Abstract: The present invention provides systems and methods for accurately parsing an information retrieval query and for generating accurate results based on the query. Queries are processed as a collection of atomic terminals of one or more search domains. The systems and methods typically implement a lexicon comprising a set of associations between known terminals and the phrase types to which they belong and a grammar comprising a set of deterministic syntax rules for translating a single phrase type of the domain into an ordered set of phrase types of similar expressiveness. Parsing includes separating a query into identifiable terminals of the domain language and comparing a collection of phrase types against the grammar to see if any subset of phrases types can be grouped together and translated into a higher level phrase type.

Abstract: Embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods for processing queries provided as short messages. Keywords can be extracted from short messages and specific meaning can be derived and attributed to the short messages based on various attributes and context associated with the message, time of day and a user. Responses are provided that comprise content from information sources identified as best-fit search result. Responses are provided that comprise a menu having options identifying plural high probability search results. An alert system is disclosed for generating and managing alerts based on search results. Based on search results, a user can be connected to an information service or a transactional system and can be provided with advertising, marketing and help information.