An information management system is provided including a database and one or more data retrieval tools, a data retrieval tool being arranged to retrieve information according to registered interests of users of the system and to store data in the database relating to the information retrieved. User interests may be stored in the database as user profiles comprising one or more keywords. In addition, projects may be defined, each project having a profile stored within the system. A user interface enables a user to enter user and project profile or other information, and a data input tool is provided to generate from the user input one or more data sets for storage as profiles in the database, Control means are provided to take user input, submit it to the data input tool and to supply data sets generated and stored thereby to the data retrieval tool for use in searching and locating relevant information. A user may also manually select, from output by a data retrieval tool, information for persistent storage in relation to the user's profile or in relation to one or more projects to which the user has appropriate access. The control means may be arranged to control access by users to view or modify projects and to share associated information.

Methods, systems and computer program products are provided for remote control of a processing system by receiving a generic message from a message source and extracting from the generic message a source and instructions describing the control of the remote processing system. The remote processing system is the controlled in a manner specified by the instructions extracted from the generic message so as to provide processing results. A generic message containing the processing results may then be generated and transmitted to the source of the generic message. Preferably, the generic message is an e-mail message.

A method and system for interactively responding to queries from a remotely located user includes a computer server system configured to receiving an instant message query or request from the user over the Internet. The query or request is interpreted and appropriate action is taken, such as accessing a local or remote data resource and formulating an answer to the user's query. The answer is formatted as appropriate and returned to the user as an instant message or via another route specified by the user. A method and system of providing authenticated access to a given web page via instant messaging is also disclosed.

A user is enabled to navigate through an electronic data base in a personalized manner. A context is created based on a profile of the user, the profile being at least partly formed in advance. Candidate data is selected from the data base under control of the context and the user is enabled to interact with the candidates. The profile is based on topical information supplied by the user in advance and a history of previous accesses from the user to the data base.

A search query is applied to documents in a document repository wherein the documents are organized into a hierarchy. A search engine searches the hierarchy to return documents which match a query term either directly or indirectly. A specific embodiment of the search engine organizes the query term into individual subterms and matches the subterms against documents, returning only those documents which indirectly match the entire search query term and directly match at least one of the query subterms.