Patent ID: 7242491

Claim:
A printing agent service method, comprising: receiving a print request and a user ID from a client terminal; determining whether the user indicated by the user ID has used the printing agent service in the past; retrieving a plurality of most recently used printing agent printer sites selected in the past by the user indicated by the user ID in response to determining that the user indicated by the user ID has used the printing agent service in the past; sending to the client terminal, as candidates for printing agent printer sites to be selected by the user, information indicating the plurality of most recently used printing agent printer sites selected in the past by the user indicated by the user ID; receiving location information from the client terminal when the user ID indicates that the user has not used the printing agent service in the past; retrieving a printing agent printer site nearest to a location of the client terminal based on the location information obtained in response to the user ID indicating that the user has not used the printing agent service in the past; sending to the client terminal, as a candidate for a printing agent printer site to be selected by a user, information indicating the printing agent printer site nearest to the location of the client terminal in response to receiving the location information; selecting a printer agent printing site from the candidate site(s) sent to the client terminal; receiving the printing agent printer site selected by the client terminal, and sending print data of the print request to a printer at the selected printing agent printer site; and printing the print data at the selected printing agent printer site when a client who has sent the print request instructs printout at the selected printing agent printer site.