Technique for providing a personalized electronic messaging service through an information assistance provider
First Claim
1. A method for providing an information assistance service, comprising:
- storing first data concerning access to one or more email accounts associated with a user;
storing a contacts folder associated with the user, the contacts folder containing first information concerning one or more contacts, the first information including names by which the user refers to the respective contacts;
receiving a communication from the user through a first communications connection;
retrieving the first data;
based on the first data, accessing the one or more email accounts over a second communications connection;
obtaining second data concerning a sender of a selected email message received in one of the email accounts;
identifying a name of a contact in the contacts folder based on the second data; and
providing, to the user, second information concerning the selected email message, the second information including the name of the contact.
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, header information (e.g., sender/address, subject, etc.) concerning the selected email messages may be announced to the user. The operator may use a stored name of the sender of an email message when announcing header information. At the user'"'"'s request, a message may be sent to the user whenever an email message is received from a specified individual or email address.
-
Citations
28 Claims
-
1. A method for providing an information assistance service, comprising:
-
storing first data concerning access to one or more email accounts associated with a user;
storing a contacts folder associated with the user, the contacts folder containing first information concerning one or more contacts, the first information including names by which the user refers to the respective contacts;
receiving a communication from the user through a first communications connection;
retrieving the first data;
based on the first data, accessing the one or more email accounts over a second communications connection;
obtaining second data concerning a sender of a selected email message received in one of the email accounts;
identifying a name of a contact in the contacts folder based on the second data; and
providing, to the user, second information concerning the selected email message, the second information including the name of the contact. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
-
-
7. A method for providing an information assistance service, comprising:
-
receiving a communication from a user through a first communications connection;
accessing at least one email account associated with the user over a second communications connection based on data received during the communication;
providing, to the user, information concerning at least one email in the at least one email account;
at the user'"'"'s request, generating a reply email in response to the at least one email;
sending the reply email to a recipient from a selected email account associated with the user;
detecting a message concerning delivery of the reply email in the selected email account; and
notifying the user of the message. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
-
-
15. A method for providing an information assistance service, comprising:
-
storing data concerning access to one or more email accounts associated with a user;
accessing the one or more email accounts using the data;
determining that an email message having attributes selected by the user is received in the one or more email accounts; and
sending a communication concerning the email message to an address specified by the user. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
-
-
22. A method for providing an information assistance service, comprising:
-
receiving, from a user, attributes of an event of interest;
identifying the event of interest based on the attributes;
determining an occurrence of the event of interest;
initiating a communication to the user after the occurrence of the event of interest is determined, the communication including an option of accepting charges for receiving information about the event of interest; and
providing information about the event of interest after the user opts to accept the charges. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
-
Specification
-
- Resources
-
Current AssigneeGrape Technology Group Incorporated (KGB)
-
Original AssigneeGrape Technology Group Incorporated (KGB)
-
InventorsDooling, P. Bryan III, Miller, John S., Timmins, Timothy A.
-
Application NumberUS11/116,702Publication NumberTime in Patent OfficeDaysField of SearchUS Class Current709/206CPC Class CodesG06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management o...H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in p...H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. int...
