9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the incoming textual information comprises textual information contained in email messages or in search queries.
1. A computer-implemented method, comprising: displaying a graphical user interface (GUI) on a display device of a computer, the GUI including a representation of a condition of a user-defined rule to process textual information and a representation of an action of the user-defined rule to process textual information, wherein the condition includes an attribute name, an operator, and an attribute value and wherein the action includes an action name and an action value; receiving user input via the GUI, the user input indicating the user-defined rule is to be used to create a rule template; creating, in response to the received user input, a rule template having a condition that is based upon the condition of the user-defined rule and an action that is based upon the action of the user-defined rule, wherein the condition of the rule template includes the attribute name and the operator from the corresponding condition of the user-defined rule, wherein the condition of the rule template further includes an attribute-value placeholder that is associated with the attribute value from the corresponding condition of the user-defined rule, wherein the action of the rule template further includes the action name from the corresponding action of the user-defined rule, and wherein the action of the rule template further includes action-value placeholder that is associated with the action value from the corresponding action of the user-defined rule; receiving a second user input that indicates a value to be used in place of the attribute-value placeholder and a value to be used in place of the action-value placeholder; creating, in response to the second user input, a second user-defined rule to process textual information, the second user-defined rule being based on the rule template and including the value to be used in place of the attribute-value placeholder and the value to be used in place of the action-value placeholder; storing the second user-defined rule in computer-readable medium on a storage device for later use in processing textual information, wherein the second user-defined rule includes a condition that includes the attribute name of the condition of the rule template, the operator of the condition of the rule template, an attribute value corresponding to the value to be used in place of the attribute-value placeholder, and wherein the second user-defined rule further includes an action that includes the action name of the action of the rule template and an action value corresponding to the value to be used in place of the action-value placeholder; using the second user-defined rule to process incoming textual information received from a customer system; and triggering the action of the second user-defined rule when the incoming textual information satisfies the condition of the second user-defined rule.