Abstract: The present invention, generally speaking, provides a method and apparatus for setting up a telephone connection using an email address or the like. In many cases, an email address or other Internet address such as a URL may be easily remembered or, in the case of a company, for example, may often be correctly guessed, whether the company is local, out-of-state, or in another country. Telephone numbers, on the other hand, are remembered only with considerable difficulty, and can be guessed correctly only through clairvoyance. (In fact, memory experts that have astounded audiences by memorizing large portions of the local telephone directory have done so by converting the numbers to words or phrases using a set of rules.) In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a character string is entered into an electronic system such as a personal computer, a deskset smartphone, or a cellular smartphone. A determination is made as to whether or not the character string is a telephone number.