Adding Information or Functionality to a Rendered Document via Association with an Electronic Counterpart

1 - 20 . (canceled)

21 . A method, comprising:

at an index publication server:

receiving a full-text index for determining textual content of a plurality of electronic documents, wherein each electronic document of the plurality of electronic documents corresponds to a respective rendered document;

receiving a query that is based on a text capture from at least a portion of a rendered document;

determining a first level of query matching between the received query and a first rendered document;

determining a second level of query matching between the received query and a second rendered document wherein the first rendered document differs from the second rendered document;

retrieving, from the full-text index, a first specified level of matching for the first rendered document;

retrieving, from the full-text index, a second specified level of matching for the second rendered document;

determining that the first level of query matching exceeds the first specified level of matching; and

responsively generating a first query result, for the received query, that identifies the first rendered document; and

aggregating a plurality of indications of received queries to generate a profile of documents that have been queried.

22 . The method of claim 21 , wherein the text capture is obtained by optical scanning.

23 . The method of claim 22 , further comprising storing an indication that the text capture is obtained by optical scanning.

24 . The method of claim 22 , wherein the received query contains an indication that the text capture is obtained by optical scanning.

25 . The method of claim 24 , wherein the first query result is generated for the received query in a manner different than is used for queries not containing the indication.

26 . The method of claim 21 , wherein the plurality of electronic documents comprises an electronic document for which a paper version exists.

27 . The method of claim 21 , wherein the plurality of electronic documents comprises an electronic document for which a paper version is known to have been created.

28 . The method of claim 21 , wherein the plurality of electronic documents comprises an electronic document of a document type for which paper versions are typically created.

29 . The method of claim 21 , wherein the first query result returns identifications of electronic versions of documents of which paper versions exist.

30 . The method of claim 21 , wherein the first query result comprises an indication of a location in the first rendered document where the text capture occurs.

31 . The method of claim 21 , further comprising:

receiving a selection of the first rendered document identified in the first query result; and

providing controlled access to the first rendered document.

32 . The method of claim 31 , wherein providing controlled access to first rendered document comprises imposing a pecuniary charge for access to the first rendered document.

33 . The method of claim 31 , wherein providing controlled access to the first rendered document comprises providing access to the first rendered document when access the first rendered document is approved.

34 . The method of claim 21 , wherein an index is used to generate at least the first query result, and wherein the index used to generate at least the first query result is the full-text index.

35 . The method of claim 34 , further comprising:

receiving additional indexes; and

creating an aggregated index consolidating the full-text index with the additional indexes, wherein the index used to generate at least the first query result is the aggregated index.

36 . The method of claim 34 , further comprising:

creating an aggregated index consolidating the full-text index with index information for one or more public networks, wherein the index used to generate at least the first query result comprises the aggregated index.

37 . The method of claim 21 , wherein at least one electronic document of the plurality of electronic documents is identified by one or more links between documents available inside a network.

38 . The method of claim 21 , wherein at least one electronic document of the plurality of electronic documents is identified based on one or more document catalogs.

39 . The method of claim 38 , wherein at least one document catalog of the one or more document catalogs is a file system directory.

40 . The method of claim 38 , wherein at least one document catalog of the one or more document catalogs is a document management system catalog.

41 . The method of claim 34 , wherein using the index based on the full-text index to generate at least the first query result comprises: determining that the first query result is permitted to include an identification of the first rendered document in the first query result.

42 . The method of claim 21 , wherein the full-text index comprises a plurality of indexes, each index of the plurality of indexes covering a subset of the plurality of electronic documents, such that the first rendered document is covered in a distinguished index, and

wherein the method further comprises:

determining that one or more requirements for revealing the first rendered document are satisfied; and

in response, using the distinguished index to generate the first query result.

43 . The method of claim 21 , wherein the full-text index comprises a filtered index.

44 . The method of claim 34 , wherein the received query comprises a contiguous-string query specifying an ordered sequence of query terms, and wherein the method further comprises: using the index based upon the full-text index to determine that each query term in the ordered sequence of query terms is contained in the first rendered document; and

determining that the first rendered document satisfies the contiguous-string query.

45 . The method of claim 44 , wherein the index based upon the full-text index is configured to determine that the first rendered document satisfies the contiguous-string query.

46 . The method of claim 21 , further comprising:

determining that the second level of query matching is less than the second specified level of matching; and

responsively determining not to generate, for the received query, a second query result that identifies the second rendered document.

47 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed, cause a computing system to perform operations, comprising:

receiving a full-text index for determining textual content of a plurality of electronic documents, wherein each electronic document of the plurality of electronic documents corresponds to a respective rendered document;

receiving a query that is based on a text capture from at least a portion of a rendered document;

determining a first level of query matching between the full-text query and a first rendered document;

determining a second level of query matching between the received query and a second rendered document, wherein the first rendered document differs from the second rendered document;

retrieving, from the full-text index, a first specified level of matching for the first rendered document;

retrieving, from the full-text index, a second specified level of matching for the second rendered document;

determining that the first level of query matching exceeds the first specified level of matching;

responsively generating a first query result, for the received query, that identifies the first rendered document; and

aggregating a plurality of indications of received queries to generate a profile of documents that have been queried.

48 . An index publication server, configured to:

receive a full-text index for determining textual content of a plurality of electronic documents, wherein each electronic document of the plurality of electronic documents corresponds to a respective rendered document;

receive a query that is based on a text capture from at least a portion of a rendered document; and

determine a first level of query matching between the received query and a first rendered document;

determine a second level of query matching between the received query and a second rendered document, wherein the first rendered document differs from the second rendered document;

retrieve, from the full-text index, a first specified level of matching for the first rendered document;

retrieve, from the full-text index, a second specified level of matching for the second rendered document;

determine that the first level of query matching exceeds the first specified level of matching;

responsively generate a first query result for the received query that identifies the first rendered document; and

aggregate a plurality of indications of received queries to generate a profile of documents that have been queried.

49 . An index aggregation system, comprising:

an index subsystem comprising:

a first full-text index;

a second full-text index, wherein at least one of the first full-text index or the second full-text index is configured to store a specified level of matching for an electronic document, and wherein the specified level of matching specifies a level of matching that a query for the electronic document has to match the electronic document before existence of the electronic document is revealed;

a query subsystem configured to service a plurality of queries by searching at least the first full-text index and the second full-text index to generate a plurality of query results corresponding to the plurality of queries based on the specified levels of matching in the at least one of the first full-text index or the second full-text index and to aggregate a plurality of indications of received queries to generate a profile of documents that have been queried, wherein at least one query of the plurality of queries is based on a text capture from at least a portion of a rendered document, and

wherein a query result corresponding to the at least one query is configured to identify the rendered document and at least one electronic document corresponding to the rendered document.

50 . The index aggregation system of claim 49 , wherein the index aggregation system is configured to identify a preferred index and return results from the preferred index.

51 . The index aggregation system of claim 50 , wherein the index aggregation system is configured to identify the preferred index based on content of a query.

52 . The index aggregation system of claim 49 , further comprising:

a payment subsystem, configured to receive payments;

wherein the query subsystem is further configured to service a first distinguished query after the payment subsystem receives a payment for the first distinguished query.

53 . The index aggregation system of claim 49 , further comprising:

a payment subsystem, configured to receive payments;

wherein the query subsystem is further configured to service a second distinguished query before the payment subsystem receives a payment for the second distinguished query.

54 . The index aggregation system of claim 49 , wherein the index subsystem further comprises a third index.

55 . A system, comprising:

an index subsystem comprising:

a first full-text index;

a second full-text index, wherein the first full-text index differs from the second full-text index, wherein at least one of the first full-text index or the second full-text index is configured to store a specified level of matching for an electronic document, and wherein the specified level of matching specifies a level of matching that a query for the electronic document has to match the electronic document before existence of the electronic document is revealed;

a query subsystem configured to generate a plurality of query results for a corresponding plurality of queries by searching at least the first and second full-text indices based on the specified levels of matching in the at least one of the first full-text index or the second full-text index and to aggregate a plurality of indications of received queries to generate a profile of documents that have been queried, wherein at least one query of the plurality of queries is based on a text capture from at least a portion of a rendered document, and wherein a query result corresponding to the at least one query is configured to identify the rendered document and at least one electronic document corresponding to the rendered document; and

a result subsystem that returns at least some of the plurality of query results based on the specified levels of matching in the at least one of the first full-text index or the second full-text index.