By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
SmartData Collective
  • Analytics
    AnalyticsShow More
    data analytics in sports industry
    Here’s How Data Analytics In Sports Is Changing The Game
    6 Min Read
    data analytics on nursing career
    Advances in Data Analytics Are Rapidly Transforming Nursing
    8 Min Read
    data analytics reveals the benefits of MBA
    Data Analytics Technology Proves Benefits of an MBA
    9 Min Read
    data-driven image seo
    Data Analytics Helps Marketers Substantially Boost Image SEO
    8 Min Read
    construction analytics
    5 Benefits of Analytics to Manage Commercial Construction
    5 Min Read
  • Big Data
  • BI
  • Exclusive
  • IT
  • Marketing
  • Software
Search
© 2008-23 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Micro vs. Macro Information Retrieval
Share
Notification Show More
Latest News
big data mac performance
Data-Driven Tips to Optimize the Speed of Macs
News
3 Ways AI Has Helped Marketers and Creative Professionals Streamline Workflows
3 Ways AI Has Helped Marketers and Creative Professionals Streamline Workflows
Artificial Intelligence
data analytics in sports industry
Here’s How Data Analytics In Sports Is Changing The Game
Big Data
data analytics on nursing career
Advances in Data Analytics Are Rapidly Transforming Nursing
Analytics
data analytics reveals the benefits of MBA
Data Analytics Technology Proves Benefits of an MBA
Analytics
Aa
SmartData Collective
Aa
Search
  • About
  • Help
  • Privacy
Follow US
© 2008-23 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
SmartData Collective > Big Data > Data Mining > Micro vs. Macro Information Retrieval
Data Mining

Micro vs. Macro Information Retrieval

Daniel Tunkelang
Last updated: 2009/09/12 at 7:04 PM
Daniel Tunkelang
5 Min Read
SHARE

The Probably Irrelevant blog has been quiet for a while, but I was happy to see a new post there by Miles Efron about “micro-IR.” He characterizes micro-IR, as distinct from macro or general IR, as follows:

  1. In ad hoc (text) IR a principal intellectual challenge lies in modeling ‘aboutness.’ In micro-IR settings, the creativity comes into play in posing a useful (and tractable) question to answer. The engineering comes easily after that.
  2. The constrained nature of micro-IR applications leads to a lightweight articulation of information need. There is a tight coupling here between task, query, and the unit of retrieval, a dynamic that I think is compelling. Pushing this a bit farther, we might consider the simple act of choosing to use a particular application from those apps on a user’s palette as part of the information need expression.
  3. The tight coupling of task to data to ‘query’ enables a strong contextual element to inform the interaction. Context constitutes the foreground of the micro-IR interaction.

He then asks: “is micro-IR something at all? Is it actually related to IR?” Fernando Diaz answers that “the only difference between micro and macro IR is text.” Jinyoung …

The Probably Irrelevant blog has been quiet for a while, but I was happy to see a new post there by Miles Efron about “micro-IR.” He characterizes micro-IR, as distinct from macro or general IR, as follows:

More Read

google ai technology

Understanding Google’s AI SERP Algorithms is Key to Successful SEO Strategies

10 Tips on Getting More Out of Google Analytics
Google Uses Machine Learning To Combat Low Quality Link Spam
BigQuery Service: Next Big Thing Unveiled By Google on Big Data
5 Key Takeaways for Businesses from Google I/O 2015
  1. In ad hoc (text) IR a principal intellectual challenge lies in modeling ‘aboutness.’ In micro-IR settings, the creativity comes into play in posing a useful (and tractable) question to answer. The engineering comes easily after that.
  2. The constrained nature of micro-IR applications leads to a lightweight articulation of information need. There is a tight coupling here between task, query, and the unit of retrieval, a dynamic that I think is compelling. Pushing this a bit farther, we might consider the simple act of choosing to use a particular application from those apps on a user’s palette as part of the information need expression.
  3. The tight coupling of task to data to ‘query’ enables a strong contextual element to inform the interaction. Context constitutes the foreground of the micro-IR interaction.

He then asks: “is micro-IR something at all? Is it actually related to IR?” Fernando Diaz answers that “the only difference between micro and macro IR is text.” Jinyoung Kim adds that in micro-IR “the context (searcher goal) is known, with domain-specific notion of relevance (goodness) and similarity measures.”

I hadn’t thought of making this particular distinction, but I like it. While I prefer to think about distinguishing the needs of information seekers – rather than the characteristics of search applications – I would be the first to argue that a well-designed search application caters to particular user needs. Indeed, I think the definition of a good micro-IR application implies that it addresses a highly constrained space of information needs. Just as importantly, micro-IR applications can often assume that their users are highly familiar with the information space the applications address, and thus that those users need less of the basic orienteering support that can be critical for success using macro-IR systems. That said, micro-IR users have (or should have) higher expectations of support for more sophisticated information seeking.

The other day, I speculated about why Google holds back on faceted search. I feel that the distinction between macro- and micro-IR is in the same vein: micro-IR settings (e.g., site search, enterprise search,vertical search) drive needs for more richer interfaces and support for interaction, while macro-IR application developers (e.g., general web search) worry mostly about producing a reasonable answer for the query–and often lead users to micro-IR destinations that offer their own support for information seeking within their constrained domains.

In short, it’s a nice way to think about the IR application space, and it’s increasingly relevant (no pun intended!) as we see a proliferation of micro-IR applications. And it’s great to see activity on the Probably Irrelevant blog after all these months of radio silence!

Link to original post

TAGGED: google, information retrieval
Daniel Tunkelang September 12, 2009
Share this Article
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn
Share

Follow us on Facebook

Latest News

big data mac performance
Data-Driven Tips to Optimize the Speed of Macs
News
3 Ways AI Has Helped Marketers and Creative Professionals Streamline Workflows
3 Ways AI Has Helped Marketers and Creative Professionals Streamline Workflows
Artificial Intelligence
data analytics in sports industry
Here’s How Data Analytics In Sports Is Changing The Game
Big Data
data analytics on nursing career
Advances in Data Analytics Are Rapidly Transforming Nursing
Analytics

Stay Connected

1.2k Followers Like
33.7k Followers Follow
222 Followers Pin

You Might also Like

google ai technology
Exclusive

Understanding Google’s AI SERP Algorithms is Key to Successful SEO Strategies

9 Min Read
google analytics guideline
Analytics

10 Tips on Getting More Out of Google Analytics

6 Min Read
combat low quality link spam
Big DataExclusiveMachine Learning

Google Uses Machine Learning To Combat Low Quality Link Spam

6 Min Read
bigquery
Big DataCloud ComputingData Management

BigQuery Service: Next Big Thing Unveiled By Google on Big Data

6 Min Read

SmartData Collective is one of the largest & trusted community covering technical content about Big Data, BI, Cloud, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, IoT & more.

ai is improving the safety of cars
From Bolts to Bots: How AI Is Fortifying the Automotive Industry
Artificial Intelligence
ai in ecommerce
Artificial Intelligence for eCommerce: A Closer Look
Artificial Intelligence

Quick Link

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Follow US

© 2008-23 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.

Removed from reading list

Undo
Go to mobile version
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?