1. An improved method for ranking documents using a ranking model, the method comprising: obtaining a data set, wherein the data set includes a plurality of documents and document metadata, wherein the document metadata describes relationships between the documents; maximizing a likelihood figure by employing a gradient ascent that utilizes the document metadata and the relationship descriptions to determine the likelihood figure; modifying parameters of the ranking model, wherein the parameters are modified by the use of the likelihood, wherein the ranking model employs a Continuous Conditional Random Field, and wherein the ranking model utilizes a conditional probability distribution representing a mapping relationship from the plurality of documents to associated ranking scores represented by continuous variables; and ranking the documents by the use of the modified parameters, wherein the ranking of the documents is consistent with the document metadata.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the metadata that describes relationships between the documents includes hyperlinks.