Address book for integrating email and instant messaging (IM)

• US 7,970,846 B2
• Filed: 12/16/2009
• Issued: 06/28/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Daniell, W. Todd, Friedman, Lee G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Truong; Cam Y T
• Application Number:
  US12/639,922
• Publication Number:
  US 20100094947A1
• Time in Patent Office: 559 Days
• Field of Search: None
• 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 contacts IM information with the contacts 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 an individual contact of a user, the multiple IM addresses comprising IM addresses from different IM accounts, each IM account of the different IM accounts being transmitted and receive IM messages using a different IM protocol;

receiving a reference identifier (ID), the reference identifier (ID) being an alphanumeric code and being used to identify the individual contact, wherein the reference identifier (ID) is distinct from received instant messaging (IM) address and the email address;

correlating each IM address of the multiple IM addresses to the reference identifier (ID);

providing 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 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;

permitting the user to initiate the IM session with contacts at various IM addresses without manually logging into multiple IM accounts, allowing the user to type an IM message at a user input window; and

wherein the typed IM message is translated or reformatted into a native protocol associated with each participant of other participants'"'"' IM services and the typed IM message is displayed to each participant of the other participants in IM chat session;

wherein a first participant having a first instant messaging account engages a second participant having a second instant messaging account that is different from the first instant messaging account in the IM chat session though the user input window by sending the typed instant messaging message to the user from the first participant, reformatting the typed instant messaging message for the second participant, and conveying the typed instant messaging message which has been reformatted to the second participant, wherein user information identifying a sender of the typed instant messaging message is substituted with first participants information in the typed instant messaging message identifying the first participant as the sender; and

attempting to establish the IM chat session directly from the input window, wherein if a first IM address is not responsive, attempting a second IM address in prioritized order of the plurality of multiple instant messaging addresses.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an email address of the individual contact; and

correlating the email address of the individual contact to the reference identifier.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a telephone number of the individual contact; and

correlating the telephone number of the individual contact to the reference identifier.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an address of the individual contact; and

correlating the address of the individual contact to the reference identifier.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving personal information of the individual contact; and

correlating the personal information of individual contact to the reference identifier.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising:

means for receiving an address of the individual contact; and

means for correlating the address of the individual contact to the reference identifier.

13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, further causing a computing device to perform:

receive personal information of the individual contact; and

correlate the personal information of the individual contact to the reference identifier.

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising:

means for receiving personal information of the individual contact; and

means for correlating the personal information of individual contact to the reference identifier.

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

receive 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 IM account of the different IM accounts being transmitted and receive IM messages using a different IM protocol;

receive a reference identifier (ID), the reference identifier (ID) being an alphanumeric code and being used to identify the individual contact, wherein the reference identifier (ID) is distinct from received instant messaging (IM) address and email address;

correlate each IM address of the multiple IM addresses to the reference identifier (ID);

provide 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 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;

permit the user to initiate the IM session with contacts at various IM addresses without manually logging into multiple IM accounts, allowing the user to type an IM message at a user input window; and

wherein the typed IM message is translated or reformatted into a native protocol associated with each participant of the other participants'"'"' IM services and the typed IM message is displayed to each participant of the other participants in the IM chat session;

wherein a first participant having a first instant messaging account engages a second participant having a second instant messaging account that is different from the first instant messaging account in the IM chat session though the user input window by sending the typed instant messaging message to the user from the first participant, reformatting the typed instant messaging message for the second participant, and conveying the typed instant messaging message which has been reformatted to the second participant, wherein user information identifying a sender of the typed instant messaging message is substituted with first participants information in the typed instant messaging message identifying the first participant as the sender; and

attempt to establish the IM chat session directly from the input window, wherein if a first IM address is not responsive, attempting a second IM address in prioritized order of the plurality of multiple instant messaging addresses.

7. The computer readable storage medium of claim 6, further causing a computing device to perform:

receive an email address of the individual contact; and

correlate the email address of the individual contact to the reference identifier.

8. The computer readable storage medium of claim 6, further comprising:

means for receiving an email address of the individual contact; and

means for correlating the email address of the individual contact to the reference identifier.

9. The computer readable storage medium of claim 6, further causing a computing device to perform:

receive a telephone number of the individual contact; and

correlate the telephone number of the individual contact to the reference identifier.

10. The computer readable storage medium of claim 6, further comprising:

means for receiving a telephone number of the individual contact; and

means for correlating the telephone number of the individual contact to the reference identifier.

11. The computer readable storage medium of claim 6, further causing a computing device to perform:

receive an address of the individual contact; and

correlate the address of the individual contact to the reference identifier.

15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 6, 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, an email window logic and a combination thereof.