Method to assist users in preventing errors when using type-ahead

• US 7,925,992 B2
• Filed: 05/30/2008
• Issued: 04/12/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Wasmund, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Sax; Steven P
• Assistant Examiner(s): Belousov; Andrey
• Application Number:
  US12/129,717
• Publication Number:
  US 20090300491A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,047 Days
• Field of Search: 715/815, 715/816, 715/821, 715/825
• US Class Current: 715/816
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

A method and system to provide selection of entries in input fields, such as email client, includes pre-processing a list of potential addresses before the list is shown to a user by eliminating less important or invalid entries, and then displaying a list of entries for selection to the user in a format which highlights the most probable address to support selection of a “right” address.

Claims

1. A method of pruning type-ahead lists in email clients to prevent display of suggested recipient addresses which are invalid or unlikely to be used in an address book, while presenting a remaining list of type-ahead suggestions sorted by relevance, wherein the method highlights a most likely suggestion in a visible way and in an audible way, said method comprising:

calculating a score composed of a number of emails sent to a user multiplied by number of emails received from the user;

using said score to prevent received spam e-mail from being included in said type-ahead lists;

presenting suggested addresses for a recipient'"'"'s address while the user types a predetermined number of characters of the recipient'"'"'s address;

presenting suggested addresses for a recipient'"'"'s address so that font sizes of the suggested addresses are derived from a number of prior uses of addresses;

presenting suggested addresses for a recipient'"'"'s address so that a color of the suggested addresses is derived from said number of prior uses of the addresses;

presenting suggested addresses for a recipient'"'"'s address so that a pitch of a tone reading out the addresses is derived from said number of prior uses of the addresses; and

presenting suggested addresses for a recipient'"'"'s address so that a volume of said tone of reading out the addresses is derived from said number of prior uses of the addresses,

wherein if an entry reflects an address which is rejected by a mail processing system when sending a mail to the address, the entry is rated invalid,

wherein if a mail sent to a recipient is returned to the user'"'"'s address, the user is prompted for permission to remove an address that corresponds to an entry of the mail sent from the address book, and

wherein if an address corresponding to an entry is removed from the address book, the entry is rated unlikely to be used.