Integrated email and chat archiving with fine grained user control for chat archiving

• US 20070185964A1
• Filed: 02/06/2006
• Published: 08/09/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/06/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Day, Robert, Perlow, Jonathan, Coleman, Keith, Barker, Adam
• Granted Patent: US 8,583,741 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/207
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1831 Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status

Abstract

Participants in a chat session can control the archiving of chat messages in the chat session. Participants in a chat session send and receive a first set of chat messages, which are archived. A command to deactivate archiving is made by one of the participants. Messages in the chat session that are sent and received subsequent to the command to deactivate archiving are not archived. Archiving may be reactivated and messages subsequent to the command to reactivate archiving are archived.

Claims

1. A method of restricting archiving of chat messages, comprising:

archiving a chat session between a first user and a second user;

receiving a command to stop archiving the chat session; and

stopping archiving of the chat session upon receipt of the command to stop archiving.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

archiving the chat session comprises archiving the chat session in a first account associated with the first user and in a second account associated with the second user; and

stopping the archiving comprises stopping the archiving in both the first account and the second account.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a command to resume archiving of the chat session; and

resuming archiving of the chat session upon receipt of the command to resume archiving.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the command to resume is received from either the first user or second user.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the command to stop is received from either the first user or second user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the command to stop is received from either the first user or second user.

7. A system for restricting archiving of messages, comprising:

a message repository; and

a chat archiving module comprising instructions;

to archive a chat session between a first user and a second user;

to receive a command to stop archiving the chat session; and

to stop archiving of the chat session upon receipt of the command to stop archiving.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the chat archiving module further comprises instructions:

to receive a command to resume archiving of the chat session; and

to resume archiving of the chat session upon receipt of the command to resume archiving.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the instructions to receive a command comprise instructions to receive the stop archiving command from either the first user or the second user.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the instructions to stop archiving comprise instructions to stop archiving of the chat session upon receipt of the stop archiving command from either the first user or the second user.

11. A computer program product for use in conjunction with a computer system, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium and a computer program mechanism embedded therein, the computer program mechanism comprising instructions for:

archiving a chat session between a first user and a second user;

receiving a command to stop archiving the chat session; and

stopping archiving of the chat session upon receipt of the command to stop archiving.

12. A method of managing chat messages, comprising:

exchanging one or more first messages in a chat session between a first user and a second user;

after exchanging the first messages, receiving a command to stop archiving the chat session;

after receiving the command to stop archiving, exchanging one or more second messages in the chat session between the first user and the second user; and

archiving the first messages, but not the second messages, of the chat session.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

after exchanging the second messages, receiving a command to resume archiving the chat session;

after receiving the command to resume archiving, exchanging one or more third messages in the chat session between the first user and the second user; and

archiving the third messages of the chat session.

14. A system for restricting archiving of messages, comprising:

a messaging module comprising instructions;

to exchange first messages in a chat session between a first user and a second user; and

to exchange second messages in the chat session between the first user and the second user; and

a message archiving module comprising instructions;

to receive, after the first messages and before the second messages, a command to stop archiving the chat session; and

to archive the first messages but not the second messages, of the chat session.

15. A computer program product for use in conjunction with a computer system, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium and a computer program mechanism embedded therein, the computer program mechanism comprising instructions for:

exchanging one or more first messages in a chat session between a first user and a second user;

after exchanging the first messages, receiving a command to stop archiving the chat session;

after receiving the command to stop archiving, exchanging one or more second messages in the chat session between the first user and the second user; and

archiving the first messages, but not the second messages, of the chat session.

16. A graphical user interface for exchanging messages, comprising:

a first region for displaying received and sent messages of a chat session between first and second users;

a second region for displaying a message being composed by the first user for the chat session; and

a graphical object for toggling an archiving on/off state so as to control archiving of messages in the chat session.

17. A system for restricting archiving of chat messages, comprising:

means for archiving a chat session between a first user and a second user;

means for receiving a command to stop archiving the chat session; and

means for stopping archiving of the chat session upon receipt of the command to stop archiving.

18. A method of managing chat messages, comprising:

means for exchanging one or more first messages in a chat session between a first user and a second user;

means for, after exchanging the first messages, receiving a command to stop archiving the chat session;

means for, after receiving the command to stop archiving, exchanging one or more second messages in the chat session between the first user and the second user; and

means for archiving the first messages, but not the second messages, of the chat session.