Relevance - what is it?

[woodbowl]

When doing a search, the heading shows:  subject, started by, relevance and date posted.  The relevance column shows a percentage for each topic. The percentages vary.  I have been to the help tab, searched the word relevance and even searched the word search. ......... What is "Relevance" and what do the percentages represent?

[Jeff]

Beats me.  :D

[woodbowl]

 :D :D :D........................

[Furby]

From Google:

The document relevance bar is an expression of the calculated relevance of this document compared to the other documents in the same result set. Ranges are from zero to 100, where 100 is the most relevant. The calculation is based on hit clustering, cluster proximity, document density, word weight and other factors.
www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/help/glossary.html

A measure of how closely a database entry matches a search request. Most search tools on the Web return results based on relevance. The specific algorithm for computing relevance varies from one service to another, but it's often based on the number of times terms in the search expression appear in the document and whether they appear in the appropriate fields.
www.webliminal.com/internet-today/it-gloss.html

A subjective measure of how well a document satisfies the user's information need. Ideally, your search tool should retrieve all of the documents relevant to your search. However, this is subjective and difficult to quantify.
www.virtechseo.com/seoglossary.htm

A criterion used in evaluating the quality of information. Relevance describes how closely the contents of an information source match the topics under discussion.
lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/healthsci/vocab.html

Some search engines rank search results with a relevance score, using various algorithms to define relevance. Although some of these sorters are quite sophisticated, it is more effective to use specific search terms and "advanced search" options for retrieving "relevant" hits. See also: Positioning and Term Frequency.
www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/ofp/srchglos.htm

refers to how closely the search engine results appear to match your query. Often it is based upon the number of times your search terms appear in a record. Most search engines attempt to sort and rank your hits by relevance.
www.lib.ku.edu/research/terms.shtml

Percentage of truly related material retrieved by a specific query or search statement.
www.geocities.com/pribond/bioinfo/glossary/information.htm

[Jeff]

Let no answer go without a question. Or something like that. ;)

Here is the hofficial forum answer.


Things I can adjust, what they mean and where they are set now.

1. Relative search weight for number of matching messages within a topic

Set at 30%

Meaning:
Weight factors are used to determine the relevancy of a search result. Change these weight factors to match the things that are specifically important for your forum. For instance, a forum of a news site, might want a relatively high value for 'age of last matching message'. All values are relative in relation to each other and should be positive integers.

This factor counts the amount of matching messages and divides them by the total number of messages within a topic.

2. Relative search weight for age of last matching message

Set at 25%

Meaning: This factor rates the age of the last matching message within a topic. The more recent this message is, the higher the score.

3. Relative search weight for topic length

Set at 20%

Meaning: This factor is based on the topic size. The more messages are within the topic, the higher the score.

4. Relative search weight for a matching subject

Set at 15%

Meaning: This factor looks whether a search term can be found withing the subject of a topic.

5. Relative search weight for a first message match

Set at 10%

Meaning: This factor looks whether a match can be found in the first message of a topic.