13. A method, comprising: parsing content of a received query into elements using a processor; associating an annotation with respective ones of the elements; comparing a first condition of at least one rule from a rules dictionary against the elements and the annotation; comparing a second condition of at least one rule from the rules dictionary against peripheral information distinct from the content of the query; generating a query response based at least in part on the comparisons and displaying the generated query response as an answer to the query; selectively firing at least one action of at least one of the rules from the rules dictionary based on results of the comparisons, wherein the subset of the information retrieval technologies comprises at least a first and second one of the information retrieval technologies, and wherein selectively firing at least one action comprises selectively firing a plurality of actions; in response to the selective firing, operating only a subset of a plurality of information retrieval technologies based on the selectively fired action, said operating to produce respective information; generating the query response based on said respective information; matching, by at least one of the rules, a plurality of the elements and the annotation to a concept representing an intent of the query content, wherein each of the plurality of the elements and the annotation corresponds to a word of the query content, wherein the matching is via a regular expression language, wherein the matching determines if at least one of the elements and the annotation shares a common ancestor in a multi-layered concept repository with a question example from the rules dictionary; using the matched concept as a key to search a semantic index; in response to a first one of the firing actions, operating the first information retrieval technology; in response to a second one of the firing actions, operating the second information retrieval technology; and providing, via the second information retrieval technology, a managed answer.
13. A method, comprising: parsing content of a received query into elements using a processor; associating an annotation with respective ones of the elements; comparing a first condition of at least one rule from a rules dictionary against the elements and the annotation; comparing a second condition of at least one rule from the rules dictionary against peripheral information distinct from the content of the query; generating a query response based at least in part on the comparisons and displaying the generated query response as an answer to the query; selectively firing at least one action of at least one of the rules from the rules dictionary based on results of the comparisons, wherein the subset of the information retrieval technologies comprises at least a first and second one of the information retrieval technologies, and wherein selectively firing at least one action comprises selectively firing a plurality of actions; in response to the selective firing, operating only a subset of a plurality of information retrieval technologies based on the selectively fired action, said operating to produce respective information; generating the query response based on said respective information; matching, by at least one of the rules, a plurality of the elements and the annotation to a concept representing an intent of the query content, wherein each of the plurality of the elements and the annotation corresponds to a word of the query content, wherein the matching is via a regular expression language, wherein the matching determines if at least one of the elements and the annotation shares a common ancestor in a multi-layered concept repository with a question example from the rules dictionary; using the matched concept as a key to search a semantic index; in response to a first one of the firing actions, operating the first information retrieval technology; in response to a second one of the firing actions, operating the second information retrieval technology; and providing, via the second information retrieval technology, a managed answer. 22. The method of claim 13 , wherein selectively firing at least one action comprises selectively firing a plurality of actions, the method further comprising: specifying weightings via the actions selectively fired by the rules; determining relevance to the query content of individual documents according to the weightings; and displaying the documents according to the relevance; wherein the rules of the rules dictionary identify both the concept representing the intent of the query content to be addressed in the information and the weightings determining the relevance of the documents in the information.