Patent ID: 7603413

Claim:
A computer program product tangibly embodied in a computer readable medium, the computer program product including instructions that, when executed, facilitate on-line communication among multiple instant messaging identities, the computer program product configured to cause a computer to: detect presence of a target instant messaging identity in a chat room that is accessible over a network of computers to instant messaging identities and who desires interaction with other instant messaging identities who are presently on-line in the chat room; present questions to the target instant messaging identity, at least one of the questions including selectable responses associated with the question; receive, from the target instant messaging identity, responses to the questions; access, from computer-accessible memory, stored responses to the questions, at least one of the stored response having been received from another instant messaging identity and being associated with the other instant messaging identity who provided the response; compare responses received from the target instant messaging identity to the accessed stored responses; identify, based at least in part on results of the comparison, a group of less than all of instant messaging identities who are currently on-line; and use an instant messaging identity representing an instant messaging robot to introduce the identified group of instant messaging identities who are currently on-line to the target instant messaging identity and to introduce the target instant messaging identity to the identified group of instant messaging identities who are currently on-line.