> What would be the most performance efficient way to handle 
> the case, in xslt2? 
> Are there alternatives that would not offer as "equally bad" 
> performance?
> - Setting up key(s)?
> - making keywords a space separated list so that a single 
> "contains()" 
> invocation is required on a "match"?

Using a regex is probably the best bet: matches($in, "word1|word2|word3").
The regex engine ought to be able to optimize that. But I don't know how
good a job it will do - you'll have to measure it.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/