Identifying conversations in unstructured media

• US 10,346,451 B2
• Filed: 05/27/2016
• Issued: 07/09/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Frosst, Ian
• Primary Examiner(s): Aspinwall, Evan
• Application Number:
  US15/167,336
• Publication Number:
  US 20170344630A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,138 Days
• Field of Search: 707722
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3344 using natural language analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/335 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles filtering in web context G06F16/9535, G06F16/9536
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/338 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/38 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9536 Search customisation based on social or collaborative filtering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services

Abstract

A conversation tool may display messages posted on a social media website. The conversation tool may receive selections of posts from the user interface to send associated reply messages and assign metadata for the selected posts to the associated reply messages. The conversation tool then may receive a request to display a conversation for a particular user. The conversation tool identifies the reply messages with assigned metadata associated with the user and identifies the posts associated with the identified reply messages. The conversation tool displays the identified posts with the identified reply messages as the message conversation. The conversation tool uses the reply messages as a trigger for identifying and tracking conversations between an agent and different users. The conversations allow the agent to more efficiently respond to and manage non-structured messages posted on social media websites.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a database system, cause the database system to perform operations comprising:

retrieving, from a social media network by a database system using an application program interface (API), a message posted on a social media website and metadata associated with the message;

causing a user interface of a user system to display the message;

receiving a selection of the message from the user system to initiate a reply to the message;

assigning metadata for the selected message to the reply;

transmitting a message to the social media website directing the social media website to post the reply;

receiving a request to display a message conversation with a user;

identifying the reply with assigned metadata associated with the user;

identifying the message associated with the identified reply; and

causing the user interface of the user system to display the identified message with the identified reply as the message conversation.

2. The computer program of claim 1, wherein the message posted on the social media website does not include a conversation identifier.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions operable to store messages from the social media website and associated reply messages in a database system.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the metadata includes one or more of:

a message identifier and an author identifier.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions operable to cause the user interface of the user system to display the identified message and identified reply for the message conversation in a chronological order.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 5, further comprising instructions operable to cause the user interface of the user system to display gaps or time identifiers in the message conversation indicating time periods between different groups of identified messages and identified replies for a plurality of message conversations.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions operable to:

store messages and associated replies from a plurality of social media websites in the database system;

identify a plurality of message conversations based on the stored messages and associated replies; and

cause the user interface of the user system to display the identified message conversations for each respective social media website from the plurality of social media websites.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 7, further comprising instructions operable to:

identify a first one of the replies with assigned metadata identifying the user and a first one of the messages;

identify a second one of the replies with assigned metadata identifying the user and a second one of the messages; and

display the first one of the messages, the first one of the replies, the second one of the messages, and the second one of the replies as the message conversation.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the metadata includes one or more of:

an author identifier, a message identifier, a social media website identifier, an account identifier, and a timestamp.

10. A method comprising:

retrieving, from a social media network by a database system using an application program interface (API), a message posted on a social media website and metadata associated with the message;

storing the message and metadata in the database system;

causing, by the database system, a user interface of a user system to display the message;

receiving, from the user system by the database system, a selection of the message to initiate a reply to the message;

receiving content for the reply to the selected message from the user system;

assigning metadata from the selected message to the reply;

storing the reply and the assigned metadata in the database system;

transmitting a message to the social media website directing the social media website to post the reply;

receiving, by the database system, a request from the user system to display a message conversation with an author for one or more of the messages posted on the social media website;

identifying, by the database system, the reply with assigned metadata associated with the author;

identifying, by the database system, one or more messages associated with the identified replies; and

causing, by the database system, the user interface of the user system to display the one or more identified messages and identified reply as the message conversation.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising causing the user interface of the user system to display a plurality of identified messages and identified replies for the message conversation in a chronological order.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

causing the user interface of the user system to display messages from a plurality of different social media websites;

receiving selections, from the user system, of the messages from the plurality of social media websites for which to initiate replies; and

assigning metadata to the respective replies for each respective selected message, wherein the metadata identifies one or more of;

the social media websites, the selected messages, and authors of the selected messages.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the message posted on the social media website does not include a conversation identifier.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

identifying a first one of the replies with assigned metadata identifying the author and a first one of the messages;

identifying a second one of the replies with assigned metadata identifying the author and a second one of the messages; and

displaying, on the user interface of the user system, the first one of the messages, the first one of the replies, the second one of the messages, and the second one of the replies as the message conversation.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the metadata includes one or more of:

an author identifier, a message identifier, a social media website identifier, an account identifier, and a timestamp.

16. A database system, comprising:

a processor; and

memory coupled to the processor and storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the database system to perform operations comprising;

retrieving, from a social media network by a database system using an application program interface (API), a message posted on a social media website and metadata associated with the message;

causing a user interface of a user system to display the message;

receiving a selection of the message from the user system to initiate a reply to the message;

receiving content for the reply to the selected message from the user system;

transmitting a message to the social media website directing the social media website to post the reply;

assigning metadata from the selected message to the reply, wherein the metadata includes an author identifier and a message identifier; and

storing the reply and the assigned metadata in the database system.

17. The database system of claim 16, wherein the instructions are further operable to:

receive a request from the user system to display a message conversation associated with an author;

identify the reply stored in the database, the reply having an assigned author identifier associated with the author;

identify one or more messages stored in the database having an assigned message identifier associated with the reply; and

cause the user interface of the user system to display the identified one or more messages with the identified reply as the message conversation.

18. The database system of claim 17, wherein the instructions are further operable to:

identify time stamps for the identified one or more messages and the identified reply; and

display the identified one or more messages and the identified reply in a chronological order based on the time stamps.

19. The database system of claim 18, wherein the message posted on the social media website does not include a conversation identifier.

20. The database system of claim 16, wherein the metadata includes one or more of:

an author identifier, a message identifier, a social media website identifier, an account identifier, and a timestamp.