Abstract: A mechanism or computer system which aids the user in sifting through a list of search results from a search query on a collection of documents. It does so by 1) processing the list of search results, 2) extracting a list of keywords from the results, 3) presenting the keywords to the user, 4) allowing the user to select keywords and apply sifting operations to those keywords, and 5) producing a sifted list from the original list of search results using the user's selections. The sifted list may exclude some of the original search results and may reorder the remaining results to match the user's selections. Finally, this invention may provide a function to combine the user-selected keywords and sifting operations with the original query to produce a more restricted or refined query to resubmit to the search engine.