Reference Notification Method and Apparatus

A reference notification apparatus comprising:

• one or more processors;
• memory communicatively coupled to the one or more processors;
• an acquisition unit stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors that is configured to obtain an instant message that is sent from a sending user;
• a selection unit stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors that is configured to select a contact that satisfies a predetermined criterion from contacts of the sending user;
• a first determination unit stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors that is configured to determine, for the contact selected by the selection unit, content that is of interest to the contact;
• a searching unit stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors that is configured to find content of interest included in the instant message obtained by the acquisition unit based on the content determined by the first determination unit;
• and
• a sending unit stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors that is configured to send to, a contact corresponding to the found content of interest, a reference notification message for notifying that the content of interest is referenced based on the content of interest found by the searching unit.

One or more computer-readable media configured with computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, configure the one or more processors to perform acts comprising:

• obtaining an instant message sent from a sending user;
• selecting one or more contacts that satisfy a predetermined criterion from contacts of the sending user;
• for each of the one or more selected contacts, determining content of interest to the respective one of the one or more selected contacts;
• finding content of interest included in the obtained instant message based on the determined content of interest to each of the one or more selected contacts;
• and
• sending a reference notification message to a contact corresponding to the found content of interest, the reference notification message notifying the corresponding contact that the found content of interest is referenced.