Patent ID: 7899862

Claim:
A method of informing a user of other network users, the method comprising: executing instructions on one or more processing devices such that the one or more processing devices perform the following: determining an online context of a user, the online context being one or more of a web site currently accessed by the user, an Internet domain currently accessed by the user, a newsgroup currently accessed by the user, or a URL currently accessed by the user; determining an online context of other users; storing trait information for the user; comparing the online context of the user to the online context of the other users; storing trait information for the other users when the other users enter the online context of the user and removing the stored trait information for the other users when the other users leave the online context of the user; comparing the stored trait information for the user to the stored trait information for the other users; based on the comparison, identifying a group of the other users sharing the online context of the user and at least one trait with the user, the number of users in the group of the other users being less than the number of the other users; and causing presentation, to the user, of an indicator before the user is in communication with any member of the identified group, the indicator identifying at least one user as a member of the group of the other users sharing the online context of the user and the at least one trait with the user.