Patent ID: 7668918

Claim:
A system, comprising: an instant messaging system configured to send and receive instant messages, the instant messaging system comprising: an instant messenger component configured to send and receive incoming instant message communication; a survey generation component coupled to the instant messenger component and configured to open a survey construction component in a web browser to allow a user to construct a survey as a web page in the web browser based on user selections within the survey construction component, the survey generation component adapted to place a link to the survey in an outgoing instant message to multiple recipients when the survey is finalized within the web browser, wherein a survey comprises a communication that allows the multiple recipients to each choose one of a plurality of pre-defined responses to specific questions; the survey construction component further configured to automatically generate the web page based on the user selections and to store the web page on a server accessible to the multiple recipients; wherein the link is configured such that when one of the multiple recipients selects the link, a web page browser will launch and open the web page containing the survey; and the survey generation component is further configured to provide an identifier of the outgoing instant message along with a list of potential recipients and to allow a user to select a recipient to receive the outgoing instant message by dragging and dropping a recipient identifier from the list of potential recipients to the outgoing instant message identifier.