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 include documents of interest to the user u and documents that are not of interest to the user u; c) estimating parameters of a learning machine, wherein the parameters defme a User Model specific to the user and wherein the parameters are estimated in part from distinct treatment of the documents of interest and the documents that are not of interest; d) analyzing a document d having multiple distinct media types to identify properties of the document; 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.