search provides the ability to summarize results. In All Search, this even works in books you don't own.
Tap a search result to expose the Summarize button, tap that button to generate a summary of the returned article.
In this case, this is an article in a book you don't own - the summary might help decide if it's a book you want to purchase.