Adaptive email in-basket ordering

• US 7,509,381 B1
• Filed: 04/21/2008
• Issued: 03/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Hutchinson, Gordon D., Winchester, Joseph R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Thu Ha T
• Application Number:
  US12/106,763
• Time in Patent Office: 337 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 709/205, 709/206, 709/207, 707/1, 707/7, 707/102, 370/260, 712/1, 379/93.01, 715/752, 715/753
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/226 Delivery according to priorities

Abstract

A method of adaptive email in-basket ordering which applies weightings to various e-mail attributes in order to sort the in-box. A plurality of unopened emails is presented. An order in which at least one email is opened is determined. At least one attribute is determined for the at least one email. A weight is generated by comparing the value of the at least one attribute with a value of at least one corresponding attribute of at least one unopened email. The weight is applied to the value of the at least one attribute. A pair-wise ordering is determined according to weighted attribute values of a first unopened email and a second unopened email. Unopened emails are sorted according to the pair-wise ordering.

Claims

1. A method of adaptive email ordering comprising:

presenting a plurality of unopened emails;

determining an order in which at least one email from the plurality of unopened emails is opened;

determining at least one attribute of the at least one email, the at least one attribute selected from the group comprising a priority set by a sender, a sender, a sender'"'"'s organization, a number of recipients, a recency of sending, a recency of mail sent to a sender, a conversation chain, or a recipient type;

generating a weight by comparing a value of the at least one attribute of the at least one email to a value of at least one corresponding attribute of at least one unopened email of the plurality of unopened emails;

applying the weight to the value of the at least one attribute of the at least one email;

determining a pair-wise ordering according to weighted attribute values of a first unopened email of the plurality of unopened emails and a second unopened email of the plurality of unopened emails, the pair-wise ordering being based on a number of occurrences of both a first weighted attribute value for the first unopened email and a second weighted attribute value for the second unopened email above a threshold number, the pair-wise ordering providing priority to unopened emails containing said first weighted attribute value when there has been more openings observed of emails containing the first weighted attribute value in relation to openings observed of emails containing the second weighted attribute value; and

sorting the plurality of unopened emails according to the pair-wise ordering, the plurality of unopened emails being automatically sorted without human intervention based on the pair-wise ordering.