Patent ID: 6677968
Filing Date: 2004-01-13
Classification: G06F,G06Q,H04L

Abstract:
An electronic network system that enables a user of the electronic network system to define and to perceive one or more user-created co-user lists and to track a current logon status of co-users in the co-user lists in substantially real-time, comprising:a communications network; a user device that is structured and arranged to communicate using the communications network and that receives the current logon status of the co-users in the co-user lists in substantially real-time, the user device including a graphical user interface having one or more window interfaces structured and arranged to enable: designation by the user of one or more co-users including at least one of creating, labeling, and defining the co-user lists using the graphical user interface, wherein the co-user lists include one or more intersecting or disjoint lists of co-users; modification by the user of the co-user lists including addition or removal of co-users from the co-user lists using the graphical user interface; a display of the co-user lists that includes a visual indication of the current logon status of the co-users in the co-user lists, wherein at least one particular co-user list can be minimized independent of other co-user lists and the one or more windows of the graphical user interface to prevent a display of the co-users in the particular co-user list; selection by the user of a co-user from one of the displayed co-user lists as a recipient of an instant message from the user; designation by the user of one or more selected co-users to be prevented from receiving a current logon status of the user, and selection of sounds by the user that are related to current logon status; and a logon system, remote from the user device, that monitors the logon status of the co-users and that uses the communications network to make the logon status of the co-users accessible to the user device.