Searching electronic mail and messages

• US 20060031350A1
• Filed: 05/02/2005
• Published: 02/09/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Ur, Shmuel, Levi, Avner, Arbetman, Yaron
• Granted Patent: US 7,529,803 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/234 for tracking messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

A method for recovering information from electronic communications, including conveying an indication of a topic of interest, from a searcher on the topic, to a computing system storing a first set of the communications of a first communicator, and searching within the first set, in response to the indication, to identify one or more first communications on the topic of interest, thereby defining a primary sub-set of communications. The method further includes determining identities of one or more second communicators who participated in the primary sub-set, searching within a second set of the communications of the one or more second communicators, in response to the indication, to identify one or more second communications on the topic of interest, thereby defining a secondary sub-set of communications, the second set of the communications being stored in the computing system, and conveying information from the searches to the searcher.

Claims

1. A method for recovering information from a plurality of electronic communications, each conveyed from a respective sender to a respective recipient each respective sender and recipient having respective identities, and stored in at least one memory of a computing system together with the identities, the method comprising:

conveying an indication of a topic of interest, from a searcher on the topic, to a computing system in which is stored a first set of the communications in which a first communicator has participated;

searching within the first set of the communications, in response to the indication, to identify one or more first communications that are relevant to the topic of interest, thereby defining a primary sub-set of the communications comprising the one or more first communications;

determining identities of one or more second communicators who participated in the communications in the primary sub-set;

searching within a second set of the communications in which one of the one or more second communicators has participated, in response to the indication, to identify one or more second communications that are relevant to the topic of interest, thereby defining a secondary sub-set of the communications comprising the one or more second communications, the second set of the communications being stored in the computing system; and

conveying information from at least some of the primary sub-set, the secondary sub-set, and the identities of the one or more the second communicators, to the searcher.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the computing system comprises a server wherein are stored the first and the second set of communications.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the computing system comprises:

a first computer wherein are stored the first set of communications; and

a second computer wherein are stored the second set of communications,

and wherein conveying the indication of the topic of interest comprises;

conveying the indication to the first computer; and

conveying the indication to the second computer.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein conveying the indication comprises conveying a rationale of a search for the information to at least one of the first and the second communicators.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

determining, in an iterative manner, identities of one or more subsequent communicators in response to the indication;

searching, in an iterative manner, within a subsequent set of the communications in which one of the one or more subsequent communicators has participated, in response to the indication, to identify one or more subsequent communications that are relevant to the topic of interest, thereby defining a subsequent sub-set of the communications comprising the one or more subsequent communications, the subsequent set of the communications being stored in the computing system; and

conveying information from at least some of the subsequent sub-set, and the identities of the one or more subsequent communicators, to the searcher.

6. The method according to claim 5, further comprising limiting a number of levels of the second and subsequent sets of communications which are to be searched.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising saving records of details of a prior search with at least one of the first and the second set of the communications, and wherein searching within the first and the second set of the communications comprises determining that at least some of the details of the prior search have a relation to the indication, and providing at least some of the details of the prior search to the searcher in response to the relation.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising assigning each of the communications in the first and the second set of communications a privacy level, and wherein searching within the first and the second set of communications comprises searching in response to the respective privacy levels.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the communications comprises a first text and wherein the indication comprises a second text, and wherein searching within the first and the second set of communications comprises finding a match between the first text and the second text, and wherein conveying the information comprises conveying at least part of the first text.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the at least one of the communications comprises at least one of audio and graphic information, and wherein conveying the information comprises conveying the at least one of the audio and the graphic information.

11. Apparatus for recovering information from a plurality of electronic communications, each conveyed from a respective sender to a respective recipient having respective identities, comprising:

a computing system, comprising;

at least one memory in which are stored the communications together with the respective identities; and

a processing unit, which is adapted to;

convey an indication of a topic of interest, from a searcher on the topic, to a first set of the communications in which a first communicator has participated;

search within the first set of the communications, in response to the indication, to identify one or more first communications that are relevant to the topic of interest, thereby defining a primary sub-set of the communications comprising the one or more first communications;

determine identities of one or more second communicators who participated in the communications in the primary sub-set;

search within a second set of the communications in which one of the one or more second communicators has participated, in response to the indication, to identify one or more second communications that are relevant to the topic of interest, thereby defining a secondary sub-set of the communications comprising the one or more second communications; and

convey information from at least some of the primary sub-set, the secondary sub-set, and the identities of the one or more the second communicators, to the searcher.

12. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the computing system comprises a server wherein are stored the first and the second set of communications.

13. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the computing system comprises:

a first computer wherein are stored the first set of communications; and

a second computer wherein are stored the second set of communications,

and wherein conveying the indication of the topic of interest comprises;

conveying the indication to the first computer; and

conveying the indication to the second computer.

14. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein conveying the indication comprises conveying a rationale of a search for the information to at least one of the first and the second communicators.

15. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the processing unit is adapted to:

determine, in an iterative manner, identities of one or more subsequent communicators in response to the indication;

search, in an iterative manner, within a subsequent set of the communications in which one of the one or more subsequent communicators has participated, in response to the indication, to identify one or more subsequent communications that are relevant to the topic of interest, thereby defining a subsequent sub-set of the communications comprising the one or more subsequent communications; and

convey information from at least some of the subsequent sub-set, and the identities of the one or more subsequent communicators, to the searcher.

16. The apparatus according to claim 15, and comprising limiting a number of levels of the second and subsequent sets of communications which are to be searched.

17. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the processing unit is adapted to save records of details of a prior search with at least one of the first and the second set of the communications, and wherein searching within the first and the second set of the communications comprises determining that at least some of the details of the prior search have a relation to the indication, and providing at least some of the details of the prior search to the searcher in response to the relation.

18. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein each of the first and the second set of communications is assigned a respective privacy level, and wherein searching within the first and the second set of communications comprises searching in response to the respective privacy levels.

19. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein at least one of the communications comprises a first text and wherein the indication comprises a second text, and wherein searching within the first and the second set of communications comprises finding a match between the first text and the second text, and wherein conveying the information comprises conveying at least part of the first text.

20. The apparatus according to claim 19, wherein the at least one of the communications comprises at least one of audio and graphic information, and wherein conveying the information comprises conveying the at least one of the audio and the graphic information.

21. A computer software product, comprising a computer-readable medium in which computer program instructions are stored, which instructions, when read by a computer, cause the computer to:

convey an indication of a topic of interest, from a searcher on the topic, to a computing system in which is stored a first set of communications in which a first communicator has participated, the communications being comprised in a plurality of electronic communications, each conveyed from a respective sender to a respective recipient having respective identities, and stored in at least one memory together with the identities;

search within the first set of the communications, in response to the indication, to identify one or more first communications that are relevant to the topic of interest, thereby defining a primary sub-set of the communications comprising the one or more first communications;

determine identities of one or more second communicators who participated in the communications in the primary sub-set;

search within a second set of the communications in which one of the one or more second communicators has participated, in response to the indication, to identify one or more second communications that are relevant to the topic of interest, thereby defining a secondary sub-set of the communications comprising the one or more second communications, the second set of the communications being stored in the computing system; and

convey information from at least some of the primary sub-set, the secondary sub-set, and the identities of the one or more the second communicators, to the searcher.