Method for determining contextual summary information across documents

摘要

In a method for determining contextual summary information across documents retrieved in response to a user query applied to a collection of documents the documents matching the query are identified. A query-dependent subsection of each of the matching documents is selected. Document properties associated with the document subsection are selected and associated with localized structures within the document. Relationships between localized document properties and user queries are determined and used to compute contextual summary information, whereby localized document properties are profiled across the retrieved documents in a contextual manner. The method allows a user query to select localized structures within a matching document and is generally applicable in information retrieval and the analysis of retrieved information.