Finding Out About: A Cognitive Perspective on Search Engine Technology and the WWW (With CD-ROM) (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "We are all forced to make decisions regularly, sometimes on the spur of the moment..." (more)
Key Phrases: negative dictionary, search engine performance, probability ranking principle, Sparck Jones, Sample Text, Probability Ranking Principle (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"FOA is a comprehensive resource for teaching a programming-based information retrieval class. The text provides an integrated introduction to many topics in information retrieval with a strong emphasis on mathematical and machine learning models, as well as giving a clear account of implementation details for the programming assignments." Information Retrieval

Product Description

The World Wide Web is rapidly filling with more text than anyone could have imagined a short time ago. However, the task of determining which data is relevant has become appreciably harder. In this original new work Richard Belew brings a cognitive science perspective to the study of information as a computer science discipline. He introduces the idea of Finding Out About (FOA), the process of actively seeking out information relevant to a topic of interest. Belew describes all facets of FOA, ranging from creating a good characterization of what the user seeks to evaluating the successful performance of search engines. His volume clearly shows how to build many of the tools that are useful for searching collections of text and other media. While computer scientists make up the book's primary audience, Belew skillfully presents technical details in a manner that makes important themes accessible to readers more comfortable with words than equations. (A CD is included with the text.)

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1 edition (February 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521630282
• ISBN-13: 978-0521630283
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,379,539 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #30 in	Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Library & Information Science > Information Storage & Retrieval
  #74 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Software > Natural Language Processing

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth having, March 26, 2008

By	pad_dad (San Antonio, TX) - See all my reviews

I found this to be a wonderful book about Search Engines. If you like history, math, computer science, and how we can make computers communicate effectively with people, then this book is a great read. With current Search Engines, we enter some words and get back a bibliography. I look forward to a sequel: "Answer Engines: How You Can Enter a Short, Simple Question and Get Back a Short, Simple Answer (NOT a list of things to read)!"

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A refreshing alternative perspective..., November 10, 2003

By	"alistairlowe" (Bath, UK) - See all my reviews

I wonder if I was reading the same book as a couple of the reviewers!

IMHO there are (too) many books in this field that deal with how search engines work, but the more 'slippery' concepts associated with how people actually use them to find about information have received much less attention.

The book provides a very welcome cognitive science perspective on a discipline often dominated by those who seek overly simple mechanistic formulas and 'answers' to very tricky 'questions'.

5 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Composition of blocks from works of other authors, February 21, 2003

By A Customer

Bunch of blocks and citations from other authors with absolutely no explanations. It doesnt look like author understands anything that he borrowed from others to compose this book or dare to give one calculation example or derive a formula. Horrible, horrible book for a novice.