Patent ID: 7290061

Claim:
A system for collaborative exchange of Web based content information between and among disparate and unrelated content sources, the system comprising: at least a web content server, disposed at a facility, the facility belonging to a particular content provider, the provider providing content through the web server; a server appliance, electronically disposed between the web server and a wide area communication network, the server appliance terminating a HTTP session directed to the web server and initiating a HTTP session with the web server as a substitute; and a content collaboration engine, the engine hosted on the server appliance, the content collaboration engine further comprising; a content recognition engine, the recognition engine receiving content from the web server in response to the HTTP session initiated by the appliance, the recognition engine converting received content to DOM, the recognition engine further classifying content in accordance with XML recognition rules; and a content mapping engine, the mapping engine extracting content definition fields from classified content and requesting, via a request for information protocol comprising a content category structure definition, related content from a consortium of collaborating sites, the content category structure definition having a format for categorizing content, the requested content having content definition fields including values substantially the same as the extracted content definition fields.