Patent ID: 7895263

Claim:
A method of providing notifications via an electronic notification system, the method comprising: receiving authorization to access a first reverse 911 database maintained by an entity different from the notification system, wherein the first reverse 911 database includes a plurality of contact paths, and wherein each of the plurality of contact paths is associated with a corresponding zip code; receiving over a network a selection of a first geographical area; receiving from a first user a notification instruction for a first notification intended for recipients in the first geographical area; identifying a set of recipients residing in the first geographical area according to zip-codes from the first reverse 911 database corresponding to the first geographical area; determining which of the identified recipients in the first geographical area are registered users of the notification system, said registered users having submitted contact paths to the notification system, wherein the submitted contact paths are stored in a second database maintained by the notification system, wherein the determining comprises comparing the identified recipients' contact paths from the first reverse 911 database with the submitted contact paths stored in the second database; for those identified recipients that are determined to be registered users of the notification system, providing the notification using at least one of the submitted contact paths in a user specified order; and for those identified recipients that are determined to not be registered users of the notification system, providing the notification using the contact paths from the first reverse 911 database, wherein the identifying, the determining and the providing of the notification are performed automatically by a processor executing on a computer system of the electronic notification system.