Embodiments use successive refinement to allow a user to systematically explore the result set of an arbitrary query over RDF, such as a SPARQL query. A user inputs an arbitrary base query and modifies this query by replacing selected variables with values to which each selected variable is bound within the result set of the base query. Embodiments present, via a GUI, variable facets that may be substituted for query variables. Embodiments also present, through a GUI, a query history graph that represents query versions that a user has created. A user may navigate this query history graph to return to previously-created query versions. The GUI also provides information about the facets, including a number of results that would be included in the result set of the query version resulting from substitution of the facet for the associated variable.