Patent ID: 8204207

Claim:
A communication support system connected with a network enabling communication among a plurality of user terminals used by a plurality of users, respectively, wherein the communication support system is capable of accessing a user information recording portion in which shared information and access information are recorded, the shared information concerning one or more users included in the plurality of users, and the access information indicating a user who has accessed the shared information, wherein the communication support system comprises: a user identification portion that acquires a communication start request from any one of the plurality of user terminals and identifies an originator of a communication that is required to start and a receiver of the communication; a retrieval portion that refers to the shared information and the access information recorded in the user information recording portion and makes a judgment as to whether any piece of the shared information concerning the receiver that the originator has not accessed is present or not; a control portion that, based on a result of the judgment by the retrieval portion, makes a judgment as to whether the communication between a user terminal of the originator and a user terminal of the receiver is to be started or not and outputs a result of the judgment; and a process judgment portion that acquires a communication start request from any one of the plurality of user terminals before the user identification portion acquires the same, makes a judgment as to whether the communication start request contains specific data, and determines based on the judgment as to whether the user identification portion is to be notified of the communication start request.