Patent ID: 7434169

Claim:
A method of facilitating communications across a network between users of at least one instant messaging program, the method comprising: providing a stand-alone icon that represents a contact or set of contacts of a user, wherein the icon is configured to allow the user to initiate and perform actions available from an interface of an instant messaging program that are associated with the contact or set of contacts regardless of whether an instant messaging program is running when an operation is performed on the icon; receiving status information regarding the contact or set of contacts; displaying the status information regarding the contact or set of contacts using the icon or in response to an operation performed on the icon; recognizing that an operation associated with at least one action has been performed on the icon, wherein the action is related to the contact or set of contacts and is the same as an action that would be executed in response to an operation performed on a representation of the contact or set of contacts in the user interface of the instant messaging program; and executing the action in response to the operation performed on the icon.