Patent ID: 7440976

Claim:
A method for performing a collaborative search, the method comprising: receiving a first search request from a first user at a collaborative-search system; identifying a group of users that sent search requests that were similar to the first search request; sending a notification to the first user, wherein the notification identifies the group of users that sent search requests that were similar to the first search request; upon receiving a request from the first user to view a search history for the group of users, sending the search history for the group of users to the first user; and further comprising configuring the collaborative-search system, wherein configuring the collaborative-search system involves: defining a search community, wherein the group of users is a subset of the search community, specifying a subset of users from the search community that can view a search history of the first user, and specifying a set of keywords, wherein the set of keywords relate to subjects that the first user can help a second user find information on.