INTEGRATED WEB PORTAL FOR FACILITATING COMMUNICATIONS WITH AN INTENDED PARTY

1 . A method of operating a communications network to present, to a first user of a computing device, information about a second user to enable the first user to select an appropriate communication option for communicating with the second user, the method comprising:

maintaining information about a second user in at least one server; and at a service node in communication with the computing device of the first user and with the at least one or more server:

receiving, from an application executing at the computing device used by the first user, a request for a web page associated with the second user;

obtaining information related to a current activity of the second user;

determining at least one option for establishing communications with the second user; and

transmitting, to the application executing on the computing device used by the first user, a web page indicating the current activity of the second user and the at least one determined communications option.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein obtaining information related to a current activity of the second user comprises collecting the information in response to receiving the request from the application executing at the computing device of the first user.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the at least one communication option comprises determining the at least one communication option based on the current activity of the second user.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein transmitting the web page to the application executing on the computing device comprises transmitting the at least one communication option to a web page configured to present the at least one communication option on the web page in a ranked order according to preferences established by the second user.

5 . The method of claim 4 , further comprising the step of dynamically updating in real-time by the service node:

the information related to the current activity of the second user; and

the at least one communication option.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the information related to the current activity of the second user comprises information indicating an availability of the second user by telephone.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the information related to the current activity of the second user comprises information indicating whether the second user is online.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the information related to the current activity of the second user comprises information indicating a location of the second user.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the information related to the current activity of the second user comprises information derived from a calendar-based scheduling item of the second user.

10 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing a plurality of uniform resource locators (URLs) associated with establishing communications with the second user, each URL providing a different level of access to information that may be collected about the second user.

11 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving, by the service node, a request from an application executing on the computing device of the first user to establish communication with the second user in accordance with a communication option selected by the first user from the web page; and

establishing, by the service node, communication between the computing device of the first user and a communication device of the second user in accordance with the selected communication option.

12 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving, by the service node, a request from an application executing on the computing device of the first user to establish communication with the second user in accordance with a communication option selected by the first user from the web page; and

establishing, by the service node, communication between a communication device of the first user and a communication device of the second user in accordance with the selected communication option.

13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein transmitting a web page to the application executing on the computing device used by the first user comprises transmitting a web page comprising a click-to-call window.

14 . The method of claim 12 , wherein establishing communication between a communication device of the first user and a communication device of the second user comprises setting up a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) session with a computing device used by the second user.

15 . The method of claim 12 , wherein establishing communication between a communication device of the first user and a communication device of the second user comprises setting up a voice-bearing communication path between the communication device of the first user and the communication device of the second user.

16 . The method of claim 12 , wherein establishing communication between a communication device of the first user and a communication device of the second user comprises setting up a video-bearing communication path between the communication device of the first user and the communication device of the second user.

17 . The method of claim 12 , comprising the service node transmitting to the application executing on the computing device used by the first user, a web page indicating status of the communication between the communication device of the first user and the communication device of the second user.

18 . The method of claim 17 , comprising updating the web page indicating status of the communication between the communication device of the first user and the communication device of the second user as the communication progresses.

19 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the application executing at the computing device used by the first user comprises a web browser.