PERFORMING TASKS BASED ON STATUS INFORMATION

1 . A method, comprising:

receiving a voice query containing contact information;

associating the voice query with a particular contact entity from a plurality of contact entities based on the contact information;

accessing status information for the particular contact entity, the status information including a presence indicator set by the particular contact entity; and

performing a task based on the status information.

2 . The method of claim 1 wherein the task includes forming a voice connection with the particular contact entity.

3 . The method of claim 1 wherein the task includes checking status information from a list of individuals associated with the particular contact entity.

4 . The method of claim 1 wherein the task includes forming a connection with a plurality of individuals associated with the particular contact entity.

5 . The method of claim 1 wherein the task includes forming a connection with the particular contact entity when the presence indicator for the particular contact entity is available.

6 . The method of claim 1 wherein the task includes rendering the status information.

7 . The method of claim 1 wherein accessing includes accessing status information from a plurality of messaging services.

8 . The method of claim 1 wherein the voice query further contains a desired status for forming a connection.

9 . A system, comprising:

a personal information manager containing contact information for a plurality of contact entities;

a communication application programming interface adapted to receive information from and transmit information to a network; and

a module operably coupled to the personal information manager and the communication application programming interface, the module adapted to receive a voice query from the network, associate the voice query with a particular contact entity from the plurality of contact entities, access status information for the particular contact entity from the network, the status information including a presence indicator set by the particular contact entity and perform a task based on the status information.

10 . The system of claim 9 wherein the task includes forming a voice connection with the particular contact entity.

11 . The system of claim 9 wherein the task includes checking status information from a list of individuals associated with the particular contact entity.

12 . The system of claim 9 wherein the task includes forming a connection with a plurality of individuals associated with the particular contact entity.

13 . The system of claim 9 wherein the task includes forming a connection with the particular contact entity when the presence indicator for the particular contact entity is available.

14 . The system of claim 9 wherein the task includes rendering the status information.

15 . The system of claim 9 wherein accessing includes accessing status information from a plurality of messaging services.

16 . The system of claim 9 wherein the voice query further contains a desired status for forming a connection.

17 . A method of forming a communication connection across a network, comprising:

accessing contact information using a first messaging service having a plurality of contact entities;

receiving a query related to a particular contact entity from the plurality of contact entities;

accessing status information for the particular contact entity from a second messaging service that is different from the first messaging service; and

performing a task based on the status information for the particular contact entity.

18 . The method of claim 17 wherein the query is a voice query and the task includes forming a voice connection with the particular contact entity.

19 . The method of claim 17 wherein the particular contact entity includes a group of persons.

20 . The method of claim 17 wherein the first messaging service is one of MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger and Google Talk and the second messaging service is one of MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger and Google Talk.