Clustering Queries for Better Document Ranking

Different queries require different ranking methods. It is however challenging to determine what queries are similar, and how to rank documents for them. In this paper, we propose a new method to cluster queries according to the similarity determined based on URLs in their answers. We then train specific ranking models for each query cluster. In addition, a cluster-specific measure of authority is defined to favor documents from authoritative websites on the corresponding topics. The proposed approach is tested using data from a search engine. It turns out that our proposed topic-dependent models can significantly improve the search results of eight most popular categories of queries.