Creation and suggestion of contact distribution lists

• US 20090300546A1
• Filed: 05/30/2008
• Published: 12/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sisk, Stephen DeWitt, Kwok, Alton, Czeisler, Adam C., Abrahams, Steven Karl
• Granted Patent: US 8,677,251 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/825
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

Techniques described herein allow for suggesting creation of distribution lists and suggesting use of distribution lists once they have been created. For instance, these techniques may track a frequency with which contacts (e.g., email addresses, phone numbers, screen names, etc.) are used with one another. The techniques may then suggest that a user create a distribution list that includes those contacts. Furthermore, once a contact has been associated with a particular distribution list, these techniques may suggest that a user send a message to this distribution list in response to the user selecting the contact (rather than the list) as a destination of the message.

Claims

1. One or more computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on one or more processors, perform acts comprising:

tracking, for each email address of a group of email addresses, a frequency with which a user sends messages to the respective email address and each other email address of the group of email addresses;

responsive to the user entering the respective email address into an address well of a message window;

determining an email distribution list that includes the respective email address entered in the address well of the message window; and

displaying a menu that includes;

(i) at least a portion of the email addresses of the group of email addresses, the portion being selected based at least in part on the tracked frequency between the respective email address and each email address of the portion, and (ii) the email distribution list that includes the respective email address entered in the address well of the message window.

2. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, further storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on the one or more processors, perform an act comprising:

responsive to the user selecting an email address of the portion of the email addresses of the group, entering the email address into the address well of the message window.

3. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, further storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on the one or more processors, perform an act comprising:

responsive to the user selecting the email distribution list, entering the email distribution list or each email address of the email distribution list into the address well of the message window.

4. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the distribution list is a first distribution list, and further storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on the one or more processors, perform an act comprising:

suggesting creation of a second distribution list by displaying an icon that, when selected, displays a list of email addresses to select to include in the second distribution list, the list of email addresses being populated based on the tracked frequency with which the user sends messages to the respective email address and each other email address of the group of email addresses.

5. One or more computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on one or more processors, perform acts comprising:

tracking, for a first contact of a group of contacts, a frequency that the first contact is used together in a communication with each other contact of the group of contacts; and

responsive to the first contact being selected for use in a communication, suggesting creation of a distribution list that includes the first contact and one or more other contacts of the group of contacts determined, at least in part, on the tracked frequency between the first contact and each other contact of the group of contacts.

6. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 5, further storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on the one or more processors, perform an act comprising:

responsive to the first contact being selected for use in a communication, suggesting for inclusion in the communication a second contact of the group of contacts at least in part based on the tracked frequency between the first contact and the second contact.

7. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 5, wherein the suggesting the creation of the distribution list comprises displaying an icon that, when selected, displays a list of contacts to select to include in the distribution list, the list of contacts being populated based on the tracked frequency between the first contact and each other contact on the list of contacts.

8. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 5, wherein the first contact and each of the other contacts comprise email addresses, wherein the tracking of the frequency comprises tracking a frequency that a user sends emails to the first email address and each other email address of the group of email addresses, and wherein the selection of the first email address comprises entering the first email address into an address well of a message window.

9. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 5, further storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on the one or more processors, perform acts comprising:

tracking, for each other contact of the group of contacts, a frequency that the respective contact is used together in a communication with each other contact of the group of contacts; and

responsive to the respective contact being selected for use in a communication, suggesting creation of a distribution list that includes the respective contact and one or more other contacts of the group of contacts determined, at least in part, on the tracked frequency between the respective contact and each other contact of the group of contacts.

10. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 5, further storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on the one or more processors, perform acts comprising:

tracking, for a second contact of the group of contacts, a frequency that the second contact is used together in a communication with each other contact of the group of contacts; and

responsive to the first contact and the second contact being selected for use in a communication, suggesting for inclusion in the communication a third contact of the group of contacts at least in part based on the tracked frequency between the first contact and the third contact and the tracked frequency between the second contact and the third contact.

11. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 5, further storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on the one or more processors, perform acts comprising:

creating a distribution list that includes the first contact and one or more other contacts of the group of contacts;

receiving a selection of the first contact as a destination for a communication; and

suggesting the distribution list that includes the first contact and one or more other contacts of the group of contacts as a destination for the communication responsive to the receiving of the selection of the first contact.

12. One or more computing devices comprising:

one or more processors; and

the one or more computer-readable media storing the computer-executable instructions as recited in claim 5.

13. One or more computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on one or more processors, perform acts comprising:

receiving a selection of a contact as a destination for a communication;

determining whether the selected contact is a member of a distribution list; and

if the selected contact is determined to be a member of a distribution list, then suggesting the distribution list as a destination for the communication responsive to the receiving of the selection of the contact.

14. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 13, wherein the contact comprises an email address, a phone number, or an instant messaging screen name, and wherein the distribution list comprises an email distribution list, a voicemail distribution list, or an instant messaging distribution list.

15. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 13, wherein the determining of whether the selected contact is a member of a distribution list comprises determining whether a user that is sending the communication has previously created a distribution list that includes the contact as a member.

16. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 13, wherein the suggesting of the distribution list comprises displaying a menu that includes the distribution list responsive to the receiving of the selection of the contact.

17. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 13, further storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on the one or more processors, perform acts comprising:

tracking a number of times that the contact is used together in a communication with each of multiple other contacts; and

responsive to the receiving of the selection of the contact, suggesting one or more of the multiple other contacts as destinations for the communication based, at least in part, on the tracked number of times that the contact has been used together with each of the multiple other contacts.

18. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 17, wherein the suggesting of the multiple other contacts as destinations for the communication comprises displaying a list of the multiple contacts, the list being ordered based, at least in part, on the tracked number of times that the contact has been used together with each respective contact of the multiple other contacts.

19. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 13, wherein the contact is a first contact, and further storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on the one or more processors, perform acts comprising:

receiving a selection of a second contact as a destination for a communication;

determining whether the selected second contact is a member of a distribution list that also includes the selected first contact; and

if the selected second contact is determined to be a member of a distribution list that also includes the selected first contact, then suggesting the distribution list as a destination for the communication responsive to the receiving of the selection of the first contact and the second contact as destinations for the communication.

20. One or more computing device comprising:

one or more processors; and

the one or more computer-readable media storing the computer-executable instructions as recited in claim 13.