DETERMINING RELEVANT CONTACTS BASED ON EXPERTISE AND AVAILABILITY

A method for identifying knowledgeable and available contacts in a given instant messaging system for possible communication purposes. The method includes a computer receiving a keyword and searching for the keyword in correspondence files of users of the instant messaging system. Based on the results of the search, the computer identifies users that have used the keyword in their correspondence. The computer determines the availability of each of the identified users and ranks the identified users based on predefined criteria, which includes at least the determined availability.