AUTOMATED SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DOWNLOADING, UPDATING AND SYNCHRONIZING CONTACT INFORMATION

摘要

An automated information exchange system allows addition, notification and synchronization of personal contact record data. A client application program functions as a plug-in to one of various supported contact management programs and communicates with a network-based database system. Contact records are generated and owned by their respective publishers. As contact data is entered or updated at the database level, by a publisher, service subscribers associated to the publisher are notified and receive updated contact data, in turn ported to the subscriber's corresponding contact management program's contact record. Subscribers periodically synchronize the contents of their local contact record database with the network database. Each element entry of a subscriber record database becomes associated to the subscriber. Association is made and publishers are identified through a unique communication identification index, such as an email address in combination with a name. A subscriber element entry not corresponding to a network database entry is evaluated for a unique communication identification index and a participation invitation is automatically forwarded to the included email address.