Integration of personalized portals with web content syndication

A system for responding to a query, the system comprising:

• a client system configured to generate a query;
• and
• a search server including a general-purpose search engine configured to:
• receive the query from the client system including a plurality search terms and search a search index to generate, in response to the search terms, a list of one or more hits each hit referencing a target page or site, the list of one or more hits capable of including each of one or more hits with an associated syndication feed and one or more hits without an associated syndication feed;
• detect whether the target page or the site has an associated syndication feed;
• provide the list of one or more hits capable of including each of one or more hits with an associated syndication feed and one or more hits without an associated syndication feed, including a syndication option for each target page or site that has an associated syndication feed;
• provide a preview pane of syndication feeds subscribed to by a user along with the list of one or more hits;
• receive a selection of the syndication option for one of the hits from the user;
• update the preview pane of syndication feeds to include the selection of the syndication option from the user;
• in response to the selection, update a syndication content section on a personal portal page for the user to include a subscription to the syndication feed selected by the user, the personal portal page comprising content sections, other than the syndication content section, not associated with syndication feeds;
• and
• provide the personal portal page, as an alternative interface, for the user to subscribe the personal portal page to a syndication feed based on the updated personal portal page.

Computer readable media comprising program code that when executed by a programmable processor causes the processor to perform a method for responding to a query, the method comprising:

• receiving, in a general-purpose search engine, the query from a user including a plurality of search terms;
• generating, in response to the search terms, a list of one or more hits, each hit referencing a target page or site, the list of one or more hits capable of including each of one or more hits with an associated syndication feed and one or more hits without an associated syndication feed;
• for each target page or site, detecting whether the target page or the site has an associated syndication feed;
• providing the list of one or more hits capable of including each of one or more hits with an associated syndication feed and one or more hits without an associated syndication feed, including a syndication option for each target page or site that has an associated syndication feed;
• providing a preview pane of syndication feeds subscribed to by the user along with the list of one or more hits;
• receiving a selection of the syndication option for one of the hits from the user;
• updating the preview pane of syndication feeds to include the selection of the syndication option from the user;
• in response to the selection, updating a syndication content section on a personal portal page for the user to include a subscription to the syndication feed selected by the user, the personal portal page comprising content sections, other than the syndication content section, not associated with syndication feeds;
• and
• providing the personal portal page, as an alternative interface, for the user to subscribe the personal portal page to a syndication feed based on the updated personal portal page.