Some good (but heavy) info if you're interested in some of the interior workings of algos -

http://www.miislita.com/information-retrieval-tutorial/svd-lsi-tutorial-1-understanding.html

Can Google stay on top

http://www.cmomagazine.com/read/columns/ca_011906.html

The Chicago Tribune talks about search -
Find it here.

We've talked about patents before - an interesting take on it can be found here.
http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3623488

That should give you enough to chew on till Tuesday or so...