Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention include a computer-implemented method of extracting information. In one embodiment, the present invention comprises defining a plurality of reusable operators, wherein each operator performs a predefined information extraction task different from the other operators. Composite annotators may be created by specifying a composition of the reusable operators. Each operator may receive a searchable item, such as a web page or an annotation, and may generate one or more output annotations. The output annotations may be further processed by other reusable operators and the annotations may be stored in a repository for use during a search.