Method and system for processing and displaying email thread information

• US 20150007050A1
• Filed: 07/01/2013
• Published: 01/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/01/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Gabriel Jakobson, Steven Rueben
• Original Assignee: Gabriel Jakobson, Steven Rueben
• Inventors: Jakobson, Gabriel, Rueben, Steven
• Application Number:
  US13/987,074
• Publication Number:
  US 20150007050A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/752
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads

Abstract

A method and apparatus for processing and email thread to discern and display an email-thread chart of senders and recipients (“senders/recipients”) included in the email thread, are disclosed. The email-thread chart may include the senders/recipients arranged in chronological order matching the order in which individual related emails, included in the email thread, were sent and received (the sending/receiving of related emails is hereinafter referred to as “transactions”). The email-thread chart may further include the date-and-time-stamp of the transactions and the labeling of the transactions by transaction type (e.g. “Cced”, “forwarded”, “replied”, etc.) The senders/recipients may be discerned from the body of the email. The body of the email may contain quoted text containing the email thread. The email-thread chart may be displayed automatically in response to a user'"'"'s attempt to send the email to a remote userfrom an email client application on a computing device (e.g. Microsoft Outlook®, PC and Android®-based applications supporting Gmail® and other mail clients, OS-X® and iOS®-based email clients, etc.).

Claims

1. A method for displaying an email-thread chart of senders and recipients, in an electronic communications system, comprising:

providing an electronic device having an email application and a display;

retrieving an email message from the email application;

determining that the email message contains an email thread;

retrieving the email thread;

identifying fields in the email thread containing sender information;

retrieving the sender information;

identifying fields in the email thread containing recipient information;

retrieving the recipient information;

identifying fields in the email thread containing additional information associated with sending-and-receiving (“

transactions”

);

retrieving the additional information;

creating an email-thread chart including the sender information, the recipient information, and the additional information; and

displaying the email-thread chart on the display.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the additional information includes date-and-time information;

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the creating the email-thread chart step further comprises:

associating the date-and-time information with the sender and the recipient information; and

arranging the sender and recipient information in chronological order.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the fields include terms commonly-used in email communications.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the terms are determined by locale.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the email-thread chart includes graphical representation of the sender information, the recipient information, and the additional information.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the graphical representation is selectable by the user.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the selected graphical representation includes associated functionality.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the email client is an application on an electronic device.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the method is invoked in response to a user of the email client application selecting a command to commence transmission of the email message.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein transmission of the email message is temporarily suspended until an instruction is receive to resume the transmission.

12. A method for displaying select content of an email thread, comprising:

providing a set of key words and rules used to delimit sender, recipient and transaction information within an email;

receiving an email thread;

using the key words and rules to parse out select content from the email thread; and

displaying the parsed content.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the select content includes at least one of the following:

sender information, recipient information, transaction information.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the select content is displayed in a graphical format.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the display of the select content allows the user to select a portion of the displayed content.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the displaying of the select content is triggered automatically in response to an event in an email application.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein a user is able to select at least a portion of the parsed content, wherein the portion of the parsed content is associated with a specific conversation within the email thread.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein upon selecting the at least a portion of the parsed content, the specific conversation within the email thread, associated with the portion of the parsed content, is displayed.