Systems and methods to provide assistance during address input

• US 7,805,492 B1
• Filed: 07/07/2010
• Issued: 09/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/08/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Xobni Corp. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Smith, Adam Michael, Thatcher, Gregory Garland, Cort, Frank J., Jacobson, Joshua Robert Russell
• Primary Examiner(s): WANG, LIANG CHE A
• Application Number:
  US12/832,029
• Time in Patent Office: 83 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/226, 709/245
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/313 Selection or weighting of terms for indexing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3322 using system suggestions G06F16/3325 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3326 using relevance feedback from the user, e.g. relevance feedback on documents, documents sets, document terms or passages
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3334 Selection or weighting of terms from queries, including natural language queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/337 Profile generation, learning or modification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0237 using prediction or retrieval techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04895 Guidance during keyboard input operation, e.g. prompting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/02 using automatic reactions or user delegation, e.g. automatic replies or chatbot-generated messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 : Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals

Abstract

Systems and methods to provide assistance for completion during address input. In one embodiment, a method includes automatically generating profiles for persons identified in messages, such as incoming and outgoing emails. Based on how the addresses of the persons are used in incoming and outgoing messages, the relevancy scores of the addresses are determined. When a user is typing an address, the profiles and the relevancy scores are used to identify and sort suggestions for the completion of the address input.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method, comprising:

scanning, by a computer, a set of messages of a user to identify a plurality of addresses;

identifying, by the computer, names of persons at the addresses to generate profiles for the persons;

computing, by the computer, scores of the addresses to determine relevancy of the addresses to the user;

in response to an incomplete input in an address field, identifying a set of persons in the profiles that match the incomplete input;

sorting the set of persons based at least in part on the scores;

presenting a first set of one or more suggestions to complete the incomplete input based on the set of persons;

in response to the user selecting a suggestion from the first set of suggestions, replacing, by the computer, the incomplete input with an address corresponding to the suggestion selected by the user;

obtaining a second set of suggestions from a message compose window;

presenting the first and second sets of suggestions in a window; and

preventing the message compose window from presenting the second set of suggestions in a separate window, the preventing comprising generating a keyboard hook to prevent keyboard input directed to the address input field from being passed onto a separate suggestion window.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer comprises a user terminal storing the set of messages.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the set of messages includes messages received at the user terminal for the user and messages sent by the user from the user terminal.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

computing, by the computer, scores of the persons to determine relevancy of the persons to the user;

wherein the sorting is further based on the scores of the persons.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein a score of one address of the addresses is based on a first number of instances the address is used to identify a sender of messages sent to the user and a second number of instances the address is used to identify a recipient of messages sent from the user.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the second number of instances is provided with more weight than the first number of instances in determining the score.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein an instance of the address used in a message of a more recent date is provided with more weight than an instance of the address used in a message of a less recent date.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the names of the persons is identified via the computer automatically querying a server over a computer network.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the server is one of:

a web server engine, an online directory, a social network server, and a media sharing website.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second sets of suggestions are presented as separate lists.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the messages are email messages;

and the addresses are email addresses.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the addresses are one of:

email addresses, instant messaging user names, and phone numbers.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of suggestions is presented for selection on a browser running on a user terminal remote from the computer.

14. A user terminal, comprising:

a storage device to store a set of messages for a user;

a profile builder to scan the set of messages to identify a plurality of addresses, to identify names of persons at the addresses to generate profiles for the persons, and to compute scores of the addresses to determine relevancy of the addresses to the user; and

a profile presenter to identify, in response to an incomplete input in an address field presented on the user terminal, a set of persons in the profiles that match the incomplete input, to sort the set of persons based at least in part on the scores, to present a first set of one or more suggestions to complete the incomplete input based on the set of persons, and to replace the incomplete input with an address corresponding to a suggestion selected by the user in response to the user selecting the suggestion from the first set of suggestions, and the profile presenter further to obtain a second set of suggestions from a message compose window, to present the first and second sets of suggestions in a window, and to prevent the message compose window from presenting the second set of suggestions in a separate window, the preventing comprising generating a keyboard hook to prevent keyboard input directed to the address input field from being passed onto a separate suggestion window.

15. A non-transitory machine readable storage media storing a set of instructions, the instructions causing a processor to perform a method, the method comprising:

scanning, by the processor, a set of messages of a user to identify a plurality of addresses;

identifying names of persons at the addresses to generate profiles for the persons;

computing scores of the addresses to determine relevancy of the addresses to the user;

in response to an incomplete input in an address field, identifying a set of persons in the profiles that match the incomplete input;

sorting the set of persons based at least in part on the scores;

presenting a first set of one or more suggestions to complete the incomplete input based on the set of persons;

in response to the user selecting a suggestion from the first set of suggestions, replacing the incomplete input with an address corresponding to the suggestion selected by the user;

obtaining a second set of suggestions from a message compose window;

presenting the first and second sets of suggestions in a window; and

preventing the message compose window from presenting the second set of suggestions in a separate window, the preventing comprising generating a keyboard hook to prevent keyboard input directed to the address input field from being passed onto a separate suggestion window.

16. The non-transitory machine readable storage media of claim 15, wherein the identifying comprises matching the incomplete input to a plurality of fields in the profiles;

and the sorting comprises weighting the scores according to types of fields to which the incomplete input matches.

17. The non-transitory machine readable storage media of claim 16, wherein the plurality of fields includes at least two of:

a first name, a last name, a segment of an email prefix, a top level domain name, a second level domain name, a job title, and a city name.