EMAIL ADDRESSES RELEVANCE DETERMINATION AND USES

• US 20070288575A1
• Filed: 06/09/2006
• Published: 12/13/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Gillum, Eliot C., Kafka, Steven D.
• Granted Patent: US 8,307,038 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/245 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases

Abstract

A computer implemented method for assisting email users. The method determines the relevance of email addresses to users and utilizes the relevance information to assist users in addressing emails. The method may include gathering email addresses from one or more sources including inbound user emails associated with an email user, and determining a relevance of the email address to the user based on a heuristic. Once relevance is determined, the method includes applying relevant email addresses to a user'"'"'s store of relevant addresses.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for assisting email users, comprising:

gathering email addresses from one or more sources including inbound user emails associated with an email user;

determining a relevance of the email address to the user based on a heuristic; and

applying relevant email addresses to a user'"'"'s store of relevant addresses.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of gathering comprises retrieving emails from one or more of:

a user'"'"'s mailbox, a blog identified by the user, a website identified by the user and/or a user email folder.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of gathering includes parsing email addresses from inbound emails addressed to the user on receipt.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the heuristic comprises marking any email address as relevant and applying a subtraction algorithm.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the subtraction algorithm is at least one of:

marking the email address as not relevant if a new email containing said address is not received in a pre-determined amount of time and/or

marking the email address as not relevant if a new email containing said address is not received in a pre-determined number of emails.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the heuristic comprises assigning a relevance weight to a received email address and marking it relevant if the weight exceeds a pre-determined value.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the step of assigning comprises at least one of assigning a weight based on:

a number of email addresses found in a users address book also found in a message;

a number of emails found in a users address book also found in message relative to number of unknown email addresses in the message;

a frequency of appearance of an email address in a number of emails addressed to the user;

a persistence of time in which the email address appears;

a location of an appearance of an email address in a message;

a source of an appearance of an email message; and

/or

a frequency of appearance of email address within a message.

8. A computer implemented method for assisting email users, comprising;

monitoring email correspondence for a user;

extracting one or more email addresses from each email message associated with the user;

for each email address, determining a relevance of one or more addresses to the user; and

based on said determining step, displaying a visual indicator to indicate potential email address problems to the user.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the step of determining includes marking any email address as relevant and applying a subtraction algorithm.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the subtraction algorithm is at least one of:

marking the email address as not relevant if a new email containing said address is not received in a pre-determined amount of time; and

/or

marking the email address as not relevant if a new email containing said address is not received in a pre-determined number of emails.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the step of determining comprises assigning a relevance weight to a received email and marking the mail as relevant if the weight exceeds a pre-determined value.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the step of assigning comprises at least one of assigning a weight based on:

a number of email addresses found in a users address book also found in a message;

a number of emails in found in a users address book also found in message relative to number of unknown email addresses in the message;

a frequency of appearance of an email address in a number of emails addressed to the user;

a persistence of time in which the email address appears;

a location of an appearance of an email address in a message;

a source of an appearance of an email message; and

/or

a frequency of appearance of email address within a message.

13. The method of claim 8 wherein the step of displaying includes displaying a first visual indicator for a known-bad email address and a second visual indicator for an address which may be problematic.

14. The method of claim 8 wherein the step of monitoring includes monitoring inbound messages on delivery and outbound messages on transmission.

15. A computer implemented method for assisting email users, comprising:

gathering email addresses from one or more sources including inbound user emails associated with an email user;

determining a relevance of the email address to the user based on a heuristic to provide a relevant email address; and

upon the user addressing a new email, checking at least one address field of said email and determining whether an email address entered in said field is correct against a relevant email addresses.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the step of checking includes spell checking the email address entered against a user address book and a relevant email address.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein for an entered email address failing a spell check, providing a visual indicator noting a problem with the entered address.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of providing a visual indicator includes providing a first indicator for an error in the entered address relative to a relevant address and a second indicator for an error relative to an address in a user address book.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of providing a visual indicator includes providing a plurality of suggested corrections to the user-supplied address.

20. The method of claim 15 wherein the step of determining includes at least one of:

marking the email address as not relevant if a new email containing said address is not received in a pre-determined amount of time; and

/or

marking the email address as not relevant if a new email containing said address is not received in a pre-determined number of emails; and

/or

assigning a relevance weight to a received email and marking the mail as relevant if the weight exceeds a pre-determined value where the value is assigned based on;

a number of email addresses found in a users address book also found in a message;

a number of emails in found in a users address book also found in message relative to number of unknown email addresses in the message;

a frequency of appearance of an email address in a number of emails addressed to the user;

a persistence of time in which the email address appears;

a location of an appearance of an email address in a message

a source of an appearance of an email message; and

/or

a frequency of appearance of email address within a message;

marking the email address as not relevant if a new email containing said address is not received in a pre-determined number of emails.