Patent ID: 7200635

Claim:
A messaging system comprising: an interactive system for the production and interchange of messages by users over a network; a time synchronizer for time stamping messages; an automated topic separator receiving user messages and separating messages according to different topics, wherein the automated topic separator includes a language-model topic classifier that estimates a topic of the user messages or parts of the user messages based, at least in part, on their respective word content, and a final topic separator which separates messages or parts of messages based on a difference between their respective estimated topics and the difference between their respective time stampings, such that messages or parts of messages are separated into different topics when said difference between their estimated topics exceeds a threshold, the threshold being based, at least in part, on the difference between their respective time stampings, and wherein the threshold, at least in part, is made smaller as said time difference increases; a user interface, coupled to said topic separator, for representing in a distinct way parts of messages that were separated by said topic separator, wherein said user interface displays at least one of said messages in windows according to topic, and messages in different colors according to topic, and wherein the user interface enables a subgroup of users to conduct a messaging session separate from other users, within a framework of an ongoing session or topic.