Managing web services data and presence data

One or more computer-readable storage devices comprising instructions stored thereon that, responsive to execution by a processor, implement a web services proxy configured to perform operations comprising:

• collecting social networking data for multiple users from multiple social networking sites, the web services proxy interfaced with multiple different web service adapters through an application programming interface (API), each web service adapter associated with a different one of the multiple social networking sites and configured to communicate with the respective social networking site using a specific communication format associated with the respective social networking site to collect the social networking data;
• combining the social networking data for the multiple users to generate a unified compilation of the social networking data;
• collecting presence data of the multiple users;
• searching the unified compilation of the social networking data and the presence data in accordance with a request from a requesting device to locate multiple users matching a specified criteria of the request;
• generating a list of the multiple users matching the specified criteria of the request;
• determining a particular communication format for the requesting device;
• encapsulating the list of the multiple users matching the specified criteria into the particular communication format for the requesting device;
• and
• transmitting, over a network, the encapsulated list of the multiple users matching the specified criteria to the requesting device.

A computing system comprising:

• one or more processing devices;
• and
• memory storing program instructions executable via the one or more processing devices to implement a web services proxy configured to perform operations comprising:
• collecting social networking data for multiple users from multiple social networking sites, the web services proxy interfaced with multiple different web service adapters through an application programming interface (API), each web service adapter associated with a different one of the multiple social networking sites and configured to communicate with the respective social networking site using a specific communication format associated with the respective social networking site to collect the social networking data;
• combining the social networking data for the multiple users to generate a unified compilation of the social networking data;
• collecting presence data of the multiple users;
• searching the unified compilation of the social networking data and the presence data in accordance with a request from a requesting device to locate multiple users matching a specified criteria of the request;
• generating a list of the multiple users matching the specified criteria of the request;
• determining a particular communication format for the requesting device;
• encapsulating the list of the multiple users matching the specified criteria into the particular communication format for the requesting device;
• and
• transmitting, over a network, the encapsulated list of the multiple users matching the specified criteria to the requesting device.