A system and method for receiving an electronic communication containing an
identifier or indicia of an entity and, in response to a user's selection
of the identifier, initiating communication between the user and the
entity. Upon receipt of the electronic communication (e.g., document,
electronic mail message, sound file), the system scans or parses it to
locate one or more entity identifiers. An entity identifier may be a
telephone number, electronic mail address, network address, name or
virtually any other indicia that may serve to identify the entity. When a
user selects an entity identifier, the system offers one or more methods
of communicating with the associated entity, which methods may depend on
the form of the entity identifier (e.g., a telephone number) and/or a
preference specified by the user. The system initiates the selected form
of communication in response to the user's selection.
