What is Ref2Vec and why you need it for your recommendation system

Weaviate 1.16 introduced Ref2Vec, a module that vectorizes data objects based on their cross-references to other objects. This approach allows for characterization from actions and relationships, with potential applications in recommendation systems and representing long objects. In the context of recommendations, Ref2Vec can represent users by aggregating vectors of products they have engaged with, allowing Weaviate to learn from user preferences and provide up-to-date characterizations. Additionally, Ref2Vec can help address the challenge of finding suitable representations for long objects in search technology.