12. In an information search and result processing system comprising a computer processor having a recent history list containing references to recently accessed documents, an information search and result processing method comprising the steps of: (a) providing a content extractor proxy that implements a pre-defined programmatic interface for content extractors; (b) receiving from a user a search request; (c) retrieving a result set in response to said search request; (d) displaying said result set to said user; (e) receiving from said user a document request for a document contained in said result set, said document request selected from the group consisting of a preview request to preview said document and a download request to download said document; (f) determining whether said recent history list contains a reference to said document; (g) upon a determination in step (f) that said recent history list contains a reference to said document, providing said document for download; (h) upon a determination in step (f) that said recent history list does not contain a reference to said document, determining whether said document request is a preview request or a download request; (i) upon a determination in step (h) that said document request is a preview request, providing said user with a preview of said document; (j) upon a determination in step (h) that said document request is a download request, providing said document for download only after making a determination that said user previously previewed said document; and (k) creating a document popularity value to be used for future result sets for documents contained in said result set of step (c) wherein the popularity value is different for documents that have been both previewed and downloaded in step (j) than documents that have been just previewed in step (i).
12. In an information search and result processing system comprising a computer processor having a recent history list containing references to recently accessed documents, an information search and result processing method comprising the steps of: (a) providing a content extractor proxy that implements a pre-defined programmatic interface for content extractors; (b) receiving from a user a search request; (c) retrieving a result set in response to said search request; (d) displaying said result set to said user; (e) receiving from said user a document request for a document contained in said result set, said document request selected from the group consisting of a preview request to preview said document and a download request to download said document; (f) determining whether said recent history list contains a reference to said document; (g) upon a determination in step (f) that said recent history list contains a reference to said document, providing said document for download; (h) upon a determination in step (f) that said recent history list does not contain a reference to said document, determining whether said document request is a preview request or a download request; (i) upon a determination in step (h) that said document request is a preview request, providing said user with a preview of said document; (j) upon a determination in step (h) that said document request is a download request, providing said document for download only after making a determination that said user previously previewed said document; and (k) creating a document popularity value to be used for future result sets for documents contained in said result set of step (c) wherein the popularity value is different for documents that have been both previewed and downloaded in step (j) than documents that have been just previewed in step (i). 14. The method of claim 12 , further comprising, upon a determination in step (g) that said document request is a preview request, the step of updating said popularity value for said document.