Graphical mobile E-mail

• US 10,003,934 B1
• Filed: 06/20/2014
• Issued: 06/19/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Kalamkar, Abhijit, Gil, Elad, Coleman, Keith J., Slee, Mark, Shamis, Zhanna
• Primary Examiner(s): Di Prisco, German Viana
• Application Number:
  US14/310,341
• Time in Patent Office: 1,460 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/145 related to small screens
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals

Abstract

A method for providing messaging-related information to a mobile device is discussed. The method includes receiving from the mobile device a request for messaging-related information, using the request to identify a device-type indication for the mobile device, identifying one or more presentation parameters for presenting the messaging-related content properly on the mobile device, and transmitting the messaging-related content to the mobile device in a format corresponding to the one or more parameters.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, by a computing system, a request for messages;

identifying, by the computing system, a computing device to which the messages are to be transmitted;

determining, by the computing system, presentation capabilities of the computing device to which the messages are to be transmitted, including;

(i) receiving, by the computing system, two different indicators of a type of the computing device, wherein the two different indicators of the type of the computing device conflict with each other such that each indicates a different type of computing device,

(ii) determining that the two different indicators of the type of the computing device conflict with each other, and

(iii) selecting a particular one of the two different indicators to use in the determination of the presentation capabilities of the computing device based on criterion, wherein the criterion includes the computing system performing a prediction by a machine learning system that the particular one of the two different indicators is more likely to be an accurate predictor of the presentation capabilities of the computing device;

formatting, by the computing system, the messages that are to be transmitted to the computing device in accordance with the presentation capabilities of the computing device; and

providing, by the computing system, the messages for receipt by the computing device after the messages have been formatted in accordance with the presentation capabilities of the computing device.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining the presentation capabilities of the computing device includes:

(i) identifying a first category of devices of which the computing device is a member, and

(ii) assigning presentation capabilities that are defined for the first category of devices to the computing device.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein determining the presentation capabilities of the computing device includes identifying that the computing device that sent the request to the computing system used a particular cellular telephone carrier, and using an identification of the particular cellular telephone carrier to identify the first category of devices of which the computing device is a member.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein:

the request for messages includes a user agent string that the computing system recognizes as indicating that the computing device is a member of a second category of devices; and

the assigning the presentation capabilities that are defined for the first category of devices to the computing device includes overriding the indication in the user agent string that the computing device is a member of the second category of devices.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

the request for messages was provided by another computing system in distinction to the request for messages being provided by the computing device; and

identifying the computing device to which the messages are to be transmitted includes using a cookie or username that was provided by the another computing system to identify the computing device to which the messages are to be transmitted.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein formatting the messages that are to be transmitted to the computing device in accordance with the presentation capabilities of the computing device includes re-rendering images to be smaller so as to fit on a display of the computing device.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein formatting the messages that are to be transmitted to the computing device in accordance with the presentation capacities of the computing device includes converting textual messages to audio files, as a result of having determined that the presentation capabilities of the computing device include providing an audio presentation.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein formatting the messages that are to be transmitted to the computing device in accordance with the presentation capacities of the computing device includes reducing a number of control buttons that are to be displayed by the computing device based on having determined that the computing device has a display that is smaller than a display for which more than the reduced number of control buttons would be displayed.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

the request for the messages was sent to the computing system by the computing device, and

determining the presentation capabilities of the computing device includes;

determining that the computing system has not previously encountered the computing device,

as a result of having determined that the computing system has not previously encountered the computing device, sending, by the computing system, a request to another computing system for an indicator of the computing device; and

receiving, by the computing system and as having been sent from the another computing system, the indicator of the computing device, and using the indicator of the computing device in the determination of the presentation capabilities of the computing device.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein providing the messages for receipt by the computing device includes providing only messages of a certain size for receipt by the computing device from among a plurality of messages that are designated to be provided to the computing device.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein providing the messages for receipt by the computing device includes filtering messages that contain HTML content from being sent to the computing device.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

formatting the messages that are to be transmitted to the computing device in accordance with the presentation capabilities of the computing device includes reducing, by the computing system, a number of messages to display on a page that is to be presented by the computing device based on having determined that the computing device has a display that is smaller than a display for which more than the reduced number of messages would be displayed; and

providing the messages for receipt by the computing device includes providing, by the computing system, the page with the reduced number of messages for receipt by the computing device.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,

wherein the criterion includes the computing system performing a determination that the particular one of the two different indicators has previously been identified to be a more accurate predictor of presentation capabilities than the other of the two different indicators.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,

wherein the criterion includes the computing system using a weight for each of the two different indicators of the type of the computing device to determine that the particular one of the two different indicators predominates.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein:

formatting the messages that are to be transmitted to the computing device in accordance with the presentation capacities of the computing device includes;

(a) reducing a number of control buttons on a page that is to be presented by the computing device based on having determined that a display of the computing device is smaller than a display for which more than the reduced number of control buttons would be displayed, and

(b) reducing a number of messages on the page that is to be presented by the computing device based on having determined that the display of the computing device is smaller than a display for which more than the reduced number of messages would be displayed; and

providing the messages for receipt by the computing device includes providing, by the computing system, the page with the number of messages and the reduced number of control buttons on the page, for receipt by the computing device.

16. A computer-readable device comprising instructions that, when executed by a computer processor, causes performance of operations that include:

receiving, by a computing system, a request for messages;

identifying, by the computing system, a computing device to which the messages are to be transmitted;

determining, by the computing system, presentation capabilities of the computing device to which the messages are to be transmitted, including;

(i) receiving, by the computing system, two different indicators of a type of the computing device, wherein the two different indicators of the type of the computing device conflict with each other such that each indicates a different type of computing device,

(ii) determining that the two different indicators of the type of the computing device conflict with each other, and

(iii) selecting a particular one of the two different indicators to use in the determination of the presentation capabilities of the computing device based on criterion, wherein the criterion includes the computing system performing a prediction by a machine learning system that the particular one of the two different indicators is more likely to be an accurate predictor of the presentation capabilities of the computing device;

formatting, by the computing system, the messages that are to be transmitted to the computing device in accordance with the presentation capabilities of the computing device; and

providing, by the computing system, the messages for receipt by the computing device after the messages have been formatted in accordance with the presentation capabilities of the computing device.

17. The computer-readable device of claim 16, wherein determining the presentation capabilities of the computing device includes:

(i) identifying a first category of devices of which the computing device is a member, and

(ii) assigning presentation capabilities that are defined for the first category of devices to the computing device.

18. The computer-readable device of claim 17, wherein determining the presentation capabilities of the computing device includes identifying that the computing device that sent the request to the computing system used a particular cellular telephone carrier, and using an identification of the particular cellular telephone carrier to identify the first category of devices of which the computing device is a member.

19. The computer-readable device of claim 16, wherein:

the request for messages was provided by another computing system in distinction to the request for messages being provided by the computing device; and

identifying the computing device to which the messages are to be transmitted includes using a cookie or username that was provided by the another computing system to identify the computing device to which the messages are to be transmitted.

20. The computer-readable device of claim 16, wherein formatting the messages that are to be transmitted to the computing device in accordance with the presentation capabilities of the computing device includes re-rendering images to be smaller so as to fit on a display of the computing device.

21. The computer-readable device of claim 16, wherein formatting the messages that are to be transmitted to the computing device in accordance with the presentation capacities of the computing device includes converting textual messages to audio files, as a result of having determined that the presentation capabilities of the computing device include providing an audio presentation.

22. The computer-readable device of claim 16, wherein formatting the messages that are to be transmitted to the computing device in accordance with the presentation capacities of the computing device includes reducing a number of control buttons that are to be displayed by the computing device based on having determined that the computing device has a display that is smaller than a display for which more than the reduced number of control buttons would be displayed.

23. The computer-readable device of claim 16, wherein:

the request for the messages was sent to the computing system by the computing device, and

determining the presentation capabilities of the computing device includes;

determining that the computing system has not previously encountered the computing device,

as a result of having determined that the computing system has not previously encountered the computing device, sending, by the computing system, a request to another computing system for an indicator of the computing device; and

receiving, by the computing system and as having been sent from the another computing system, the indicator of the computing device, and using the indicator of the computing device in the determination of the presentation capabilities of the computing device.