38. A hypermedia-based navigation system comprising: one or more database servers having databases of available hyperlink targets, each such database being searchable by means of one or more query attributes supported by the database and relating to the available hyperlink targets; an information provider that provides a hypermedia document, the hypermedia document having at least one hyperlink, said hyperlink containing a query formulation that is specified at least partially in terms of query attributes and of values for said query attributes; a client configured to resolve the hyperlink by querying at least one of the databases with the query formulation from the hyperlink to locate one or more hyperlink targets having attributes and attribute values that satisfy the query formulation; wherein at least some of the hyperlink targets specify hypermedia documents from servers other than the one or more database servers.
38. A hypermedia-based navigation system comprising: one or more database servers having databases of available hyperlink targets, each such database being searchable by means of one or more query attributes supported by the database and relating to the available hyperlink targets; an information provider that provides a hypermedia document, the hypermedia document having at least one hyperlink, said hyperlink containing a query formulation that is specified at least partially in terms of query attributes and of values for said query attributes; a client configured to resolve the hyperlink by querying at least one of the databases with the query formulation from the hyperlink to locate one or more hyperlink targets having attributes and attribute values that satisfy the query formulation; wherein at least some of the hyperlink targets specify hypermedia documents from servers other than the one or more database servers. 41. A hypermedia-based navigation system as recited in claim 38, further comprising a list of bound attributes maintained by the client, herein the hyperlink contains one or more executable rules for potentially adding search predicates to the query formulation depending on said bound attributes.