Writing in a conversational tone, Croft (comuter science, University of Massachusetts- Amherst) overviews key issues in information retrieval (IR) and shows how they affect the design and implementation of search engines. Coverage is based primarily on the search technology commonly used on the Web, but because search engines are used in many other applications, there is a strong emphasis on the information retrieval strategies and concepts underlying all search engines. Coverage progresses from architecture of a search engine through processing text, retrieval models, evaluating search engines, and social search. Mathematics used in the book, and code and programming exercises, are all accessible to students who have taken basic computer science and programming classes. Chapter exercises make extensive use of a Java-based open source search engine called Galago, which was designed for this book and incorporates lessons learned from experience with the Lemur and Indri projects. The text can be used for an introductory course in IR for undergraduate and graduate students in computer science, computer engineering, and information science. The clever cover art shows a photo of a car engine. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)