Patent ID: 7548922

Claim:
A method in a data processing system for customizing and consolidating bookmarks, the method comprising: receiving a request from a requesting user to add a set of contacts to a local agent, wherein the requesting user specifies specific contacts to include in the set of contacts using a graphical user interface; in response to receiving the request, determining whether the set of contacts is authorized by the set of contacts to be added to the local agent, wherein each of the specific contacts in the set of contacts sets policies for sharing bookmarks that are owned by the specific contacts, wherein the policies determine permissions and privileges associated with the bookmarks assigned to specific users, wherein a specific contact in the set of contacts assigns different permissions and privileges for an individual bookmark to a first specific user than to a second specific user, and wherein the individual bookmark is shared with the first specific user and the individual bookmark is not shared with the second specific user; in response to determining that the set of contacts is authorized to be added to the local agent, providing a plurality of bookmarks associated with the set of contacts to the requesting user based on determined permissions and privileges associated with the bookmarks assigned to the requesting user, wherein each contact in the set of contacts is an Instant Messaging contact, the providing step further comprising; displaying, on a display device, bookmark categories of the set of contacts, wherein each of the bookmark categories contain a set of bookmarks added by the specific contact in the set of contacts; and prompting the requesting user for a category in which to add the set of contacts, wherein the category indicates a specific subject matter for a selection of at least one set of bookmarks; receiving the selection of the at least one set of bookmarks from the plurality of bookmarks that correspond to the category and are associated with the set of contacts, wherein the requesting user selects desired bookmark categories from the set of contacts that correspond to the category to form the selection of the at least one set of bookmarks using the graphical user interface; and adding the set of contacts and the selection of the at least one set of bookmarks to the category on the local agent for the requesting user, wherein the local agent is an Instant Messaging agent and the requesting user is an Instant Messaging user of the Instant Messaging agent.