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From The Noisy Channel

Supporting the Searcher’s Journey: When and How

Sometimes, search is simple. The searcher types a few words into the search box, retrieves a ranked list of results, and selects the right one. Easy peasy.Other... Daniel Tunkelang
From The Noisy Channel | October 22, 2019 at 01:09 PM

From The Noisy Channel

I think the even more interesting case for using supply or demand is where supply vastly outstrips…

I think the even more interesting case for using supply or demand is where supply vastly outstrips demand and most intents are in the tail, e.g., searching through... Daniel Tunkelang
From The Noisy Channel | October 18, 2019 at 01:46 PM

From The Noisy Channel

You already see it on Amazon.

You already see it on Amazon. Do a search for “matrix”: not only do you only see Keanu Reeves movie results on the first page, but the left rail focuses on movies... Daniel Tunkelang
From The Noisy Channel | October 16, 2019 at 12:52 PM

From The Noisy Channel

Search: Intent, Not Inventory

When I enter a physical store, my intent is “I want to buy X” or “I’m looking for something in order to do X.” It’s not “Show me the products that satisfy characteristics... Daniel Tunkelang
From The Noisy Channel | October 14, 2019 at 09:01 AM

From The Noisy Channel

Dances with HiPPOs

Decision making, especially at technology companies, is supposed to be data-driven. Unfortunately, even in this wondrous age of science, decisions often depends... Daniel Tunkelang
From The Noisy Channel | September 4, 2019 at 11:23 AM

From The Noisy Channel

Martin, thanks for the kind words.

Martin, thanks for the kind words. The TunkRank that Jason Adams implemented has been down for a while. I’m not aware of any other implementation that is available... Daniel Tunkelang
From The Noisy Channel | August 17, 2019 at 10:04 PM

From The Noisy Channel

I’m hardly an expert on legal IR. But here are a few pointers:

I’m hardly an expert on legal IR. But here are a few pointers: Passage retrieval in legal texts [PDF] Passage Retrieval Starting from Patent Claims A Clef-Ip 2013... Daniel Tunkelang
From The Noisy Channel | August 11, 2019 at 10:44 PM

From The Noisy Channel

I can only offer high-level guidance in a comment thread.

I can only offer high-level guidance in a comment thread. But it sounds like you might benefit from collecting trigrams as well as bigrams. If mug tree stands are... Daniel Tunkelang
From The Noisy Channel | August 8, 2019 at 11:37 AM

From The Noisy Channel

I discuss it a bit in this post: https://queryunderstanding.com/query-expansion-2d68d47cf9c8

I discuss it a bit in this post: https://queryunderstanding.com/query-expansion-2d68d47cf9c8 Daniel Tunkelang
From The Noisy Channel | July 9, 2019 at 10:45 AM

From The Noisy Channel

Broad and Ambiguous Search Queries

A typical approach for processing search queries is to retrieve a set of matching documents and then rank them with a relevance scoring function. This simple approach... Daniel Tunkelang
From The Noisy Channel | July 8, 2019 at 11:03 AM

From The Noisy Channel

Premature Optimization is (Still) the Root of All Evil

A lesson that we software engineers learn early in our careers is that “premature optimization is the root of all evil.” This gem of advice from the inimitableDonald... Daniel Tunkelang
From The Noisy Channel | June 24, 2019 at 09:01 AM

From The Noisy Channel

Is Relevance Part of the Problem?

Much of the innovation in information retrieval and recommender systems focuses on better targeting in order to improve relevance. Those of us who develop suchin... Daniel Tunkelang
From The Noisy Channel | April 22, 2019 at 09:01 AM

From The Noisy Channel

Thanks Tony!

Thanks Tony! And you’re right thatI’m oversimplifying. My excuse is that it was already a 2,000-word post. :-) Daniel Tunkelang
From The Noisy Channel | March 26, 2019 at 02:01 PM

From The Noisy Channel

Search: The Whole Story

Query understanding and relevance are key aspects of search, but they don’t tell the whole story. A holistic framework for search calls for a broader perspective... Daniel Tunkelang
From The Noisy Channel | March 25, 2019 at 09:01 AM

From The Noisy Channel

Search Engines: A Human Perspective

At first glance, the design and development of search engines appear to be concerned mainly with computer science — particularly information retrieval, machine,... Daniel Tunkelang
From The Noisy Channel | March 11, 2019 at 09:01 AM

From The Noisy Channel

Reflecting on TunkRank

One of my earliest blog posts was “A Twitter Analog to PageRank”, in which I proposed a simple measure for Twitter influence.As the title indicates, the measure... Daniel Tunkelang
From The Noisy Channel | February 19, 2019 at 09:01 AM

From The Noisy Channel

I recommend the links at the bottom of Peter Norvig’s post: https://norvig.com/spell-correct.html

I recommend the links at the bottom of Peter Norvig’s post: https://norvig.com/spell-correct.html Daniel Tunkelang
From The Noisy Channel | December 8, 2018 at 02:50 PM

From The Noisy Channel

Mike, I appreciate your detailed response.

Mike, I appreciate your detailed response. And I agree that there are worse possible worlds than our present one — specifically, that replacing disclosed advertising... Daniel Tunkelang
From The Noisy Channel | December 3, 2018 at 04:46 PM

From The Noisy Channel

Are Ads Really That Bad?

Long-time readers know that I’m not a fan of ads. Specifically, I’m not a fan of ad-supported business models. But is that just a matter of personal taste? Or does... Daniel Tunkelang
From The Noisy Channel | November 26, 2018 at 10:01 AM

From The Noisy Channel

Activate 2018: Search in Practice

I don’t always attend conferences. But when I do, I prefer conferences full of search practitioners focused on solving real-world problems.I just came back from... Daniel Tunkelang
From The Noisy Channel | October 19, 2018 at 12:39 PM