Introduction to Information Retrieval: Probabilistic information retrieval

§ Thus far, our queries have all been Boolean § Documents either match or don’t § Can be good for expert users with precise understanding of their needs and the collection § Can also be good for applications: Applications can easily consume 1000s of results § Not good for the majority of users § Most users incapable of writing Boolean queries § Or they are, but they think it’s too much work § Most users don’t want to wade through 1000s of results § This is particularly true of web search Ch. 6 Introduction to Information Retrieval Problem with Boolean search: feast or famine