Patent ID: 8379837

Claim:
A computing device, comprising: a device processor; communication circuitry coupled to the device processor and configured to communicate with a public phone book service (PPBS) server storing a network directory comprising a plurality of default user domains organized in a first subdomain hierarchical structure, each default user domain being associated with a record containing contact information associated with a user, and each default user domain being constructed into a domain-based name based on the first subdomain hierarchical structure; and a device memory coupled to the device processor, the device memory storing a local directory comprising a plurality of directory entries organized in a second subdomain hierarchical structure, each directory entry being constructed into a domain-based name based on the second subdomain hierarchical structure, at least one directory entry being associated with one of a plurality of aliases, and each of the plurality of aliases being linked to at least one of the plurality of default user domains of the network directory stored in PPBS server, wherein the device processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations comprising: receiving a request for contact information associated with the least one directory entry; accessing the local directory to determine whether the directory entry for which contract information is requested is associated with an alias; retrieving contact information associated with the directory entry from the local directory in response to determining that the directory entry for which contract information is requested is not associated with an alias; retrieving the alias associated with the directory entry from the local directory in response to determining that the directory entry for which contract information is requested is associated with an alias; resolving the retrieved alias to at least one of the default user domains of the network directory stored in the PPBS server; sending a lookup request including the resolved alias to the PPBS server; and receiving a record containing contact information associated with the directory entry from the PPBS server.