Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Ian Hunter Todd

Jeffrey C Fong

Jeffery G Arnold

Chad Michael Roberts

Joseph Spencer King

Jae Pum Park

Aaron N Woo

Shawna Julie Davis

Naud Frijlink

Megan Galbraith Donahue

Gregory Alan Howard

Christer Garbis

Yili Aiwazian

Kevin Sukmin Son

Embodiments provide integrated reply functionality within the context of a contact card or panel. Contact information is provided for display in the contact card (e.g., a portion of a user interface of a computing device). The contact information is associated with a contact. The contact information identifies one or more transport modes for communication with the contact. In some embodiments, the computing device receives a request from a user to communicate with the contact via at least one selected transport mode. Based on the received request, the computing device provides an input field within the contact card. In other embodiments, the transport mode is automatically selected and the input field is displayed. Data from the user is received into the input field for communication to the contact. The computing device sends the data received into the input field to the contact via the selected transport mode. The integrated reply functionality is accessible from a conversation history displayed in the contact card.

Integrated contact card communication

Display screen with animated graphical user interface

Display screen with graphical user interface

An electronic search is automatically initiated when a cursor hovers in one location for a predetermined time. A target process associated with a target window is forced to re-render data to the target window in an update region that includes the detected cursor location. From the re-rendered data, a primary word and context words near the cursor location are determined. One or more local or remote electronic data stores are searched for substantive content related to the words. The content is prioritized according to user preference and displayed in a semitransparent window that is persistently visible to a user, yet does not obscure other content in an underlying window and does not shift the focus from an active window. Re-rendering is accomplished by invalidating an update region of the target window, and forcing the operating system to issue a paint message, causing the target process to redraw the update region.

Electronic content search and delivery based on cursor location

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Seattle, WA, United States of America

Ian Hunter Todd