Describes highly effective information retrieval models for both smaller, classical data sets, and larger Web collections. In a shift away from heuristic, hand-tuned ranking functions and complex probabilistic models, the author presents feature-based retrieval models.

Commercial Web search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing are used every day by millions of people across the globe. With their ever-growing refinement and usage, it has become increasingly difficult for academic researchers to keep up with the collection sizes and other critical research issues related to Web search, which has created a divide between the information retrieval research being done within academia and industry. Such large collections pose a new set of challenges for information retrieval researchers. In this work, Metzler describes highly effective information retrieval...