Abstract: A method comprising: accessing a record of past emails or IM messages between a first user and other users; receiving a search query from the first user; from amongst a set of entities, identifying a subset as preferred entities of the first user; causing a graphical user interface to selectively display a list of the preferred entities; in response to the receipt of the received search query, automatically causing the graphical user interface to display, simultaneously in association with each respective one of the preferred entities in the list, a separate respective numerical count of search results found for the respective entity based on the received search query; and based on the first user selecting one of the entities from the list, causing the graphical user interface to display to the first user a filtered-down list formed from some or all of the search results for the selected entity.

Abstract: A method comprising: accessing a record of past emails or IM messages between a first user and other users; receiving a search query from the first user; from amongst a set of entities, identifying a subset as preferred entities of the first user; causing a graphical user interface to selectively display a list of the preferred entities; in response to the receipt of the received search query, automatically causing the graphical user interface to display, simultaneously in association with each respective one of the preferred entities in the list, a separate respective numerical count of search results found for the respective entity based on the received search query; and based on the first user selecting one of the entities from the list, causing the graphical user interface to display to the first user a filtered-down list formed from some or all of the search results for the selected entity.