Have you ever wondered how computers understand which words in a book or article are the most important? That’s where something called “IDF” comes in. IDF stands for “Inverse Document Frequency,” and it’s a way for computers to figure out how special or rare a word is in a big pile of text, like a library full of books.
Imagine you’re at school, and everyone is talking about a certain new game. The word “game” might be heard everywhere, so it’s not very special. But if only a few people mention “chess,” then “chess” is more unique and interesting. IDF helps computers decide which words are like “game” (common) and which ones are like “chess” (special). It does this by looking at lots of documents and seeing how often each word appears.
When a word shows up in many documents, it gets a lower IDF score because it’s not rare. But if a word is only in a few documents, it gets a higher IDF score, making it stand out. By using IDF, computers can focus on important words and understand what a document is really about. This helps search engines, like Google, find the most useful information for us when we search for something online.
What is an IDF?
Have you ever wondered how computers understand which words in a book or article are the most important? That’s where something called “IDF” comes in. IDF stands for “Inverse Document Frequency,” and it’s a way for computers to figure out how special or rare a word is in a big pile of text, like a library full of books.
Imagine you’re at school, and everyone is talking about a certain new game. The word “game” might be heard everywhere, so it’s not very special. But if only a few people mention “chess,” then “chess” is more unique and interesting. IDF helps computers decide which words are like “game” (common) and which ones are like “chess” (special). It does this by looking at lots of documents and seeing how often each word appears.
When a word shows up in many documents, it gets a lower IDF score because it’s not rare. But if a word is only in a few documents, it gets a higher IDF score, making it stand out. By using IDF, computers can focus on important words and understand what a document is really about. This helps search engines, like Google, find the most useful information for us when we search for something online.