Best way to search data stored as XML in Sql Server?

Say I have data structures stored as XML (XML data type) within Sql Server. A user wishes to pull out a record if, within the data, a certain string is found.

What are my options for implementing this, and which is the best way to do it?

Note that each record can have different XML data structures

From stackoverflow Will

• I found the XQuery support in SQL 2005 very useful.

  From Gulzar

• I think that if you think you'll need to search the XML on a regular basis, you would save a lot of pain by extracting some of the fields from the XML into their own columns in the database. Storing the XML as a chunk of text isn't very database friendly - it can't be indexed, cached properly, or used in complex queries easily.

  From zigdon

• If your Xml is strongly typed, as in you have a schema, then use the XQuery stuff and build views over the top of your Xml columns. The strongly typed stuff isn't a requirement, by any means, but it allows you to build your views in a predicable manner.

  From MotoWilliams