Apparatus, program products and methods utilizing intelligent contact management

• US 6,247,043 B1
• Filed: 06/11/1998
• Issued: 06/12/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 06/11/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Day, Paul Reuben, Bates, Cary Lee
• Primary Examiner(s): Kulik, Paul V.
• Application Number:
  US09/096,243
• Time in Patent Office: 1,097 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/206, 709/200, 707/3-5, 707/10
• US Class Current: 709/200
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/335 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles filtering in web context G06F16/9535, G06F16/9536
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

Apparatus, program products, and methods implement various intelligent contact management operations to improve the productivity of users of electronic messaging systems and the like. To perform an intelligent name lookup, for example, a subset of the users in a contact database that meet a predetermined search criteria is identified, and a favored user is selected therefrom based upon a predetermined affinity criteria. Also, the automated addition of new entries to a contact database is supported by accumulating the number of contacts between a first user and a second user, with a new entry associated with the second user added to the contact database associated with the first user in response to the number of contacts between the first and second users exceeding a predetermined threshold. The automated addressing of electronic messages is also supported by determining, in response to a first user addressing an electronic message to a second user, whether the second user is a member of an electronic messaging group that defines a plurality of member users, and if so, to address the electronic message to at least one additional member user in the electronic messaging group. The automated creation of electronic messaging groups is also supported by addressing an electronic message to a plurality of recipient users in response to user input, and automatically creating a new electronic messaging group including the plurality of recipient users. Furthermore, the automated updating of electronic messaging groups is supported by addressing an electronic message to an electronic messaging group including a plurality of member users in response to user input, selectively updating an address list for the electronic message in response to user input, and selectively updating the electronic messaging group based upon the updates to the address list.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of maintaining a contact database, the method comprising:

(a) accumulating a number of contacts between a first user and a second user; and

(b) in response to the number of contacts between the first user and the second user exceeding a predetermined threshold, adding an entry associated with the second user to a contact database associated with the first user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein adding the entry includes copying information from a second entry associated with the second user and stored in a master contact database.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein accumulating the number of contacts includes at least one of monitoring messages sent by the first user to the second user, monitoring message received by the first user from the second user, monitoring messages sent by the first user that copy the second user, and monitoring attempts by the first user to retrieve information about the second user.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising determining whether the number of contacts between the first user and the second user exceed the predetermined threshold by comparing the predetermined threshold with a composite number of at least two of the messages sent by the first user to the second user, the messages received by the first user from the second user, the messages sent by the first user that copy the second user, and the attempts by the first user to retrieve information about the second user.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein determining whether the number of contacts between the first user and the second user exceed the predetermined threshold includes determining the composite number by scaling at least one of the number of messages sent by the first user to the second user, the number of messages received by the first user from the second user, the number of messages sent by the first user that copy the second user, and the number of attempts by the first user to retrieve information about the second user.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising determining whether the number of contacts between the first user and the second user exceed the predetermined threshold by separately comparing at least one of the number of messages sent by the first user to the second user, the number of messages received by the first user from the second user, the number of messages sent by the first user that copy the second user, and the number of attempts by the first user to retrieve information about the second user, to an individual threshold.

7. A computer-implemented method of maintaining electronic messaging groups, the method comprising:

(a) addressing an electronic message to a plurality of recipient users in response to user input; and

(b) automatically creating a new electronic messaging group that includes the plurality of recipient users.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein automatically creating the new electronic messaging group is performed in response to user input to send the electronic message.