Patent ID: 8874608

Claim:
A mobile terminal comprising: a display configured to display information; a wireless communication unit configured to communicate with a plurality of servers providing a plurality of social network services of which a user of the mobile terminal is a subscriber, each of the plurality of servers providing a different social network service; a memory configured to store a plurality of contacts and the user's account information related to the plurality of social network services; a user input unit configured to receive a command for searching for at least one contact; and a controller configured to: cause the display to display a contact list along with a menu icon for setting a search option; cause the display to display an option menu for setting the search option in response to selection of the menu icon, the option menu comprising a first search option for searching for the at least one contact only from the plurality of contacts stored in the memory and a second search option for searching for the at least one contact from both the plurality of contacts stored in the memory and the plurality of servers; search for the at least one contact among the plurality of contacts stored in the memory in response to the command according to the set search option; cause the wireless communication unit to transmit information of the searched at least one contact to each of the plurality of servers when the search option is set to the second search option; receive, via the wireless communication unit, a plurality of search results from the plurality of servers, the plurality of search results indicating whether the searched at least one contact is registered with at least one of the plurality of social network services and whether the searched at least one contact is registered as a friend with regard to the registered at least one of the plurality of social network services; update the contact list including the searched at least one contact based on the plurality of search results received from the plurality of servers; and cause the display to display the updated contact list with a plurality of icons associated with the searched at least one contact or each of the plurality of contacts, wherein each of the plurality of icons represents a corresponding one of the plurality of social network services and indicates a status of the searched at least one contact or a status of each of the plurality of contacts with respect to the corresponding one of the plurality of social network services.