Ordering personal information using social metadata

• US 20070203991A1
• Filed: 02/28/2006
• Published: 08/30/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Fisher, Danyel, Brush, Alice Jane, Jacobs, Andrew, Neustaedter, Carman, Smith, Marc
• Granted Patent: US 7,720,916 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]

Abstract

A unique system, method, and user interface that facilitate ordering personal items based on past personal interaction between a user and the user'"'"'s correspondents are provided. In particular, the system provides alternative views of information, such as messages, that is organized around people using an ordering based on the history of communication between the recipient and sender. Social metrics can be calculated based on social metadata associated with the messages, for example. Metrics can be used to configure how or which messages are viewed and their order in one or more pane views. Each pane view can present different orderings of messages—which are displayed by the recipient or sender of the message. So for instance, instead of viewing messages in chronological receipt date, they can be viewed by the message'"'"'s sender and ordered by the number of messages previously sent to the user.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates ordering a user'"'"'s information based on past personal interactions of the user comprising:

a metric aggregator that determines and aggregates one or more social metrics derived from at least a subset of social metadata associated with the information; and

a display component that presents at least one view of at least a subset of the information in an order based on at least one social metric.

2. The system of claim 1, the metric aggregator calculates social metric values that reflect relationships of the user with respect to the information.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the information comprises messages and the social metadata comprises sender and recipient data.

4. The system of claim 3 operates in tandem with a messaging client in order to facilitate triaging incoming messages and providing notifications of messages from selected senders, wherein a change in a message state in the messaging client is also reflected in the system.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the one or more social metrics comprises at least one of the following attributes:

messages sent to each correspondent from the user;

replies to each correspondent from the user;

messages sent to each correspondent from other correspondents and not the user;

messages sent to the user from each correspondent;

replies sent to the user;

messages marked read;

messages marked unread; and

messages CC'"'"'d to the user.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the one or more metrics are selectively applied across one or more folders maintained by a messaging client.

7. The system of claim 3, wherein the one or more metrics are applied within to a selected time period.

8. The system of claim 3 further comprises an enumerator that calculates the one or more metrics according to existing, incoming, and outgoing messages.

9. The system of claim 1 further comprises a customization component that personalizes the one or more metrics selected to order the information.

10. A method that facilitates ordering personal items based on past personal interactions of a user comprising:

indexing items according to social metadata associated with the items; and

displaying at least a subset of the items by the correspondents identified therein based on at least a subset of the metadata, thereby facilitating presenting the items in an order according to past interactions between the user and the user'"'"'s correspondents.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the items comprise messages.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprises determining one or more social metrics based on at least a subset of the social metadata;

and using the one or more metrics to select at least a subset of correspondents and related messages to display in an order which is based on a history of communication between the user and the user'"'"'s correspondents.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein determining the one or more social metrics comprises counting messages communicated between the user and any correspondents to ascertain a plurality of attributes relating to any previous interactions with the user.

14. The method of claim 13, the attributes comprise at least one of the following:

messages sent to each correspondent from the user;

replies to each correspondent from the user;

messages sent to each correspondent from other correspondents and not the user;

messages sent to the user from each correspondent;

replies sent to the user;

messages marked read;

messages marked unread; and

messages CC'"'"'d to the user.

15. The method of claim 11 further comprises displaying a plurality of messages in a list view when the plurality of messages is associated with the same correspondent.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the items are displayed in at least one view comprising one or more pane views, a list view, and a thread view.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprises customizing the pane view to personalize one or more metrics selected to order the items on display in that pane.

18. A user interface that facilitates viewing personal items based on past personal interaction between a user and the user'"'"'s correspondents comprising:

one or more pane views whereby each pane view is customized to display at least a subset messages by the messages'"'"' respective correspondents;

a list view to display a plurality of messages associated with a selected correspondent; and

a thread view that displays a plurality of messages in conversational context.

19. The user interface of claim 18 further comprises one or more navigational components that hover over a correspondent'"'"'s name to reveal at least a subset of social metadata, the metadata comprising at least one of the following:

number of messages received from the correspondent, number of replies sent to the correspondent, number of unread messages from the correspondent, and message address.

20. The user interface of claim 18 comprises one or more visual enhancements to the one or more messages displayed to provide peripheral awareness of at least a subset of correspondents and their messages.