Marrying Relevance and Genre Rankings: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

In this chapter, we discuss different options for using genre-related information in Web search. We conduct an experiment on merging genre-related and text-relevance rankings using a reference Web collection. A method for automatic extraction of formality score akin to readability score using canonical discriminant analysis applied to a sample of genres with decreasing formality is proposed. Effects of aggregating genre-related and text relevance rankings are considered. Evaluation of the results shows moderate positive effects. Findings suggest that further research is needed on implicit use of genre-related information in Web search.