1. One or more computer storage media storing computer-useable instructions that, when used by one or more computing devices, cause the one or more computing devices to perform a method comprising: receiving an update file, wherein the update file provides an indication that a modification has occurred to the content of one or more documents associated with an inverted index; and publishing the update file to in-memory index managers located on a plurality of index serving devices, wherein the in-memory index managers are configured for initiating an update process that applies the update file to a primary in-memory index; wherein the update process comprises: for each update file published to the in-memory index managers, determining whether each index serving device of the plurality of index serving devices contains mapping data corresponding to the update file; for each index serving device containing mapping data corresponding to the update file, extracting from the update file a document identifier of the one or more documents associated with the modified content; for each index serving device containing mapping data corresponding to the update file, ascertaining a position of the modified content utilizing an index object, wherein the index object maintains a structured record of a location of the content of one of the one or more documents associated with the inverted index; and utilizing the update file, the document identifier, and the position of the modified content, to update the primary in-memory index, wherein the primary in-memory index is used to serve a set of query results in response to one or more user queries.