1. A method for processing a query, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of: receiving, from a client, at a server, via a contextual search interface displayed on a content presentation application executing on the client, query data indicating a query initiated by a user of said client; receiving from said client, at said server, with said query data, a context vector associated with the contextual search interface, the context vector including context data derived from content displayed on the client by the content presentation application when the query data was entered by the user; wherein the context vector includes one or more terms that are not part of the query data; wherein the context vector is not identical to said content; generating a first search result comprising a ranked list of hits using at least the query data, the context vector, and a plurality of hits obtained from searching a search corpus; wherein the step of generating the first search result includes at least one of: searching the search corpus based on search criteria that are based, at least in part, on the context vector; or ranking the plurality of hits based, at least in part, on the context vector; transmitting the first search result for presentation to the user; with said first search result, transmitting to the user a user-editable list of context terms from the context vector; receiving, from the client, an updated context vector based on a user update to the user-editable list of context terms; generating a second search result comprising a second ranked list of hits using at least the query data, the updated context vector, and a second plurality of hits obtained from searching a search corpus; wherein the step of generating the second search result includes at least one of: searching the search corpus based on search criteria that are based, at least in part, on the updated context vector; or ranking the plurality of hits based, at least in part, on the updated context vector; and transmitting the second search result for presentation to the user.