System and method for displaying and acting upon email conversations across folders

• US 20090100009A1
• Filed: 08/12/2005
• Published: 04/16/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/02/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Zimbra Incorporated (Synacor, Inc.)
• Inventors: Karp, Daniel Geoffrey
• Granted Patent: US 7,596,594 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99937 Sorting

Abstract

System and method for displaying and/or acting upon email conversations across folders. In one embodiment, the method comprises: (1) grouping email messages into conversations, where such grouping is performed independent of folders in which the messages reside, thereby enabling conversations to span multiple folders; and (2) displaying one or more conversation, where, for each message in the displayed conversation, the folder associated with such message is identified.

In another embodiment, the method comprises (1) grouping email messages into conversations, where such grouping is performed independent of folders in which the messages reside; (2) receiving a command to perform an action on the conversation; (3) performing the action upon all messages in the conversation regardless of the folders in which the messages reside, unless it is specified that the action should apply only to messages in select folders, in which case the action will apply to only those messages in the conversation that are in such select folders, or unless it is specified that the action should apply only to messages matching a search query, in which case the action will apply only to those messages in the conversation matching the specified query. The indication as to which folders the action should apply may be a system-level indication (which may be set by the system developer or administrator) or it may be a user indication (either a default user setting or an explicit user comment).

Claims

11. A method for performing an action upon an email conversation comprising:

grouping email messages into conversations, where such grouping is performed independent of folders in which the messages reside, thereby enabling conversations to span multiple folders;

receiving an indication from a user to perform an action upon a conversation; and

performing the action upon the conversation, wherein the action is applied to all messages in the conversation regardless of the folders in which the messages reside, unless it is specified that the action should apply only to messages in select folders, in which cases the action will apply to only those messages in the conversation that are in such select folders.

12. The method of claim 11, where a system default specifies to which folders to apply the action.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein a user preference specifies to which folders to apply the action.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein an explicit user action specifies to which folders to apply the action.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein performing the action comprises:

for all messages in the conversation that are in folders to which the action applies, retrieving the message objects associated with such messages; and

modifying the message objects associated with such messages to reflect the action.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the action is moving the conversation to a select folder.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the action is tagging the conversation.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein it may be specified that the action apply to messages in the conversation associated with one of the following folder options:

all folders in the conversation;

all folders in the conversation except for folders associated with trash and spam; and

all folders in the conversation except for folders associated with trash, spam, and sent items.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein grouping email messages into conversations comprises:

normalizing the subject of an incoming message;

determining whether or not an open conversation exists for such normalized subject;

in response to an open conversation not existing with respect to such normalized subject, creating a new open conversation for such normalized subject and associating the incoming message with such new open conversation; and

in response to an open conversation existing for such normalized subject, associating the incoming message with such existing open conversation.

20-1. The method of claim 20, wherein the action is tagging the conversation.

23. A computer program embodied in a tangible medium and capable of being read by a computer to perform the following steps:

grouping email messages into conversations, where such grouping is performed independent of folders in which the messages reside, thereby enabling conversations to span multiple folders; and

enabling display of at least one of the conversations, where, for each message in the displayed conversation, the folder associated with such message is identified.

24. A computer program embodied in a tangible medium and capable of being read by a computer to perform the following steps:

grouping email messages into conversations, where such grouping is performed independent of folders in which the messages reside, thereby enabling conversations to span multiple folders;

receiving an indication from a user to perform an action upon a conversation; and

performing the action upon the conversation, wherein the action is applied to all messages in the conversation regardless of the folders in which the messages reside, unless it is specified that the action should apply only to messages in select folders, in which cases the action will apply to only those messages in the conversation that are in such select folders.

25. A computer program embodied in a tangible medium and capable of being read by a computer to perform the following steps:

grouping email messages into conversations, where such grouping is performed independent of folders in which the messages reside, thereby enabling conversations to span multiple folders;

receiving a search query from a user;

performing a search for email messages satisfying the search query;

displaying search results from the search, including any conversations associated with the search results;

receiving an indication from a user to perform an action upon a conversation; and

performing the action upon the conversation, wherein the action is applied to all messages in the conversation satisfying the search query regardless of the folder in which such messages reside, unless it is specified that the action should apply only to messages in select folders, in which cases the action will apply to only those messages in the conversation satisfying the search query that are in such select folders.