Smart size reduction of a local electronic mailbox by removing unimportant messages based on an automatically generated user interest profile

• US 20060206569A1
• Filed: 03/11/2005
• Published: 09/14/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Heidloff, Niklas, O'Brien, Michael R.
• Granted Patent: US 7,624,151 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 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes

Abstract

A system that enables a user to conveniently reduce the size of one or more mailboxes stored on the client computer system. The user can indicate that “unimportant” email messages are to be removed from one or more mailboxes. Unimportant email messages are automatically removed before important ones. To calculate the importance of a message for a given user, message attributes such as users associated with and/or terms contained in the message are compared against a personal interest profile associated with the local user. Additionally, dates associated with the message, such as when the message was added to the mailbox, and/or when the message was last read, may be used to further determine message importance. The size of a message may also be considered when determining whether a message should be removed.

Claims

1. A method for reducing the size of a local electronic mail mailbox, comprising:

automatically determining a user interest profile for a local user of a client computer system;

determining an importance level for each of a plurality of electronic mail messages stored in at least one mailbox structure on said client computer system, wherein said importance level is based, at least in part, on the contents of said user interest profile;

determining an unimportant subset of said plurality of electronic mail messages, wherein each electronic mail message in said unimportant subset of said plurality of electronic mail messages has an associated importance level less than any importance level associated with those of said plurality of electronic mail messages not in said unimportant subset; and

reducing a size of said mailbox structure by removing said unimportant subset of said plurality of electronic mail messages from said mailbox structure on said client computer system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said automatically determining said user interest profile comprises automatically determining at least one important other user and storing an identifier of said important other user in said user interest profile, and wherein said determining said importance level of each of said electronic mail messages includes calculating a higher importance level for a given message in the event that a user identifier associated with said given message matches said identifier of said important other user stored in said user interest profile.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said user identifier associated with said given message identifies a sender of said given message.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein said identifier of said user associated with said given message identifies a receiver of said given message.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein said automatically determining said at least one important other user comprises monitoring at least one communication application on said client computer system to automatically determine the identity of at least one other user with whom said local user has recently communicated.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said automatically determining said user interest profile comprises determining at least one keyword important to said local user, and storing said keyword in said user interest profile, and wherein said determining said importance level of each of said electronic mail messages includes calculating a higher importance level for a given message in the event that said given message includes said keyword.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said importance level of said given message is higher in the event that said keyword is present in a subject line of said given message than in the even that said keyword is present in a body of said given message.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising obtaining a replication setting from said local user indicating that said size of said mailbox structure on said client computer system is to be reduced by said removing of said unimportant subset of said plurality of electronic mail messages contained in said mailbox structure.

9. A system for reducing the size of a local electronic mail mailbox, said system including at least one computer readable program storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, said computer program comprising:

program code for automatically determining a user interest profile for a local user of a client computer system;

program code for determining an importance level for each of a plurality of electronic mail messages stored in at least one mailbox structure on said client computer system, wherein said importance level is based, at least in part, on the contents of said user interest profile;

program code for determining an unimportant subset of said plurality of electronic mail messages, wherein each electronic mail message in said unimportant subset of said plurality of electronic mail messages has an associated importance level less than any importance level associated with those of said plurality of electronic mail messages not in said unimportant subset; and

program code for reducing a size of said mailbox structure by removing said unimportant subset of said plurality of electronic mail messages from said mailbox structure on said client computer system.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein said program code for automatically determining said user interest profile comprises program code for determining at least one important other user and storing an identifier of said important other user in said user interest profile, and wherein said program code for determining said importance level of each of said electronic mail messages includes program code for calculating a higher importance level for a given message in the event that a user identifier associated with said given message matches said identifier of said important other user stored in said user interest profile.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein said user identifier associated with said given message identifies a sender of said given message.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein said identifier of said user associated with said given message identifies a receiver of said given message.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein said program code for automatically determining said at least one important other user comprises program code for monitoring at least one communication application on said client computer system to automatically determine the identity of at least one other user with whom said local user has recently communicated.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein said program code for automatically determining said user interest profile comprises program code for determining at least one keyword important to said local user, and storing said keyword in said user interest profile, and wherein said program code for determining said importance level of each of said electronic mail messages includes program code for calculating a higher importance level for a given message in the event that said given message includes said keyword.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein said importance level of said given message is higher in the event that said keyword is present in a subject line of said given message than in the even that said keyword is present in a body of said given message.

16. The system of claim 9, further comprising program code for obtaining a replication setting from said local user indicating that said size of said mailbox structure on said client computer system is to be reduced by said removing of said unimportant subset of said plurality of electronic mail messages contained in said mailbox structure.

17. A computer program product including a computer readable medium, said computer readable medium having program code for reducing the size of a local electronic mail mailbox stored thereon, said program code comprising:

program code for automatically determining a user interest profile for a local user of a client computer system;

program code for determining an importance level for each of a plurality of electronic mail messages stored in at least one mailbox structure on said client computer system, wherein said importance level is based, at least in part, on the contents of said user interest profile;

program code for determining an unimportant subset of said plurality of electronic mail messages, wherein each electronic mail message in said unimportant subset of said plurality of electronic mail messages has an associated importance level less than any importance level associated with those of said plurality of electronic mail messages not in said unimportant subset; and

program code for reducing a size of said mailbox structure by removing said unimportant subset of said plurality of electronic mail messages from said mailbox structure on said client computer system.

18. A computer data signal embodied in a carrier wave, said computer data signal including at least one computer program for reducing the size of a local electronic mail mailbox, said computer program comprising:

program code for automatically determining a user interest profile for a local user of a client computer system;

program code for determining an importance level for each of a plurality of electronic mail messages stored in at least one mailbox structure on said client computer system, wherein said importance level is based, at least in part, on the contents of said user interest profile;

program code for determining an unimportant subset of said plurality of electronic mail messages, wherein each electronic mail message in said unimportant subset of said plurality of electronic mail messages has an associated importance level less than any importance level associated with those of said plurality of electronic mail messages not in said unimportant subset; and

program code for reducing a size of said mailbox structure by removing said unimportant subset of said plurality of electronic mail messages from said mailbox structure on said client computer system.

19. A system for reducing the size of a local electronic mail mailbox, comprising:

means for automatically determining a user interest profile for a local user of a client computer system;

means for determining an importance level for each of a plurality of electronic mail messages stored in at least one mailbox structure on said client computer system, wherein said importance level is based, at least in part, on the contents of said user interest profile;

means for determining an unimportant subset of said plurality of electronic mail messages, wherein each electronic mail message in said unimportant subset of said plurality of electronic mail messages has an associated importance level less than any importance level associated with those of said plurality of electronic mail messages not in said unimportant subset; and

means for reducing a size of said mailbox structure by removing said unimportant subset of said plurality of electronic mail messages from said mailbox structure on said client computer system.