The paper reviews the development of generic user modeling systems over the past twenty years. It describes their purposes, their services within user-adaptive systems, and the different design requirements for research prototypes and commercially deployed servers. It discusses the architectures that have been explored so far, namely shell systems that form part oftheapplication,centralserversystemsthatcommunicatewithseveralapplications,andpossible future user modeling agents that physically follow the user. Several implemented research prototypes and commercial systems are brie£y described. Key words: user models, tool systems, user model shells, user model servers, user model agents