1. In a computer system comprising a central server and one or more remote servers, an improved method for performing distributed query processing, the method comprising: receiving at the central server a search request specifying one or more terms for retrieving documents; at each remote server where documents have been indexed, generating partial Bayes calculation data for each term on that server; at the central server, generating global Bayes calculation data by combining the partial Bayes calculation data from each remote server; sending the global Bayes calculation data to each remote server as part of the distributed query processing; at each remote server, producing a list of matching documents sorted by relevance ranking by performing a local Bayesian query calculation based at least in part on said global Bayes calculation data; and at the central server, generating a final list of most relevant documents by merging the lists of matching relevant documents from each remote server.