Most information retrieval systems start with a user's explicit query. Systems and methods are provided that perform implicit or background queries to one or more information sources based on the ongoing activities of users. The methods provide users with the results of such automated contextualized searches in an unobtrusive manner. In one aspect, implicit queries are run when users are reading, working on or composing an application. Queries can be automatically generated by analyzing an application, and results can be presented in a variety of peripheral display configurations, including a small pane adjacent to a current window to provide peripheral awareness of related information that is automatically determined from existing user context and/or related content from the application. The invention includes methods for building models that predict the value of different queries, and of the results generated by such queries, based on logged data, and for using such models to control query formulation and to mediate decisions about displaying the results of implicit queries.