Providing help suggestions based on online activity of a contact

A non-transient machine-readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

• receiving from a user an electronic help request identifying one or more contacts;
• classifying the received electronic help request into one or more help categories;
• sending an electronic help invitation to the one or more contacts identified in the electronic help request;
• receiving an acceptance of the electronic help invitation from at least one contact of the one or more contacts identified in the electronic help request;
• determining whether the one or more contacts is engaged in online activity relevant to the electronic help request, wherein determining whether the one or more contacts is engaged in online activity relevant to the electronic help request includes comparing the one or more classified help categories to the one or more contacts' online activity;
• determining an electronic help suggestion type to provide to the one or more contacts based on a type of the one or more contacts' online activity;
• and
• providing an electronic help suggestion to the at least one contact of the one or more contacts who accepted the electronic help invitation based on the one or more contacts' online activity, according to the determined electronic help suggestion type,
• wherein providing the electronic help suggestion comprises providing a user interface to the at least one contact, and
• wherein the user interface provides for the at least one contact to select, for each of plural types of online activities corresponding to an online history of the at least one contact, whether online activity of that type, corresponding to the online history of the at least one contact, is permitted or denied for use in addressing the electronic help request.

A system for processing electronic messages, the system comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• a machine-readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by the processors, cause the processors to perform operations comprising:
• receiving from a user an electronic help request identifying one or more contacts;
• classifying the received electronic help request into one or more help categories;
• sending an electronic help invitation to the one or more contacts identified in the electronic help request, to provide help to the user on the one or more help categories classified in the electronic help request;
• determining that at least one contact's of the one or more contacts online activity is relevant to the electronic help invitation;
• and
• providing an electronic help suggestion based on the at least one contact's of one or more contacts online activity that is relevant to the electronic help invitation, to the at least one contact of the one or more contacts who received the electronic help invitation,
• wherein providing the electronic help suggestion comprises providing a user interface to the at least one contact, and
• wherein the user interface provides for the at least one contact to select, for each of plural types of online activities corresponding to an online history of the at least one contact, whether online activity of that type, corresponding to the online history of the at least one contact, is permitted or denied for use in addressing the electronic help request.