System and method for replying to related messages

• US 20050198143A1
• Filed: 12/29/2003
• Published: 09/08/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Rohall, Steven L., Gruen, Daniel M., Moody, Paul B., Kerr, Bernard J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,409,641 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/02 using automatic reactions or user delegation, e.g. automatic replies or chatbot-generated messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads

Abstract

A system and method is provided which utilizes a threading service to offer enhanced features for a document management system including an email system. Various enhanced email features may be provided through one or more of the following components: a delete module, a reply module, a profile module, and a search module. The delete module enables a user to delete a selected message, a set of related messages, or the whole set except for the selected message. The reply module enables a user to send a reply message to all addresses associated and involved with an entire set of related messages. The profile module enables a dynamic interest profile to contain all relevant information from an outgoing message and a set of messages related to the outgoing message. The search module enables search results to include documents which match the user'"'"'s query as well as documents related to the documents which match the user'"'"'s query.

Claims

1. A method for replying to messages comprising:

in response to a user selecting a message from a list of messages and subsequently selecting one of a plurality of reply options;

determining a name of sender of the selected message;

determining a name of at least one recipient of the selected message;

determining one or more messages that are related to the selected message;

determining a name of at least one second recipient of the one or more related messages, said second recipient being different from both said sender and said at least one recipient; and

automatically populating a reply message with the name of the sender, the name of the at least one recipient, and the name of the at least one second recipient.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising populating, by the user, the reply message with a name other than that of the sender, the at least one recipient, or the at least one second recipient.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the respective names comprise message addresses.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the respective names comprise email message addresses.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of reply options include an option to reply to the sender of the selected message.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the plurality of reply options include an option to reply to all recipients of the selected message.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the plurality of reply options include an option to reply to recipients of the selected message and messages related to the selected message.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising removing, by the user, an automatically populated name from the reply message.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein automatically populating the reply message comprises automatically populating at least one address field of the reply message with a message address of the sender, a message address of the at least one recipient, and a message address of the at least one second recipient.

10. The method of claim 4, wherein automatically populating the reply message comprises automatically populating at least one address field of the reply message with an email message address of the sender, an email message address of the at least one recipient, and an email message address of the at least one second recipient.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising determining an appropriate address field of the reply message for each respective email message address.

12. A graphical user interface comprising:

a list of messages including at least one message selectable by a user;

a reply command that, upon selection by the user, generates a reply message to a sender of the selected message and a recipient of a message related to the selected message, wherein the recipient is neither a recipient of the selected message nor the sender of the selected message.

13. The graphical user interface of claim 12, further comprising:

means for selecting at least one of the messages from the list of messages.

14. A system for replying to messages comprising:

a graphical user interface that presents a list of messages and one or more reply options to a user, wherein the user selects a message and selects one of the one or more reply options through the graphical user interface, wherein the graphical user interface includes one or more views; and

a reply module, responsive to the selected reply option, that automatically populates one or more address fields of a reply message with a message address of a sender of the selected message and a message address of a recipient of a message related to the selected message, wherein the recipient of the related message is not a recipient of the selected message.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the reply module further automatically populates one or more address fields of the reply message with a message address of a recipient of the selected message.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the one or more reply options include an option to reply to the sender of the selected message.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the one or more reply options include an option to reply to the sender and the recipients of the selected message.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the selected reply option comprises an option to reply to the sender and the recipients of all messages related to the selected message.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the selected reply option comprises an option to reply to all recipients in a thread of related messages.