Patent Document ID: 8949359
Application ID: 14108090

Base Claim:
1. A method of hosting electronic conversations, comprising: at a computer system having one or more processors and memory storing programs for execution by the one or more processors, maintaining a plurality of conversations, each having an identified set of participants; maintaining for each respective participant in one or more of the conversations, a respective participant-specific inverse index of terms in conversations for which the respective participant is an identified participant; in response to receiving a search query from a first participant of a first conversation in the plurality of conversations: using the participant-specific inverse index corresponding to the first participant to identify a second conversation in the plurality of conversations as relevant to the search query, and formatting all or a portion of the second conversation for display to the first participant; wherein the plurality of conversations are instant messaging conversations, and participants in each conversation in the plurality of conversations are instant messaging participants.

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Claim 7:
7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising prior to receiving the search query: receiving a message from a second participant to the second conversation; and updating respective participant-specific inverse indexes for each identified participant of the second conversation, including the participant-specific inverse index for the first participant.