Patent ID: 7610287

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for providing communications, comprising: on one or more servers having one or more processors and memory, identifying a set of users, each user of the set of users having submitted a search query related to a first topic to a search engine used for locating resources on the Internet; dynamically creating a shared communication space for the set of users, wherein the shared communication space is selected from a group consisting of a chat room, a web page, a pop-up window, a separate application window, and a shared white board; automatically providing invitations to the set of users to join the shared communication space after the creation of the shared communication space; identifying, for each user in the set of users, communication permissions with respect to the shared communication space, wherein the communication permissions for a respective user specify: one or more information types which are permitted for receipt by the user, and one or more other information types for which receipt by the user is restricted; and enabling communication by at least a subset of the set of users that have accepted the invitation within the shared communication space in accordance with the communication permissions.