Social network email filtering

• US 20050246420A1
• Filed: 04/28/2004
• Published: 11/03/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Little, Charles Reeves II
• Granted Patent: US 7,673,003 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking

Abstract

Social network email filtering is described. A user'"'"'s address book includes a first group of email addresses. Those email addresses are used to identify address books that include another group of email addresses. Multiple iterations may be used to identify several groups of email addresses, representing a user'"'"'s social network. When an email message addressed to the user is received, the message is trusted if the sending email address is within the user'"'"'s social network. Otherwise, the message is flagged as junk mail. Varying trust levels may be applied to messages that are received based on a distance within a social network between the sending email address and the user and/or how often the sending email address appears within the social network.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

identifying a first email address that is, in terms of a social network, zero-degrees removed from a user;

associating a first trust level with the first email address;

identifying a second email address that is, in terms of a social network, one-degree removed from the user; and

associating a second trust level with the second email address.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the first trust level is represented as a numerical value.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the identifying the first email address comprises extracting the first email address from an address book associated with the user.

4. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the identifying the second email address comprises extracting the second email address from an address book associated with a user of the first email address.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the second trust level is less than the first trust level, thereby indicating that an email message received from the second email address is more likely to be junk email than an email message received from the first email address.

6. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising:

identifying an email address that occurs more than once within the user'"'"'s social network; and

increasing the trust level associated with the email address that occurs more than once to indicate that the email address that occurs more than once may be more trusted than if the email address occurred only once within the user'"'"'s social network.

7. The method as recited in claim 6 wherein the increasing further comprises:

identifying for the email address that occurs more than once within the user'"'"'s social network, a degree of separation associated with an occurrence that is closest to the user;

determining a maximum trust level associated with the degree of separation; and

limiting the trust level associated with the email address that occurs more than once to the maximum trust level.

8. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising:

receiving an email message addressed to the user;

determining whether an email address from which the email message was sent is in a social network associated with the user; and

in an event that the email address from which the email message was sent is in the social network associated with the user, associating a trust level with the message, the trust level being associated in terms of the social network, with the email address from which the email message was sent.

9. One or more computer-readable media having computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to implement the method as recited in claim 1.

10. An email system comprising:

an email data repository configured to manage incoming and outgoing email messages associated with a user'"'"'s email account; and

a social network email filter configured to filter an incoming email message addressed to the user'"'"'s email account based on whether an email address from which the incoming email message is received is part of a social network associated with the user'"'"'s email account.

11. The system as recited in claim 10 wherein the social network email filter comprises:

a trusted addresses list generator configured to identify email addresses that are within the user'"'"'s social network; and

a message trust level identifier configured to associate a trust level with an incoming email message based on a position within the user'"'"'s social network of an email address from which the incoming email message was sent.

12. The system as recited in claim 11 wherein the trusted addresses list generator is further configured to assign a trust level to each email address that is within the user'"'"'s social network, wherein the trust levels that are assigned are based, at least in part, on a number of degrees of separation between a particular email address and the user.

13. The system as recited in claim 11 wherein the trusted addresses list generator is further configured to assign a trust level to each email address that is within the user'"'"'s social network, wherein the trust levels that are assigned are based, at least in part, on a frequency of occurrence of a particular email address within the user'"'"'s social network.

14. A system comprising:

means for defining a social network associated with a particular email account; and

means for filtering email messages addressed to the particular email account based on the social network.

15. The system as recited in claim 14 wherein the means for defining comprises:

means for associating a first trust level with an email address stored in an email address book associated with the particular email account; and

means for associating a second trust level with an email address stored in an email address book associated with the email address stored in the email address book associated with the particular email account.

16. The system as recited in claim 14 wherein the means for filtering comprises:

means for receiving an email message addressed to the particular email account;

means for determining a sending email address from which the email address was sent;

means for assigning a first trust level to the email message in an event that the sending email address is an email address that is stored in an email address book associated with the particular email account; and

means for assigning a second trust level to the email message in an event that the sending email address is an email address that is stored in an email address book associated with an email address that is stored in the email address book associated with the particular email account.

17. One or more computer-readable media comprising computer-readable instructions which, when executed, cause a computer system to:

define a social network associated with an email account; and

filter incoming email messages addressed to the email account based on the social network.

18. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 17 further comprising computer-readable instructions which, when executed, cause a computer system to define the social network by:

identifying an email address stored in an address book associated with the email account as a first-level email address within the social network; and

identifying an email address stored in an address book associated with the first-level email address as a second-level email address within the social network.

19. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 18 further comprising computer-readable instructions which, when executed, cause a computer system to further define the social network by:

identifying an email address stored in an address book associated with the second-level email address as a third-level email address within the social network.

20. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 18 further comprising computer-readable instructions which, when executed, cause a computer system to further define the social network by:

associating a first trust level with the first-level email address; and

associating a second trust level with the second-level email address.

21. One or more computer-readable media comprising computer-readable instructions which, when executed, cause a computer system to:

receive an email message addressed to a particular email account;

determine a sending email address from which the email message was sent;

determine whether the sending email address is part of a social network associated with the particular email account; and

in an event that the sending email address is not part of the social network associated with the particular email account, flag the email message as junk mail.

22. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 21 further comprising computer-readable instructions which, when executed, cause a computer system to:

in an event that the sending email address is part of the social network associated with the particular email account;

determine a trust level associated with the sending email address within the social network;

associate the trust level with the email message; and

forward the email message to an inbox associated with the particular email account.