What are “Factor Graphs” and what are they useful for?

Question

A friend is using Factor Graphs to do text mining (identifying references to people in text), and it got me interested in this tool, but I\'m having a hard time finding an intui

Answer 1

They are used extensively for breaking down a problem into pieces. One very interesting application of factor graphs (and message passing on them) is the XBox Live TrueSkill algorithm. I wrote extensively about it on my blog where I tried to go for an introductory explanation rather than an overly academic one.