28. A computer-implemented method for providing query parameters to a search engine, comprising: receiving, at a computer system, selection indicators that specify at least two locations of an electronic document, wherein the at least two locations define an area within an electronic document that has been selected by a user of the computer system; selecting, by the computer system, text that is contained within the defined area; extracting the selected text from the electronic document; determining that the selected text comprises a partial word; identifying unselected text that the user did not select and that is located outside of the defined area for augmenting the selected text, wherein the unselected text is identified from among a plurality of unselected text elements in the electronic document based on a determination that the unselected text, when appended to the selected text, will complete the partial word; appending the unselected text to the selected text; determining a context associated with the selected text based on the identified plurality of unselected text elements; generating one or more query terms based on the determined context, wherein the one or more query terms are different than the unselected text; creating a search query based on the selected text appended with the unselected text and the one or more query terms, wherein the creation of the search query is initiated by the selection of the text; and presenting the search query to a search engine.
29. The method of claim 28 , wherein the selection indicators comprise input received from a computer mouse in association with a click-and-drag operation.