The Matchmaker is a web service that helps make connections between service requesters and service providers. The Matchmaker serves as a "yellow pages" of service capabilities. The Matchmaker allows users and/or software agents to find each other by providing a mechanism for registering service capabilities. Registration information is stored as advertisements. When the Matchmaker agent receives a query from a user or another software agent, it searches its dynamic database of advertisements for agents that can fulfill the incoming request(s). Thus, the Matchmaker also serves as a liaison between a service requester and a service provider.