Method and apparatus providing omnibus view of online and offline content of various file types and sources

Data management equipment for use in an online service facility selectively accessed by multiple end-user computers, the online service facility including a plurality of online data centers operated by an online service provider (OSP) to store end-users' data objects relating to a variety of online services that the OSP renders to its end-users, the equipment comprising:

• an aggregated catalog including:
• (1) at least one data store residing in at least one of the data centers, said at least one data store containing metadata identifying end-users' data objects,
• (2) at least one data store residing in respective end-user computers containing metadata identifying end-users' data objects;
• an aggregator, the aggregator comprising a processor programmed to perform operations, comprising:
• detecting new storage in the online data centers of prescribed types of data objects owned by the end-users;
• communicating with the end-user computers to identify prescribed types of data objects newly stored in the end-user computers;
• updating the aggregated catalog to list to include metadata identifying the newly stored data objects contained in the online data centers and the newly stored data objects from the end-user computers;
• and
• a finder, the finder comprising a processor programmed to perform operations comprising, responsive to each request by an end-user, searching the aggregated catalog and utilizing results of the search to provide an output for display at the requesting end-user's computer, the output comprising a consolidated listing of data objects of the end-user residing in the online data centers and data objects of the end-user residing in the end-user's computer;
• where the finder is further programmed such that:
• the consolidated listing includes at least one user-activatable feature to activate further processing of any specific data objects identified by the listing.

Data management equipment for use in an online service facility selectively accessed by multiple end-user computers, the online service facility including a plurality of online data centers operated by an online service provider (OSP) to store end-users' data objects relating to a variety of online services that the OSP renders to its end-users, the equipment comprising:

• aggregated catalog means for storing information including:
• (1) metadata identifying end-users' data objects residing in the online data centers, and
• (2) metadata identifying end-users' data objects residing in respective end-user computers;
• aggregator means comprising a processor programmed for:
• detecting new storage in the online data centers of prescribed types of data objects owned by the end-users;
• communicating with the end-user computers to identify prescribed types of data objects newly stored in the end-user computers;
• updating the aggregated catalog to list to include metadata identifying the newly stored data objects contained in the online data centers and the newly stored data objects from the end-user computers;
• and
• finder means, comprising a processor programmed for, responsive to each request by a end-user, searching the aggregated catalog means and utilizing results of the search to provide an output for display at the requesting end-user's computer, the output comprising a consolidated listing of data objects of the end-user residing in the online data centers and data objects of the end-user residing in the end user's computer, wherein the consolidated listing includes wherein the consolidated listing includes at least one user-activatable feature to activate further processing of any specific data objects identified by the listing.