Natural Language Processing for Online Applications: Text retrieval, extraction and categorization: 5

The authors had the good idea of not making this book a vendor guide but rather an overview of methodologies and technologies available and the evaluation criteria for the techniques described. I do not believe their goal was to publish a detailed overview but an introduction to the various technologies available. In that regard, the book is very successful and I much appreciate it because key concepts are clearly outlined which it makes it easier to follow the authors through the more complex parts of the book. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in NLP and its applications to the new challenges brought out by the arrival of the information age. — Patrick Drouin, University of Montreal, in Terminology 10:1, 2004

In my view, the book is very practical: certainly, since it is pretty comprehensible and does not go into too profound details, it could serve well as a textbook for an introductory course. However, the book is not intended exclusively as an academic text. It is also aimed at software engineers, project managers, and technology executives who want or need to understand the technology at some level. I think that such people may find it useful, and that it may provoke ideas, discussions, and action the field of applied research and development. — Martin Holub, in The Prague Bulletin of Mathematical Linguistics Vol. 83, 2005

Some special features of the book include solid coverage of evaluation techniques in every chapter, excellent endnotes, and references to exactly the right stuff. However, the most salient feature of this book is the clear and cogent writing. It reads much like a series of well-written review articles an is actually enjoyable to read while not skimping at all on technical detail. — K. Bretonnel Cohen, University of Colorado, in Language 80(1), 2004