Patent ID: 7539727

Claim:
A method of communicating object data requested by an instant messaging application executed on an instant messaging platform, the method comprising: generating, at a client computing device running the instant messaging application, a unique hash value of a fixed length based on the object data received from a remote user, the object data representing the remote user and comprising metadata descriptive of the object data, wherein the metadata comprises: a hash field storing the generated hash value; a location field storing a location identifier indicating a location of the object data other than a location in a local cache of the client computing device; and a type field indicating an object type which has been previously selected by the remote user to uniquely represent the remote user during future sessions of the instant messaging application; storing the object data at a location in the local cache of the client computing device, wherein the location of the object data in the local cache corresponds to the hash value; and returning an object name of the object data to the instant messaging application, the object name comprising the hash value and the location field and enabling access of the object data in the local cache by the instant messaging application without a portion of the object data being altered at the client computing device.