Modern Information Retrieval

Rating:
Summary: Stellar presentation of complex material
Review: A fantastic, in depth, survey of all the issues surrounding IR, from algorithms to presentation of IR results. With one clear authorial voice, the authors present all the things you hope a survey book will- a structured, coherent and complete framework onto which you can append future learning; what common practice within commercial industry really is; a quantitative analysis of the relative effectiveness of each algorithm, including the methodolgy used to arrive at results; an in-depth and clear explanation of all major algorithms.

They also give fair warning when they are only covering the outline of subject matter (which is rare), and they give extensive footnotes for anyone who needs to go deeper. The writing is always clear; the auithors never engage in the type of handwaving that other authors use to get past material you have the impression they themselves don't fully grasp.

If you need to implement search for a database and don't know where to start or what might be involved, this is the book for you. If you need to implement the GUI for search results and are wondering what the state of the art is and what issues are involved, then this is the book for you. If you need a well-structured framework to help you understand how internet search engines work, then this is the book for you. If you want to press the research forward on any of these topics and you are not already fluent in the literature, then this is the book for you.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent state of the art on information retrieval
Review: A very good approach to IR from a computer science perspective. Well organized and easy to read although some chapter could be dry for a novice. Excellent cover of visualization techniques, digital libraries, and web searching from a conceptual point of view. The reference list is large enough (and up-to-date) to keep you busy reading more material for several weeks.

Rating:
Summary: Good introduction for computer scientists
Review: Includes a nice overview of different Information Retrieval techiques. The think I liked most is the uniformity of notation throughout the whole book, that let you compare different approaches withouth getting lost in myriads of mathematical symbols defined in different ways by different authors.
The authors also suggest you the most efficient and effective techniques, so that you can use this information to avoid implementing naive and inefficient solutions.

Rating:
Summary: Can be used in both for study and for a real world.
Review: This book give you a very usable way in Information Retrieval. Before I read this book, my knowledge in IR was almost zero. But after I finished, I can do an IR project in my grad program. This book also give you a modern concept in IR that you can apply in a real-use. But it requires some knowledge in Computer Science way.

This book suits IT professionals, Computer Scientists, and students in both grad and undergrad.

I have spent several weeks to read this book.