19. A computer readable storage medium having stored therein instructions, which when executed by a computer system cause the computer system to: receive user instructions to associate each of a first virtual channel and a second virtual channel with a first content provider, wherein the first virtual channel includes a first set of user-specified search criteria and the second virtual channel includes a second set of user-specified search criteria that is different from the first set of search criteria; continuously perform operations according to a predefined schedule, the operations including: receive a first set of information items from the first content provider, wherein each information item includes a document title, a document summary, and a document link to a document at a respective remote location; for each of the first set of information items, retrieve the document identified by the corresponding document link from the respective remote location; apply the first set of search criteria to each of the first set of information items and its associated document to generate a first set of search results, wherein the first set of search results includes a first set of chunks within a first document and a third set of chunks within a second document, and each of the first set and the third set of chunks satisfies the first set of search criteria; apply the second set of search criteria to each of the first set of information items and its associated document to generate a second set of search results, wherein the second set of search results includes a second set of chunks within the first document, and each of the second set of chunks satisfies the second set of search criteria, wherein there is at least one difference between the first set of chunks and the second set of chunks; associate the first virtual channel with the first set of search results and the second virtual channel with the second set of search results, wherein there is at least one search result associated with both the first virtual channel and the second virtual channel; display the first virtual channel and the second virtual channel on the client computer; in response to a user selection of the first virtual channel, display, at least partially, information items associated with the first set of search results and the first set of chunks within the first document and the third set of chunks within the second document to the user; and in response to a user selection of one of the first set of chunks, display, at least partially, the first document including the user-selected chunk to the user adjacent to the display of the first set of chunks and the third set of chunks, wherein the user-selected chunk is visually distinguished from the rest of the document.
20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 19 , further comprising: instructions for, in response to a user selection of the second virtual channel, displaying, at least partially, information items associated with the second set of search results and the second set of chunks within the first document to the user.