Patent ID: 7917465

Claim:
A computerized method for providing one or more of vector terms on the basis of which content items may be retrieved, the one or more vector terms related to one or more terms or phrases comprising an instant messaging conversation, the method comprising: retrieving, periodically during an instant messaging conversation, one or more terms or phrases comprising the instant messaging conversation in which one or more users are participating; electronically, generating, via a processing device, one or more term vectors comprising one or more vector terms associated with the one or more retrieved terms or phrases comprising the instant messaging conversation; electronically, selecting, via the processing device, one or more vector terms from said term vectors, the one or more selected vector terms associated with terms or phrases appearing with the greatest frequency in the instant messaging conversation and are periodically updated based on one or more topic changes in the instant messaging conversation; electronically providing the one or more selected vector terms to the one or more users participating in the instant messaging conversation during the instant messaging conversation, wherein the provided vector terms are periodically refreshed; receiving an indication of a user selection of a given provided vector term; generating a query associated with the selected vector term; providing links to one or more content items responsive to the query associated with the selected vector term; and retrieving the one or more content items responsive to the query associated with the selected vector term.