Patent ID: 8565390

Claim:
A method of managing a request from a user for information from a plurality of web sites, the method comprising: a front end manager, in response to receiving a request from a user for information from one or more web sites, accessing a user profile to obtain Internet addresses for a plurality of interactive response agents, and sending a respective start request, over the internet, to each of the interactive response agents to establish a respective session with said each of the interactive response agents; each of the interactive response agents, in response to receiving the start request sent to the interactive response agent, establishing the session and sending to the front end manager an acknowledgment of the start request; each of the interactive response agents, during the session established by said each of the interactive response agents entering a loop, including said each of the interactive response agents receiving an information request across the Internet from the user for information from a specified one of the plurality of web sites, obtaining information from the specified web site, sending the obtained information across the internet to the user, and monitoring for an end of session signal across the Internet; said each of the interactive response agents receiving across the internet a request to end the session; and in response to receiving said request to end the session, said each of the interactive response agents ending the session; and wherein: the user and the front end manager are on a first side of the Internet; and the plurality of interactive response agents are on a second side of the internet, said second side being opposite said first side.