search engines today are capable of incorporating numeric scoring modifiers from controlling applications into their relevance computations . challenges arise in keeping these modifiers current , given that they may change over time . embodiments provide a new way to compute numeric value decay for efficient relevance computation without having to rely on a controlling application . the controlling application can set a value for a modifier of an object managed by the controlling application and the controlling application can perform operations on the modifier . however , the controlling application does not need to keep track of the modifier and compute the modifier value independently . rather , a search engine is configured to perform decay computation and adjust the modifier value on a regular basis or on demand . the search engine ensures that modifier values for all the objects indexed by the search engine are always valid — within acceptable ranges and with acceptable adjustments .