Facebook, Inc.

Aol Inc.

Oath Inc.

Aol LLC, a Delaware Limited Liability Company

Scott A Quillen

Ira Rosenblatt

Kenneth Carbone

Marc A Katchay

Harry G Morgan

Robert D Greenlee

A stand-alone icon (i.e., an icon that is not part of an application interface) is provided to facilitate communications across a network between users of at least one communications program. The icon represents a contact or a set of contacts. Status information regarding the contact or set of contacts is received and displayed using the icon or in response to an operation performed on the icon. The icon additionally may provide an interface for performing actions related to the contact or set of contacts. The actions may generally include, for example, retrieving profile information about the contact, setting an alert to indicate that the contact's network/login status (e.g., login, logout, or idle) has changed, or performing communications with the contact.

Facilitating communications between computer users across a network

A method of asynchronously transferring a plurality of files between client and host devices is provided. The method includes transmitting to a client device a plurality of identifiers for files and transferring between the host and client devices a data frame that includes an identifier and at least a portion of the corresponding file. Each identifier corresponds to a different one of the files to be transferred. The method also includes repeating the data frame transfers until the plurality of files has been transferred.

Asynchronous data protocol

Indicating status using a standalone icon

Facilitating file transfers using an icon

An icon or file is provided to facilitate communications across a network. The icon or file represents a contact or set of contacts and is separate from the communications program's user interface. At least one action is executed in response to an operation performed on the icon or a command issued to the file. The actions may generally include, for example, retrieving profile information about the contact, setting an alert to indicate that the contact's network/login status has changed (e.g., login, logout, or idle), or performing communications with the contact. The action may be the same action that would be executed in response to an operation performed on a representation of the contact or set of contacts in a user interface of a communications program.

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Middleburg, VA, United States of America

Scott A Quillen