Patent ID: 7395512

Claim:
A character input system, performing communication via a network, comprising: a communication terminal having: number keys from 0 to 9 respectively allocated to a plurality of characters; a display means for displaying information; a display control means for displaying a character string or word; a plurality of application programs including a browser/e-mail program; and a transmission means for transmitting information; and a disambiguation server having: a character string database that stores candidate character strings or candidate words corresponding to strings of information from said communication terminal; web server software providing programs executed by a browser or email program running on said communication terminal; web application software for executing processing based on a request from said communication terminal and returning results to said communication terminal; and disambiguation software for performing disambiguation of character inputs by searching the character string database based on character strings arriving via the network, and acquiring and returning candidate character strings or candidate words to said communication terminal; wherein: the communication terminal transmission means transmits, to the disambiguation server: content specifying the application program currently in use; information about the processing of the application program currently in use; and information about the operation of the number keys, the information being transmitted immediately after any of the number keys 0 to 9 are operated individually; the character string database is partitioned into search ranges corresponding to the application programs; the disambiguation software searches the character string database according to the partitioned range; the disambiguation server transmits candidate character strings or candidate words to the communication terminal; the communication terminal displays said candidate character strings or candidate words on the display means; the browser/e-mail program displays a URL on the display means, the URL comprising a blank area, the blank area displaying the candidate character strings or candidate words as the number keys are operated, the blank area being preceded by a prefix displayed before the number keys are operated, the prefix comprising one or more characters; the candidate character strings or candidate words are displayed in the blank area of the URL; and the candidate character strings or candidate words begin with characters corresponding to the transmitted information about the operation of the number keys.