Dimension search and record search each have their own strengths.

In general, you should:

Dimension search is more appropriate than record search when the value for the search key does not consistently contain the search terms across all records. For example, not all red wines have "red" in their name, so a record search for red in the Name key would not return a complete set of red wine records. Dimension search, however, would return a Red dimension value that allows the user to navigate to a red wine record set (assuming you have tagged all red wines with a Red dimension value).

On the other hand, it is inappropriate to create dimension values out of certain types of property values that are long, wordy, or otherwise unsuitable (for example, descriptions or reviews). Because these property values are not included in the dimension hierarchy, they cannot be searched with dimension search. They must be searched using record search.