Introduction to information extraction

In recent years, analysts have been confronted with the increasing availabi lity of on-line sources of information in the form of natural-language text s. This increased accessibility of textual information has led to a corresp onding interest in technology for processing this text automatically to ext ract task-relevant information. This demand for a technological solution to the need to deal with the often-overwhelming quantity of available informa tion has stimulated the development of the field of Information Extraction. This article provides an overview of the problems addressed, current appro aches toward solutions, and assesses the state of the art and its potential for future progress.