1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to the field of remote multiuser group communication and messaging and more particularly, to a method and system for managing contact information for participants engaged in a chat session.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Internet and Intranets provide a medium for bringing together users that have a common interest. Internet and Intranet chat sessions typically provide such a medium. Chat sessions can be hosted by a server which runs the chat application. A participant in a chat session typically can access the chat session using a browser or a specialized chat session software referred to as a “chat client.” In the case of a browser, the browser can facilitate the client by invoking the chat client.
Chat sessions have progressed from supporting single line text interface similar to the well known Internet Relay Chat (IRC), to supporting sophisticated graphical user interface (GUI) chat clients. These GUI-based chat client can process still images, realtime images, audio data, text data and information about a particular user. User information typically is stored in a file called a user profile. The information contained in a user profile can include personal information, such as name, age, address, and place of birth. General information about a user can also be stored in the user profile. For example, general information can include special interest such as hobbies, sports and activities. Where a user is related to a business, business related information such as suppliers, manufacturers and retailers can also be stored in the user profile.
During a chat session, in addition to seeing the text typed by a user or the audio spoken by a user, profile information can be acquired for a particular user by, for example, selecting a corresponding user identifier from a list of user identifiers presented in the chat session client and viewing the selected user profile. Still, although chat sessions provide a medium for multiuser communication, they lack the ability to effectively manage contact information for users.