Patent ID: 7047233

Claim:
A method of providing information in a directory system comprising a directory for company information, goods and services; a communications network; a directory computer operated by a directory provider; a plurality of search computers operated by enquirers which search computers are connected within the network; and a plurality of active content providers operating active content provider computers, at least some of which are connected to the directory computer; in which the initial steps are performed of: classifying company information, goods and services for which the information will be provided under unique identifiers; obtaining a list of company information, goods and services as provider content which the active content providers wish to include in the directory; obtaining a list of company information, goods and services provided by unconnected passive providers which the directory provider wishes to include as provider content in the directory; allocating the unique identifiers to the provider content; preparing a provider database of the provider content for active content providers and passive providers; and in which the steps are subsequently performed of: the search computer opens a communications link with the directory computer; the directory computer downloads a search page containing a query heading; the search computer enters onto the search page an initial search request; the directory computer carries out a search through the provider database; and the directory computer downloads the provider content relevant to the search request as a search result; and in which, when the initial search request includes more than one unique identifier, the steps are carried out of: sorting the provider content into groups having the same unique identifier; searching the groups to ascertain the content providers appearing in more than one group; taking the content provider or providers listed in the most groups; sorting those groups as a first classification list of content providers; repeating the process until there is a final classification list of content providers listed in only one group; and downloading the provider content for each of these lists to the enquirer computer; and in which, as required from time to time: the active content provider computers update the content of the provider database.