Providing common contact discovery and management to electronic mail users
First Claim
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1. A method for discovering contacts which are common to a sender and a recipient of an electronic message (e-mail), the method comprising the steps of:
- receiving a selection of an email recipient from a sender;
determine whether the recipient has been included in a first list of contacts which are personal to the sender;
if it is determined that the recipient has not been included in the first list of contacts, prompting the sender to attach the first list of contacts;
attaching the first list of contacts to the e-mail responsive to identifying a request to attach the first list of contacts from the sender;
retrieving a second list of contacts which are personal to the recipient;
parsing each of the first and second lists of contacts and comparing said parsed lists to identify common contacts that are common to the sender and the recipient; and
populating a common contact list with said identified common contacts, wherein the common contact list contains only said identified common contacts;
wherein said common contact list is visible to the recipient, but said first list of contacts which are personal to the sender is not visible to the recipient.
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Abstract
The present invention relates to a process for discovering contacts common to a sender and a recipient of an electronic message (e-mail). The method can include identifying an attachment to the e-mail wherein the attachment includes a list of contacts personal to the sender. A list of contacts personal to the recipient can be retrieved. Each of the lists of contacts can be parsed and compared to identify common contacts. A common contact list can be populated with the identified common contacts.
34 Citations
12 Claims
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1. A method for discovering contacts which are common to a sender and a recipient of an electronic message (e-mail), the method comprising the steps of:
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receiving a selection of an email recipient from a sender; determine whether the recipient has been included in a first list of contacts which are personal to the sender; if it is determined that the recipient has not been included in the first list of contacts, prompting the sender to attach the first list of contacts; attaching the first list of contacts to the e-mail responsive to identifying a request to attach the first list of contacts from the sender; retrieving a second list of contacts which are personal to the recipient; parsing each of the first and second lists of contacts and comparing said parsed lists to identify common contacts that are common to the sender and the recipient; and populating a common contact list with said identified common contacts, wherein the common contact list contains only said identified common contacts; wherein said common contact list is visible to the recipient, but said first list of contacts which are personal to the sender is not visible to the recipient. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A computer-readable storage having stored thereon a computer program for identifying common contacts between a sender of an electronic message (e-mail) and a recipient of said e-mail, said computer program comprising a set of instructions for causing a computer to perform the steps of:
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receiving a selection of an email recipient from a sender; determine whether the recipient has been included in a first list of contacts which are personal to the sender; if it is determined that the recipient has not been included in the first list of contacts, prompting the sender to attach the first list of contacts; attaching the first list of contacts to the e-mail responsive to identifying a request to attach the first list of contacts from the sender; retrieving a second list of contacts which are personal to the recipient; parsing each of the first and second lists of contacts and comparing said parsed lists to identify common contacts that are common to the sender and the recipient; and populating a common contact list with said identified common contacts, wherein the common contact list contains only said identified common contacts; wherein said common contact list is visible to the recipient, but said first list of contacts which are personal to the sender is not visible to the recipient. - View Dependent Claims (12)
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Specification