ELECTRONIC INFORMATION APPRAISAL AGENT

An electronic information appraisal agent which operates within an electronic information distribution system and includes an electronic information server having multiple electronic information units. Requests for electronic information are transferred from the appraisal agent to an electronic information server, which compares the contents of the server to a set of search criteria. In one embodiment, the server returns a set of electronic information to the appraisal agent which matches the search criteria. In another embodiment, the server returns information indicating whether the search criteria matched any information in the server. In one embodiment, the electronic information distribution system also includes a metering server which is coupled to the electronic information server and the client system. The metering server allows multiple client systems to receive electronic information units from the electronic information server.