Patent ID: 7912960

Claim:
A method of establishing a trust relationship between entities each controlling a respective web resource, comprising: receiving a first unique identifier associated with a first entity controlling a first web resource from a first web service upon the first entity establishing a link to a second web resource in the first web resource, the second web resource having public content and private content, the private content viewable only by users who have been authorized by an owner of the second web resource; determining when a reciprocal link is made in the second web resource directed to the first web resource, wherein the reciprocal link is made by a second entity controlling the second web resource; creating a trust relationship between the first and second entities based on the reciprocal link by exchanging identifiers between the first web resource and the second web resource, the exchanging identifiers comprising: transmitting the first unique identifier associated with the first entity from the first web resource to the second web resource; receiving the first unique identifier associated with the first entity at the second entity associated with the second web resource; transmitting a second unique identifier associated with the second entity from the second web resource to the first web resource; receiving the second unique identifier associated with the second entity controlling the second web resource at the first web resource; and verifying that the trust relationship has been established between the first entity and the second entity based on the exchanging identifiers; and providing permission to the first entity controlling the first web resource to view the private content on the second web resource upon verifying that the trust relationship has been established between the first and second entities.