17. An apparatus comprising: a memory device storing instructions for determining relevant search results; and a processor executing the instructions to perform the steps of: performing a search on a document database according to a search query containing query terms; obtaining, from the document database over a network, documents resulting from performing the search query, the documents containing terms that match the search query; determining base relevancy scores for the documents; adjusting the base relevancy scores by applying a lead boosting value calculated according to an influence function, the influence function promoting a particular word position in a document, the particular word position being a predetermined number of words from the beginning of the document; and ranking the documents according to the adjusted base relevancy scores.
17. An apparatus comprising: a memory device storing instructions for determining relevant search results; and a processor executing the instructions to perform the steps of: performing a search on a document database according to a search query containing query terms; obtaining, from the document database over a network, documents resulting from performing the search query, the documents containing terms that match the search query; determining base relevancy scores for the documents; adjusting the base relevancy scores by applying a lead boosting value calculated according to an influence function, the influence function promoting a particular word position in a document, the particular word position being a predetermined number of words from the beginning of the document; and ranking the documents according to the adjusted base relevancy scores. 21. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the lead boosting value is applied to the base relevancy scores in response to a user selection, or based on satisfaction of a predetermined criteria.