Address book for integrating email and instant messaging (IM)

• US 7,707,254 B2
• Filed: 03/31/2004
• Issued: 04/27/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Uber Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Friedman, Lee G., Daniell, W. Todd
• Primary Examiner(s): Truong, Cam Y T
• Application Number:
  US10/814,202
• Publication Number:
  US 20040186896A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,218 Days
• Field of Search: 707/10, 707/3, 707/206, 709/206, 709/230, 455/446
• 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 contact'"'"'s IM information with the contact'"'"'s email information.

Claims

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

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

upon receiving a single login name and password, automatically logging the user into all of IM accounts of the user and email accounts of the user;

receiving, by the computing device at the user location, an instant messaging (IM) address of the IM addresses of the contact of the 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 configured 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);

permitting the user to access all of the user'"'"'s emails from all of the user'"'"'s email accounts without manually accessing separate the email accounts;

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

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

providing, by the computing device at the user location, an email receive window that 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 and directly launching a IM session with the contact from the email receive window, the email receive window including a launch IM option for launching the IM session;

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

permitting a user to initiate an IM session with contacts at various IM addresses without manually logging into multiple IM accounts, allowing the user types an IM message at a user input window, wherein the typed IM message is translated or reformatted into a native protocol associated with each other participant of other participants'"'"' IM services and the typed IM message is displayed to said each other participant of the other participants of the IM services in a IM chat session.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

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

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

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

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

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

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

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

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

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

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

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

receiving, by the computing device at the user location, user input, the user input comprising multiple instant messaging (IM) addresses of an individual contact of a user, the multiple IM addresses comprising IM addresses from different IM accounts, each different IM account of the different IM accounts being configured to transmit and receive IM messages using a different IM protocol;

upon receiving a single login name and password, automatically logging the user into all of IM accounts of the user and email accounts of the user;

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

permitting the user to access all of the user'"'"'s emails from all of the user'"'"'s email accounts without manually accessing separate the email accounts;

correlating, by the computing device at the user location, each IM address of the multiple IM addresses to the reference identifier (ID);

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

providing, by the computing device at the user location, 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 and directly launching an IM session with the individual contact from the email receive window, the email receive window including a launch IM option for launching the IM session;

sequentially attempting to establish an IM session directly from an email read message window with a first IM address in a prioritized order of the plurality of the IM 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; and

permitting a user to initiate an IM session with contacts at various IM addresses without manually logging into multiple IM accounts, allowing the user types an IM message at a user input window, wherein the typed IM message is translated or reformatted into native protocol associated with each other participant of the other participants'"'"' IM services and the typed IM message is displayed to said each other participant of the other participants in a IM chat session.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

receiving, by the computing device at the user location, an email address of the individual contact; and

correlating, by the computing device at the user location, the email address of the individual contact to the reference identifier (ID).

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

receiving, by the computing device at the user location, a telephone number of the individual contact; and

correlating, by the computing device at the user location, the telephone number of the individual contact to the reference identifier (ID).

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

receiving, by the computing device at the user location, personal information of the individual contact; and

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

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

receiving, by the computing device at a user location, user input, the user input comprising multiple instant messaging (IM) addresses of an individual contact of a user, the multiple IM addresses comprising IM addresses from different IM accounts, each different IM account of the different IM accounts being configured to transmit and receive IM messages using a different IM protocol;

upon receiving a single login name and password, automatically logging the user into all of IM accounts of the user and email accounts of the user;

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

permitting the user to access all of the user'"'"'s emails from all of the user'"'"'s email accounts without manually accessing separate the email accounts;

correlating, by the computing device at the user location, each IM address of the multiple IM addresses to the reference identifier (ID);

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

providing, by the computing device at the user location, 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 and directly launching an IM session with the individual contact from the email receive window, the email receive window including a launch IM option for launching the IM session;

sequentially attempting to establish an IM session directly from an email read message window with a first IM address in a prioritized order of the plurality of the IM 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; and

permitting a user to initiate an IM session with contacts at various IM addresses without manually logging into multiple IM accounts, allowing the user types an IM message at a user input window, wherein the typed IM message is translated or reformatted into native protocol associated with each other participant of the other participants'"'"' IM services and the typed IM message is displayed to said each other participant of the other participants in a IM chat session.

10. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, further comprising:

receive logic, processed by the computing device at the user location, and configured to receive an email address of the individual contact; and

correlate logic, processed by the computing device at the user location, the correlate logic configured to correlate the email address of the individual contact to the reference identifier (ID).

11. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving, by the computing device at the user location, an email address of the individual contact; and

correlating, by the computing device at the user location the email address of the individual contact to the reference identifier (ID).

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, further comprising:

receive logic, processed by the computing device at the user location, and configured to receive a telephone number of the individual contact; and

correlate logic, processed by the computing device at the user location, the correlate logic configured to correlate the telephone number of the individual contact to the reference identifier (ID).

13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving, by the computing device at the user location, a telephone number of the individual contact; and

means for correlating, by the computing device at the user location, the telephone number of the individual contact to the reference identifier (ID).

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, further comprising:

receive logic, processed by the computing device at the user location, and configured to receive an address of the individual contact; and

correlate logic, processed by the computing device at the user location, the correlate logic configured to correlate the address of the individual contact to the reference identifier (ID).

15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, further comprising:

receive logic, processed by the computing device at the user location, and configured to receive personal information of the individual contact; and

correlate logic, processed by the computing device at the user location, the correlate logic configured to correlate the personal information of the individual contact to the reference identifier (ID).

16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving, by the computing device at the user location, personal information of the individual contact; and

means for correlating, by the computing device at the user location, the personal information of individual contact to the reference identifier (ID).

17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, further comprising a memory component configured to store at least one of the following:

a first receive logic, a second receive logic, a correlate logic and an email window logic.