Disclosed herein is a computer-implemented method of carrying on a conversation, the method including: during a conversation session, receiving an electronic query initiated by a user; based on query data associated with the query, automatically retrieving first result data from a hierarchical taxonomy; in the event that the first result data contains one or more user-selectable options, generating an electronic response to the query based at least on the one or more user-selectable options; and otherwise: based on the query data, automatically retrieving second result data from a tagged-content source and generating the electronic response to the query based at least on the second result data.