Abstract: Methods, systems, and software are disclosed herein for facilitating personas in communication exchange environments. Aspects of the disclosure include search requests to search for relevant personas. In response to each of the search requests, different contact sources are searched for any relevant contacts. Any relevant personas can then be returned having contact information assembled from the relevant contacts.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and software are disclosed herein for facilitating personas in communication exchange environments. Aspects of the disclosure include search requests to search for relevant personas. In response to each of the search requests, different contact sources are searched for any relevant contacts. Any relevant personas can then be returned having contact information assembled from the relevant contacts.

Abstract: Disclosed is a system for servers to redirect client requests to other servers in order to distribute client traffic among the servers. A client is assigned to a server although the client may be unaware of that assignment. When the client accesses a server, a server possibly identified to the client by a name service, the server checks the client's assignment. If the client is not assigned to this server, then in some scenarios this server redirects the client to its assigned server. The client responds by sending its request to the assigned server. In other scenarios, the first server accessed by the client proxies the client's traffic to the assigned server. A database is kept of client-to-server assignments. If the present load distribution is less than ideal (e.g., clients are assigned to an unavailable server), then the assignment database is updated to reflect how the load should be distributed.

Abstract: Disclosed is a system for servers to redirect client requests to other servers in order to distribute client traffic among the servers. A client is assigned to a server although the client may be unaware of that assignment. When the client accesses a server, a server possibly identified to the client by a name service, the server checks the client's assignment. If the client is not assigned to this server, then in some scenarios this server redirects the client to its assigned server. The client responds by sending its request to the assigned server. In other scenarios, the first server accessed by the client proxies the client's traffic to the assigned server. A database is kept of client-to-server assignments. If the present load distribution is less than ideal (e.g., clients are assigned to an unavailable server), then the assignment database is updated to reflect how the load should be distributed.

Abstract: Systems, methods, and software are disclosed herein for facilitating personas in communication exchange environments. In at least one implementation, a communication exchange system receives a persona request for a specific persona and in response identifies contacts associated with the specific persona. The communication exchange system assembles contact information from at least a portion of each of the contacts associated with the specific persona and replies to the persona request with at least the specific persona. The specific persona includes the contact information assembled from the at least a portion of each of the plurality of contacts.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and software are disclosed herein for facilitating personas in communication exchange environments. Aspects of the disclosure include search requests to search for relevant personas. In response to each of the search requests, different contact sources are searched for any relevant contacts. Any relevant personas can then be returned having contact information assembled from the relevant contacts.

Abstract: Disclosed is a system for servers to redirect client requests to other servers in order to distribute client traffic among the servers. A client is assigned to a server although the client may be unaware of that assignment. When the client accesses a server, a server possibly identified to the client by a name service, the server checks the client's assignment. If the client is not assigned to this server, then in some scenarios this server redirects the client to its assigned server. The client responds by sending its request to the assigned server. In other scenarios, the first server accessed by the client proxies the client's traffic to the assigned server. A database is kept of client-to-server assignments. If the present load distribution is less than ideal (e.g., clients are assigned to an unavailable server), then the assignment database is updated to reflect how the load should be distributed.

Abstract: A facility is described for providing contextual information automatically. In various embodiments, the facility receives an indication to start a conversation, automatically determines an identification for an item indicated by the indication, encodes the identification in a message, and sends the message so that a recipient of the message can locate the item. The facility can include a responder component and an initiator component. The initiator component can receive an identification for contextual information and an identification of the responder, initiate a conversation with the responder's computing device, and automatically encode the received indication of the contextual information in a message that it sends to the responder component so that the responder component can cause a link to the contextual information to be provided that, when selected, causes an application executing on the responder's computing device to load the contextual information.

Abstract: A method and system for establishing a connection with a server after a connection has been broken is provided. A connection system in a service layer of a client detects that a connection between the client and the server has been broken. Upon detecting the broken connection, the connection system of the service layer automatically attempts to re-establish an application-level connection to the server. If the connection system can re-establish an application-level connection to the server, then it need not notify the application layer of the broken connection.

Abstract: Disclosed is a system for servers to redirect client requests to other servers in order to distribute client traffic among the servers. A client is assigned to a server although the client may be unaware of that assignment. When the client accesses a server, a server possibly identified to the client by a name service, the server checks the client's assignment. If the client is not assigned to this server, then in some scenarios this server redirects the client to its assigned server. The client responds by sending its request to the assigned server. In other scenarios, the first server accessed by the client proxies the client's traffic to the assigned server. A database is kept of client-to-server assignments. If the present load distribution is less than ideal (e.g., clients are assigned to an unavailable server), then the assignment database is updated to reflect how the load should be distributed.

Abstract: A method and system for establishing a connection with a server after a connection has been broken is provided. A connection system in a service layer of a client detects that a connection between the client and the server has been broken. Upon detecting the broken connection, the connection system of the service layer automatically attempts to re-establish an application-level connection to the server. If the connection system can re-establish an application-level connection to the server, then it need not notify the application layer of the broken connection.

Abstract: Disclosed is a system for servers to redirect client requests to other servers in order to distribute client traffic among the servers. A client is assigned to a server although the client may be unaware of that assignment. When the client accesses a server, a server possibly identified to the client by a name service, the server checks the client's assignment. If the client is not assigned to this server, then in some scenarios this server redirects the client to its assigned server. The client responds by sending its request to the assigned server. In other scenarios, the first server accessed by the client proxies the client's traffic to the assigned server. A database is kept of client-to-server assignments. If the present load distribution is less than ideal (e.g., clients are assigned to an unavailable server), then the assignment database is updated to reflect how the load should be distributed.

Abstract: A facility is described for providing contextual information automatically. In various embodiments, the facility receives an indication to start a conversation, automatically determines an identification for an item indicated by the indication, encodes the identification in a message, and sends the message so that a recipient of the message can locate the item. The facility can include a responder component and an initiator component. The initiator component can receive an identification for contextual information and an identification of the responder, initiate a conversation with the responder's computing device, and automatically encode the received indication of the contextual information in a message that it sends to the responder component so that the responder component can cause a link to the contextual information to be provided that, when selected, causes an application executing on the responder's computing device to load the contextual information.

Abstract: A method and system for establishing a connection with a server after a connection has been broken is provided. A connection system in a service layer of a client detects that a connection between the client and the server has been broken. Upon detecting the broken connection, the connection system of the service layer automatically attempts to re-establish an application-level connection to the server. If the connection system can re-establish an application-level connection to the server, then it need not notify the application layer of the broken connection.

Abstract: A method and system for establishing a connection with a server after a connection has been broken is provided. A connection system in a service layer of a client detects that a connection between the client and the server has been broken. Upon detecting the broken connection, the connection system of the service layer automatically attempts to re-establish an application-level connection to the server. If the connection system can re-establish an application-level connection to the server, then it need not notify the application layer of the broken connection.

Abstract: Disclosed is a system for servers to redirect client requests to other servers in order to distribute client traffic among the servers. A client is assigned to a server although the client may be unaware of that assignment. When the client accesses a server, a server possibly identified to the client by a name service, the server checks the client's assignment. If the client is not assigned to this server, then in some scenarios this server redirects the client to its assigned server. The client responds by sending its request to the assigned server. In other scenarios, the first server accessed by the client proxies the client's traffic to the assigned server. A database is kept of client-to-server assignments. If the present load distribution is less than ideal (e.g., clients are assigned to an unavailable server), then the assignment database is updated to reflect how the load should be distributed.