A system and computer readable medium for providing a set of refinement categories for a set of search results generated in response to a search query. The system comprises: a category identifier system that analyzes each search result and identifies at least one category from a hierarchy of categories for each search result, thereby providing a list of identified categories; a ranking system that ranks each category in the list of identified categories; and a selection system that selects a predetermined number of the highest ranking categories from the list of identified categories to generate the set of refinement categories, wherein the selection system eliminates categories from the set of refinement categories if the category has a parent in the set of refinement categories.