Patent ID: 8266098

Claim:
A computer method comprising performing operations in at least one data processing device, the operations comprising: maintaining, embodied in at least one computer readable medium, at least one database including expert profile information and historical chat session transcripts along with a respective quality indication for each transcript, the transcripts relating to past user inquiries of experts within a social network; receiving a request for a new chat session including a question from a current user; and deriving information relevant to the new chat session responsive to at least one of: the quality indications; and similarity between the request and text from chat session transcripts from the database, said deriving comprising, not necessarily in the following order: comparing the question with text from the chat session transcripts to obtain first results; comparing the question with the expert profile information to obtain second results; and, combining the first and second results of together with the quality indications to yield a ranking of experts relevant to the question.