Integrating a Search Service with a Social Network Resource

摘要

A system is described for integrating a search engine and one or more social network resources. The system operates by determining whether a search operation being conducted by a user warrants interaction with a social network resource. If so, the system may provide an invitation to the user to forward a query-related message to the social network resource. The system then sends the message to a group of contacts via the social network resource, where the group of contacts can be defined in various ways. The system receives a response from at least one contact in the group of contacts and presents that response to the user using various delivery mechanisms, as governed by various delivery timings.