Technique for providing a personalized electronic messaging service through an information assistance provider
First Claim
1. A method for providing information assistance, comprising:
- storing data concerning access to one or more email accounts associated with a user;
receiving a communication from the user through a first communications connection;
retrieving the data;
accessing the one or more email accounts over a second communications connection;
performing one or more operations with respect to one or more email messages received in the one or more email accounts on behalf of the user; and
providing, to the user, information concerning at least one email message in the one or more email accounts.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
To provide a personalized voice email service, data pertaining to one or more of a user'"'"'s email accounts, e.g., email addresses and account access data, is maintained in a folder by an information assistance service, which is unaffiliated with the email service providers (e.g., AOL, Hotmail, etc.) maintaining the user'"'"'s email accounts. When the user calls the information assistance service, the user'"'"'s folder is retrieved. The user'"'"'s email accounts may be accessed on behalf of the user based on the email addresses and account access data in the user'"'"'s folder. An information assistance provider including, e.g., an operator and/or a voice server, may present information concerning the email messages received in the user'"'"'s email accounts in different manners. For example, the information assistance provider may report to the user selected email messages that satisfy one or more predetermined criteria, e.g., only those email messages which have been received since the last time the user called the information assistance service. Header information (e.g., sender/address, subject, etc.) concerning the selected email messages may be announced to the user. At the user'"'"'s request, the information assistance provider may open and read a email message to the user. The user may then send a reply email message, or forward the email message to other recipients.
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Citations
74 Claims
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1. A method for providing information assistance, comprising:
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storing data concerning access to one or more email accounts associated with a user;
receiving a communication from the user through a first communications connection;
retrieving the data;
accessing the one or more email accounts over a second communications connection;
performing one or more operations with respect to one or more email messages received in the one or more email accounts on behalf of the user; and
providing, to the user, information concerning at least one email message in the one or more email accounts. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method for use by an information assistance provider, comprising:
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storing first data concerning access to one or more email accounts associated with a user, the first data being stored in association with second data representing the user;
receiving a communication from the user;
obtaining the second data during the communication;
retrieving the first data based on the second data;
using the first data to access the one or more email accounts; and
providing, to the user, information concerning at least one email message received in the one or more email accounts. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
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38. A system for providing information assistance, comprising:
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storage for storing data concerning access to one or more email accounts associated with a user;
an interface for receiving a communication from the user through a first communications connection, the data being retrieved from the storage; and
a processor for accessing the one or more email accounts over a second communications connection based on the data, one or more operations being performed with respect to one or more email messages received in the one or more email accounts on behalf of the user, information concerning at least one email message in the one or more email accounts being provided to the user. - View Dependent Claims (39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53)
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54. A system for use by an information assistance provider, comprising:
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storing first data concerning access to one or more email accounts associated with a user, the first data being stored in association with second data representing the user;
receiving a communication from the user;
obtaining the second data during the communication;
retrieving the first data based on the second data;
using the first data to access the one or more email accounts; and
providing, to the user, information concerning at least one email message received in the one or more email accounts. - View Dependent Claims (55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74)
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Specification