1. A computer-implemented method for providing automatic, personalized information services to a user u, the method comprising: a) transparently monitoring user interactions with data while the user is engaged in normal use of a computer; b) updating user-specific data files, wherein the user-specific data files comprise the monitored user interactions with the data and a set of documents associated with the user; c) estimating parameters of a learning machine, wherein the parameters define a User Model specific to the user and wherein the parameters are estimated in part from the user-specific data files; d) analyzing a document d to identify properties of the document, the properties including (a) words of the document and (b) at least one additional property, the words of the document having (i) a first word frequency within the document and (ii) a second word frequency within other documents; e) estimating a probability P(u|d) that an unseen document d is of interest to the user u, wherein the probability P(u|d) is estimated by applying the identified properties of the document to the learning machine having the parameters defined by the User Model; and f) using the estimated probability to provide automatic, personalized information services to the user.
18. The method of claim 1 further comprising identifying a set of users interested in the document d.