Information item retrieval

Abstract

The invention provides a method and system for enabling a user (100) to identify one or more information items which the user (100) or another party has previously accessed, the method comprising the steps of: recording in a computer readable storage medium concurrent attributes (101) concerning one or more events or computer system states occurring concurrently with the previous access of the information items by the user (100) or other party; receiving a search request specification (102) from the user (100) seeking to find one of the previously accessed information items, the search request specification comprising one or more specified concurrent attributes (30,40,50) including at least one unrelated concurrent attribute (50) which bears no relation, other than concurrence, to the previously accessed information item being sought or to the previous access thereof; accessing the recorded concurrent attributes and identifying to the user one or more of the previously accessed information items which satisfy the search request specification.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.