Patent ID: 8122121

Claim:
A method for notifying one or more users of a present state of at least one property of an entity, the method comprising: a) receiving a request message from a user over a first communications channel, the message containing information indicating at least one property of an entity in which the user is interested; b) determining the present state of said at least one property; c) determining an identifier of at least one second communications channel onto which future messages containing information relating to future changes of state of the at least one property of the entity will be transmitted; and d) transmitting a reply message to the user, the reply message containing information indicative of the present state of the at least one property and of an identifier for each second communications channel; wherein the determining in c) further comprises: mapping the requested property to at least one communications channel onto which future messages which indirectly relate to the state of the property will be transmitted; and wherein an identity of the at least one communications channel is used as the identifier.