Apparatus and method for adaptively ranking search results

This invention relates generally to computerized techniques for identifying relevant documents. More particularly, this invention describes computerized techniques for adaptively ranking documents identified in response to a search query. A method of ranking search results includes producing a relevance score for a document in view of a query. A similarity score is calculated for the query utilizing a feature vector that characterizes attributes and query words associated with the document. A rank value is assigned to the document based upon the relevance score and the similarity score.