Design ideas for multi-select items from a long list

I'm developing a system in which I need to select, from a long list os customers, some to whi开发者_C百科ch an specific (batch) action will be executed. For example, I want to select "John", "Peter" and "Steve" and click the "delete" button. No more than 5 customers will be selected.

The problem is that, since there're more than 500 customers, listing all isn't a good option. So far I did an AJAX search that shows just the customers that meet the criteria, but which multiselect way you recommend?

My best idea so far is a below this list in which I could either drag-and-drop the users I want to select or double click them

Any better ideas/examples?

Thanks

---

I don't know whether you're using jQuery, nor whether your site's design vocabulary is suited to it -- but this jQuery autosuggest plugin is excellent.

---

+1 for ksr's autosuggest find. I would use this in conjunction with a list box. The user types in the autosuggest input field and when they select an item it adds it to a list box. They can then add additional names via the same method, and submit the list when they've added all the names.

---

I would go for the pattern used by eBay. They probably did some usability research. You can find more info here: http://quince.infragistics.com/Patterns/Multiple%20Selection%20from%20a%20Large%20List.aspx