1. A system, comprising: a processor; and a memory coupled with the processor and storing a set of instructions which, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to implement: a language analysis module configured to parse content of a query into elements and to associate an annotation with respective ones of the elements, a type of annotation being either canonical or conceptual; a rules engine coupled to the language analysis module to receive the elements and the annotation, the rules engine configured to perform a first comparison of a first condition of at least one rule from a rules dictionary against the elements and the annotation, each of the rules of the rules dictionary copmrising at least one respective condition and at least one respective action, the rules engine configured to perform a second comparison of peripheral information distinct from the content of the query to a second different condition of at least one rule from the rules dictionary, wherein the rules engine is further configured to selectively enable an action based on a result of the first comparison and a result of the second comparison and wherein the action when enabled selects a first information retrieval technology of a plurality of information retrieval technologies based on the selectively enabled action; a response generator coupled to the rules engine, the response generator configured to generate a query response based at least in part on both the first comparison and the second comparison, the response generator configured to display the generated query response as an answer to the query, wherein the response generator is further configured to generate the query response based on a content storage search via a semantic index of said first information retrieval technology and wherein a second action when enabled selects a second information retrieval technology, and the second information retrieval technology is configured to supply a managed answer to the query; and associating, via a regular expression language specifying the first condition of the corresponding rule, a plurality of the elements and the annotation with a concept in a multi-layered concept repository, wherein the action specifies the concept as a key used to access the semantic index.