Graphical mobile e-mail

• US 8,086,253 B1
• Filed: 12/15/2005
• Issued: 12/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Kalamkar, Abhijit, Gil, Elad, Coleman, Keith J., Shamis, Zhanna, Slee, Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): Desir, Pierre-Louis
• Application Number:
  US11/303,034
• Time in Patent Office: 2,203 Days
• Field of Search: 379/93.24, 715/744, 455/456.3, 455/466, 455/404.1, 709/217, 709/203, 709/231
• US Class Current: 455/466
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/145 related to small screens
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• 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

A method for providing messaging-related information to a mobile device is discussed. The method includes receiving from the mobile device a request for messaging-related information, using the request to identify a device-type indication for the mobile device, identifying one or more presentation parameters for presenting the messaging-related content properly on the mobile device, and transmitting the messaging-related content to the mobile device in a format corresponding to the one or more parameters.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for providing electronic messages to a mobile device, the method comprising:

receiving from the mobile device a request for at least a portion of one or more electronic messages, wherein the request for electronic messages includes a user agent string;

using the user agent string included in the request to identify with a computer system an indication of a type of the mobile device by performing a look-up on a user agent string, identifying a partial match, and applying heuristic selection rules to identify the indication;

identifying, using the computer system, one or more presentation parameters for presenting the electronic messages properly on the mobile device, wherein identifying the one or more presentation parameters comprises

mapping the indication to a device node in a multi-level hierarchical organization of device types and presentation parameters, and

traversing between levels in the hierarchical organization to move from the device node to a presentation node that includes one or more presentation parameters that correspond to presentation capabilities of mobile devices that are descendants of the presentation node; and

transmitting at least a portion of the electronic messages to the mobile device in a format that corresponds to the one or more identified presentation parameters, wherein the format implements restrictions on character lengths of portions of text from the electronic messages to be displayed on the device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the request from the mobile device is received in an HTTP format and the electronic messages include e-mail messages.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising blocking transmission of an element for an electronic message if the element is determined to not be properly displayable on the device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more presentation parameters include a device display width.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more presentation parameters include a voice-generator parameter.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein electronic messages include both textual and graphical content in a mark up document.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the transmitted electronic messages have a format that comprises a size of message snippets to be displayed by the mobile device.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting a format for an advertisement, from a plurality of formats for the advertisement, that corresponds to the one or more parameters, and transmitting the advertisement with the electronic messages to the mobile device in the format that corresponds to the one or more parameters.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the hierarchical organization organizes devices by manufacturer and by families within each manufacturer and presentation capabilities are provided at appropriate levels or nodes in the hierarchical organization.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the hierarchical organization organizes devices of all manufacturers under an appropriate presentation capability.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the format affects the number of messaging threads to be displayed on each page or page transmission.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the format affects a size of snippets sent for display on the mobile device and a level of truncation of text that is sent to the mobile device.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the format filters electronic messages containing extensive HTML content to prevent the electronic messages containing extensive HTML content from being sent to the mobile device.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising extracting, with the computer system, the user agent string and a second device identifier from the request.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising determining, with the computer system, an appropriate effect to give each of the user agent string and the second device identifier in determining the presentation parameters.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the one or more presentation parameters comprises generalizing a particular device into a group in which the device resides.

8. A computer-implemented method for providing messaging-related information to a mobile device, comprising:

receiving from the mobile device a request for messaging-related information, wherein the request for messaging-related information includes a user agent string;

using the user agent string included in the request to identify with a computer system an indication of a type of the mobile device by performing a look-up on a user agent string, identifying a partial match, and applying heuristic selection rules to identify the indication;

identifying, using the computer system, one or more presentation parameters for presenting the messaging-related content properly on the mobile device; and

transmitting the messaging-related content to the mobile device in a format that corresponds to the one or more identified presentation parameters,

wherein identifying the one or more presentation parameters comprises mapping the indication to a device node in a multilevel hierarchical organization of device types and presentation parameters, and traversing between levels in the hierarchical organization to move from the device node to a presentation node that includes one or more presentation parameters that correspond to presentation capabilities of mobile devices that are descendants of the presentation node.

10. A system for delivering electronic messages, the system comprising:

a web server to receive requests that include user agent strings for at least a portion of electronic messages from a mobile device, wherein the electronic messages are directed to a user of the mobile device;

a device classifier that receives device information from the web server and correlates it to presentation capabilities of the mobile device by mapping an indication of a type of the mobile device to a device node in a multilevel hierarchical organization of device types and presentation parameters, and traversing between levels of the hierarchical organization to move from the device node to a presentation node that includes one or more presentation capabilities of mobile devices that are descendants of the presentation node, wherein the device classifier comprises a look-up table correlating data relating to user agent strings to data relating to one or more devices and the device classifier uses the user agent strings included in the requests to identify the indication of the type of the mobile device by performing look-ups on the user agent strings, identifying partial matches, and applying heuristic selection rules to identify the indications; and

an interface to transmit at least a portion of electronic messages to the mobile device in a format that corresponds to the presentation capabilities,

wherein the format implements restrictions on character lengths of portions of text from the electronic messages to be displayed on the device.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the interface is configured to deliver the electronic messages to multiple different remote devices having different presentation capabilities.

12. The system of claim 10, further comprising an advertising server in communication with the interface to provide promotional content relating to the requests for transmission by the interface, wherein the advertising server is configured to receive a presentation parameter and to select an advertisement in a format, from among a plurality of formats, that matches the presentation parameter.

13. A computer readable device having stored thereon instructions operable to cause a data processing apparatus to:

receive from a mobile device a request for at least a portion of electronic messages, wherein the request for electronic messages includes a user agent string;

use the user agent string included in the request to identify an indication of a type of the mobile device by performing a look-up on a user agent string, identifying a partial match, and applying heuristic selection rules to identify the indication;

identify one or more presentation parameters for presenting the electronic messages properly on the mobile device by mapping the indication to a device node in a multilevel hierarchical organization of device types and presentation parameters, and traversing between levels of the hierarchical organization to move from the device node to a presentation node that includes one or more presentation parameters that correspond to presentation capabilities of mobile devices that are descendants of the presentation node; and

transmit at least a portion of the electronic messages to the mobile device in a format that corresponds to the one or more presentation parameters, wherein the format implements restrictions on character lengths of portions of text from the electronic messages to be displayed on the device.

14. The device of claim 13, wherein the instructions are further operable to select a format for an advertisement, from a plurality of formats for the advertisement, that corresponds to one of the presentation parameters, and transmit the advertisement with the electronic messages to the mobile device in the format that corresponds to the one or more presentation parameters.

15. The device of claim 13, wherein the instructions are further operable to block transmission of an element for an electronic message if the element is determined to not be properly displayable on the mobile device.