Method of using a natural language interface to retrieve information from one or more data resources

A method of retrieving a telephone number for a particular destination from a plurality of Internet sites and using said telephone number to place a call to the particular destination comprising:

• receiving a natural language query directed to retrieving a telephone number for a particular destination;
• extracting at least one object from the natural language query;
• creating one or more semantic representations from the at least one extracted objects;
• comparing the one or more semantic representations to a knowledge structure, said knowledge structure comprised of objects and relations categorized from a plurality of data resources;
• generating at least one search query based on said comparison;
• transmitting said at least one search query to said plurality of Internet sites;
• matching the at least one search query to one or more callable objects, at least one of said callable objects being associated with a telephone number;
• and
• placing a telephone call to the destination associated with the matched callable object.

A method of using a natural language query to receive information from a plurality of Internet sites, each Internet site comprising a particular type of information comprising:

• receiving said natural language query;
• identifying objects from said query;
• categorizing each object by type of information;
• matching each object to a particular Internet site based on its categorization;
• generating a database query for each object;
• applying each database query to the particular Internet site identified;
• retrieving the requested information from each Internet site:
• using the identified objects to interpret the information requested for by the natural language query;
• merging the information retrieved from each database query based on said interpretation;
• and
• providing the requested information.

A method of using a natural language query to retrieve information from a plurality of Internet sites and using said information to perform a requested action comprising:

• receiving a natural language query directed to retrieving said information;
• processing the natural language query to generate at least one database query, said processing step including identifying objects within the natural language query and, based on the identified objects, determining to which Internet sites each database query should be sent;
• using said at least one database query to retrieve said information from said plurality of identified Internet sites;
• and
• using said retrieved information to perform said requested action.