The book traces how the semi-supervised paradigm and the learning to rank paradigm emerged from new web applications, leading to a massive production of heterogeneous textual data. It explains how semi-supervised learning techniques are widely used, but only allow a limited analysis of the information content and thus do not meet the demands of many web-related tasks.
Later chapters deal with the development of learning methods for ranking entities in a large collection with respect to precise information needed. In some cases, learning a ranking function can be reduced to learning a classification function over the pairs of examples. The book proves that this task can be efficiently tackled in a new framework: learning with interdependent data.
Researchers and professionals in machine learning will find these new perspectives and solutions valuable. Learning with Partially Labeled and Interdependent Data is also useful for advanced-level students of computer science, particularly those focused on statistics and learning.