Triggering actions in response to optically or acoustically capturing keywords from a rendered document

1. A method in a computing system having a processor for processing text captured from a rendered document, comprising:

receiving a sequence of one or more words optically or acoustically captured from a rendered document by a user;

with the processor, identifying among the words of the sequence a word with which an action has been associated; and

performing the associated action with respect to the user.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the action is associated with the identified word by virtue of sponsorship of the action by a third party.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein performing the associated action includes presenting an advertising message to the user on behalf of the third party.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the associated action is displaying information on a display device near the user.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the associated action is sending an email message to the user.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the associated action is sending an email message from the user to a recipient associated with the rendered document.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the associated action is printing information on a printer near the user.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein a plurality of actions have been associated with the identified word, the method further comprising selecting one of the associated actions for performance.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the selecting is based at least in part upon attributes of the rendered document.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the selecting is based at least in part upon the identity of the rendered document.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the selecting is based at least in part upon a group of documents of which the rendered document is a member.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein the selecting is based at least in part upon the type of the rendered document.

13. The method of claim 9 wherein the selecting is based at least in part upon the source of the rendered document.

14. The method of claim 8 wherein the selecting is based at least in part upon attributes of the user.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the selecting is based at least in part upon the identity of the user.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein the selecting is based at least in part upon the location of the user.

17. The method of claim 14 wherein the selecting is based at least in part upon a group of people of which the user is a member.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the action was associated with the identified word after the rendered document was authored.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein the action was associated with the identified word after the rendered document was rendered.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein the action is associated with the identified word for only the rendered document.

21. A computer-readable medium having contents capable of causing a computing system having a processor to perform a method for processing text captured from a rendered document, the method comprising:

receiving a sequence of one or more words optically or acoustically captured from a rendered document by a user;

with the processor, identifying among the words of the sequence a word with which an action has been associated; and

performing the associated action with respect to the user.

22. A computing system for processing text captured from a rendered document, comprising:

a receiver that receives a sequence of one or more words optically or acoustically captured from a rendered document by a user;

a processor that identifies among the words of the sequence a word with which an action has been associated; and

an action performance subsystem that performs the associated action with respect to the user.