Address Book for Integrating Email and Instant Messaging (IM)

• US 20100094947A1
• Filed: 12/16/2009
• Published: 04/15/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Daniell, W. Todd, Friedman, Lee G.
• Granted Patent: US 7,970,846 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]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/101 Access control lists [ACL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion

Abstract

Systems and methods for integrating instant messaging (IM) services and email services are described. In one embodiment, the email services and IM services are integrated through an address book database. The address book database correlates email information of a contact with a reference identifier (ID). Additionally, one or more IM addresses of the contact are also correlated to the reference ID, thereby permitting further correlation of a contacts IM information with the contacts email information.

Claims

1. A method processed by a computing device at a user location, comprising:

receiving, by the computing device, an instant messaging (IM) address of a contact of a user, an email address of the contact of the user, and a reference identifier (ID), the reference identifier (ID) being an alphanumeric code and being adapted to identify the contact of the user, wherein the reference identifier (ID) is distinct from the received instant messaging (IM) address and the email address, the reference identifier (ID) identifying the contact of the user without requiring parsing of the reference identifier (ID);

correlating, by the computing device, the IM address to the reference identifier;

correlating, by the computing device, the email address to the reference identifier (ID);

providing, by the computing device, an email receive window configured to display a received email, the email receive window configured to provide IM presence information associated with the IM address of the contact of the user, the email receive window configured to utilize the reference identifier (ID) for automatically launching an IM session with the contact from the email receive window, the email receive window including a launch IM option for launching the IM session; and

sequentially attempting to establish an IM messaging session directly from an email read message window with a first IM address in a prioritized order of the plurality of Instant Messaging addresses, and if the first IM address is not responsive, attempting a second IM address in the prioritized order of the plurality of Instant Messaging addresses;

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the computing device, a telephone number of the contact;

correlating, by the computing device, the telephone number of the contact to the reference identifier (ID);

receiving, by the computing device, and address of the contact;

correlating, by the computing device, the address of the contact to the reference identifier (ID);

receiving, by the computing device, personal information of the contact; and

correlating, by the computing device, the personal information of contact to the reference identifier (ID).

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the computing device, a telephone number of the contact;

correlating, by the computing device, the telephone number of the contact to the reference identifier (ID)

receiving, by the computing device, an address of the contact; and

correlating, by the computing device, the address of the contact to the reference identifier (ID).

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference identifier (ID)identifies the contact of the user without requiring parsing of the reference identifier (ID).

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the computing device, personal information of the contact; and

correlating, by the computing device, the personal information of contact to the reference identifier (ID).

6. A method processed by a computing device at a user location, comprising:

receiving user input, the user input comprising multiple instant messaging (IM) addresses of an individual contact of the user, the multiple IM addresses comprising IM addresses from different IM accounts, each of the different IM accounts being adapted to transmit and receive IM messages using a different IM protocol;

receiving a reference identifier (ID), the reference identifier (ID) being an alphanumeric code and being adapted to identify the individual contact, wherein the reference identifier (ID) is distinct from the received instant messaging (IM) address and the email address;

correlating each of the multiple IM addresses to the reference identifier (ID); and

providing an email receive window configured to display a received email, the email receive window configured to provide IM presence information associated with the IM address of the contact of the user, the email receive window configured to utilize the reference identifier (ID) for automatically launching an IM session with the individual contact from the email window, the email receive window including a launch IM option for launching the IM session;

permitting a user to initiate an IM session with contacts at various IM addresses without manually logging into multiple IM accounts, allowing the user to type an IM message at a user input window; and

wherein the typed message is translated or reformatted into a native protocol associated with each of the other participants'"'"' IM services and the typed message is displayed to each of the other participants in the IM chat session.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving an email address of the individual contact; and

correlating the email address of the individual contact to the reference identifier (ID).

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving a telephone number of the individual contact; and

correlating the telephone number of the individual contact to the reference identifier (ID).

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving an address of the individual contact; and

correlating the address of the individual contact to the reference identifier (ID).

10. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving personal information of the individual contact; and

correlating the personal information of individual contact to the reference identifier (ID).

11. A computer readable storage medium, the storage medium being embedded with computer instructions for causing a computing device to perform the steps of:

receive first user input, the first user input comprising multiple instant messaging (IM) addresses of an individual contact of the user, the multiple IM addresses comprising IM addresses from different IM accounts, each of the different IM accounts being adapted to transmit and receive IM messages using a different IM protocol;

receive second user input, the second user input comprising a reference identifier (ID), the reference identifier (ID) being an alphanumeric code and being adapted to identify the individual contact, wherein the reference identifier (ID) is distinct from the received instant messaging (IM) address and the email address;

correlate each of the multiple IM addresses to the reference identifier (ID), the reference identifier (ID) being adapted to identify the individual contact; and

provide an email receive window configured to display a received email, the email receive window configured to provide IM presence information associated with the IM address of the contact of the user, the email receive window configured to utilize the reference identifier (ID) for automatically launching an IM session with the individual contact from the email window, the email receive window including a launch IM option for launching the IM session;

wherein a message typed to a contact is translated into a native protocol associated with contact'"'"'s IM service and the typed message is displayed to each of the other contact in a IM chat session.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, further causing a computing device to perform the steps of:

receive an email address of the individual contact; and

correlate the email address of the individual contact to the reference identifier (ID).

13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, further comprising:

means for receiving an email address of the individual contact; and

means for correlating the email address of the individual contact to the reference identifier (ID).

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, further causing a computing device to perform the steps of:

receive a telephone number of the individual contact; and

correlate the telephone number of the individual contact to the reference identifier (ID).

15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, further comprising:

means for receiving a telephone number of the individual contact; and

means for correlating the telephone number of the individual contact to the reference identifier (ID).

16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, further causing a computing device to perform the steps of:

receive an address of the individual contact; and

correlate the address of the individual contact to the reference identifier (ID).

17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, further comprising:

means for receiving an address of the individual contact; and

means for correlating the address of the individual contact to the reference identifier (ID).

18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, further causing a computing device to perform the steps of:

receive personal information of the individual contact; and

correlate the personal information of the individual contact to the reference identifier (ID).

19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, further comprising:

means for receiving personal information of the individual contact; and

means for correlating the personal information of individual contact to the reference identifier (ID).

20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, further comprising a memory component configured to store at least one of the following:

the first receive logic, the second receive logic, the correlate logic, the email window logic and a combination thereof.