METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ROUTING A MESSAGE

• US 20150026274A1
• Filed: 04/10/2013
• Published: 01/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Chen, Li-Ju, Cheng, Yi-Hsin, Su, Chih-Wen, Yu, Ying-Chen, Kuo, Jeff HC, Lau, Ming Tung, Lee, Wai Man
• Granted Patent: US 10,425,374 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases

Abstract

Routing a message to a recipient based on a topic associated with the message may include: receiving a message lacking a recipient address; searching for at least one recipient address based on a topic associated with the message; and sending the message to the at least one recipient address.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving a message lacking a recipient address;

searching, using a processor, for at least one recipient address based on a topic associated with the message; and

sending the message to the at least one recipient address.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

extracting the topic from a topic field included in the message.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing contents in at least one of a body portion, a subject field, a recipient field, or a carbon copy field of the message to obtain the topic.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

before receiving the message,

providing a message editor for editing the message;

determining one or more candidate topics based on analysis of contents in at least one of a body portion, a subject field, a recipient field or a carbon copy field of the message; and

receiving a selection of at least one of said candidate topic, and determining the at least one candidate topic as the topic associated with the message.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the message is an electronic mail, and the method further comprises:

analyzing a user profile of a registered user in an internal domain to determine an association degree of the user with the topic; and

responsive to determining that the association degree is higher than a predetermined threshold, selecting an electronic mail address of the user as one of the at least one recipient address.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the message is an electronic mail, and the method further comprises:

sending the message to an external domain server that has been pre-registered in an internal domain;

analyzing a user profile of a registered user in the external domain to determine an association degree of the user with the topic; and

responsive to determining that the association degree is higher than a predetermined threshold, selecting an electronic mail address of the user as one of the at least one recipient address.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing keywords in a network forum to determine an association degree of the network forum with the topic; and

responsive to determining that the association degree is higher than a predetermined threshold, selecting one of an outbound electronic mail address, an address of a network domain to which the network forum belongs, or a uniform resource locator of the network forum as one of the at least one recipient address.

8. The method according to claim 7, further comprising:

obtaining the keywords of the network forum and any one of the outbound electronic mail address, the address of the network domain to which the network forum belongs, or the uniform resource locator of the network forum;

storing a mapping between the keywords of the network forum and any one of the outbound electronic mail address, the address of the network domain to which the network forum belongs, or the uniform resource locator of the network forum; and

deleting the mapping in response to at least one of an expiration time for the mapping being due, or a weight for the mapping being already lower than a further predetermined threshold.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a reply from the at least one recipient address; and

filtering at least one of the message or the reply based on evaluation of the message made by a recipient corresponding to the at least one recipient address.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

adjusting respective weights of the at least one recipient address based on a historical reply; and

sending the message only to a recipient address whose weight is higher than a predetermined threshold.

11-21. -21. (canceled)

22. A system, comprising:

at least one processor programmed to initiate executable operations comprising;

receiving a message lacking a recipient address;

searching for at least one recipient address based on a topic associated with the message; and

sending the message to the at least one recipient address.

23. The system according to claim 22, wherein the at least one processor is further programmed to initiate executable operations comprising:

extracting the topic from a topic field included in the message.

24. The system according to claim 22, wherein the at least one processor is further programmed to initiate executable operations comprising:

analyzing contents in at least one of a body portion, a subject field, a recipient field, or a carbon copy field of the message to obtain the topic.

25. The system according to claim 22, wherein the at least one processor is further programmed to initiate executable operations comprising:

before receiving the message,

providing a message editor for editing the message;

determining one or more candidate topics based on analysis of contents in at least one of a body portion, a subject field, a recipient field or a carbon copy field of the message; and

receiving a selection of at least one of said candidate topic, and determining the at least one candidate topic as the topic associated with the message.

26. The system according to claim 22, wherein the message is an electronic mail, and wherein the at least one processor is further programmed to initiate executable operations comprising:

analyzing a user profile of a registered user in an internal domain to determine an association degree of the user with the topic; and

responsive to determining that the association degree is higher than a predetermined threshold, selecting an electronic mail address of the user as one of the at least one recipient address.

27. The system according to claim 22, wherein the message is an electronic mail, and wherein the at least one processor is further programmed to initiate executable operations comprising:

sending the message to an external domain server that has been pre-registered in an internal domain;

analyzing a user profile of a registered user in the external domain to determine an association degree of the user with the topic; and

responsive to determining that the association degree is higher than a predetermined threshold, selecting an electronic mail address of the user as one of the at least one recipient address.

28. The system according to claim 22, wherein the at least one processor is further programmed to initiate executable operations comprising:

analyzing keywords in a network forum to determine an association degree of the network forum with the topic; and

responsive to determining that the association degree is higher than a predetermined threshold, selecting one of an outbound electronic mail address, an address of a network domain to which the network forum belongs, or a uniform resource locator of the network forum as one of the at least one recipient address.

29. The system according to claim 28, wherein the at least one processor is further programmed to initiate executable operations comprising:

obtaining the keywords of the network forum and any one of the outbound electronic mail address, the address of the network domain to which the network forum belongs, or the uniform resource locator of the network forum;

storing a mapping between the keywords of the network forum and any one of the outbound electronic mail address, the address of the network domain to which the network forum belongs, or the uniform resource locator of the network forum; and

deleting the mapping in response to at least one of;

an expiration time for the mapping being due, or a weight for the mapping being already lower than a further predetermined threshold.

30. The system according to claim 28, wherein the at least one processor is further programmed to initiate executable operations comprising:

receiving a reply from the at least one recipient address; and

filtering at least one of the message or the reply based on evaluation of the message made by a recipient corresponding to the at least one recipient address.

31. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program code stored thereon, the program code executable by a processor to perform a method comprising:

receiving, using the processor, a message lacking a recipient address;

searching, using the processor, for at least one recipient address based on a topic associated with the message; and

sending, using the processor, the message to the at least one recipient address.