Electronic message prioritization

• US 8,095,613 B1
• Filed: 01/06/2010
• Issued: 01/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ARO, Inc. (Dibona Holding)
• Original Assignee: Kiha Software, Inc.
• Inventors: Perkowitz, Michael, Eustice, Kevin Francis, Yetisgen-Yildiz, Meliha, Kawai, Kenji
• Primary Examiner(s): EL CHANTI, HUSSEIN A
• Application Number:
  US12/652,905
• Time in Patent Office: 734 Days
• Field of Search: 709206-207, 709223-224
• US Class Current: 709/207
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting

Abstract

A system, method, and computer program product dynamically prioritizes electronic messages. An electronic message having one or more properties is received. These message properties can include, a particular sender or body text. Information describing past activity of a recipient user of the electronic message is accessed. A priority is determined for the electronic message, where the determining is based at least in part on a comparison of a property of the electronic message with the accessed information. The priority determination may include detecting the presence of a request in the electronic message, determining the social weight of the sender of the electronic message, determining the temporal urgency of the electronic message, or determining the relevance of the electronic message, for example. An indication of the priority of the message is presented to the recipient user.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of dynamically prioritizing electronic messages, comprising:

receiving an electronic message having one or more terms;

forming an incoming term vector for the incoming electronic message, the incoming term vector including terms from the electronic message and associated weights;

forming a combined term vector for a recipient user of the incoming electronic message, the combined term vector formed of individual term vectors for electronic messages previously received by the recipient user of the incoming electronic message, the weights of the individual term vectors decayed responsive to elapsed times since the previously received electronic messages were last accessed;

determining a relevance of the incoming electronic message based on a comparison of the incoming term vector with the combined term vector;

determining a priority of the electronic message based on the determined relevance; and

presenting an indication of the priority of the electronic message to the recipient user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a priority of the electronic message comprises:

detecting the presence of a request in the electronic message; and

increasing the priority of the electronic message responsive to detecting the presence of the request.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a priority of the electronic message comprises:

determining a social weight of a sender of the electronic message, wherein the social weight of a sender is a measure of the closeness or importance of the sender to the recipient user.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein determining a social weight of a sender of the electronic message comprises:

determining a reply rate of the recipient user to the sender, the reply rate indicating the proportion of messages from the sender to which the recipient user has replied.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein determining a social weight of a sender of the electronic message comprises:

determining a read time of the recipient user for messages from the sender, the read time indicating an average time elapsed between the recipient user receiving a message from the sender and the recipient user reading the message.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein determining a read time of the recipient user for messages from the sender comprises:

determining times that the user is unavailable to read messages based on a calendar of the user or based on activity of the user; and

excluding unavailable time from the read time.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a priority of the electronic message comprises:

determining a type or degree of sentiment expressed in the electronic message.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a priority of the electronic message comprises:

locating a time reference in the electronic message; and

determining a temporal urgency of the electronic message, the temporal urgency based on a comparison of the time reference in the electronic message with a current time.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein determining a temporal urgency of the electronic message comprises:

converting the time reference in the electronic message from a relative time to an absolute time, a relative time being a time expressed relative to a time that the message was sent.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating information describing activities or interests of the recipient user of the electronic message at a plurality of different times;

determining a plurality of different priorities of the electronic message, the determining based at least in part on a comparison of a property of the electronic message with accessed information, each of the plurality of different priorities corresponding to information describing activities or interests of the recipient user at a different time; and

presenting indications of each of the plurality of different priorities of the electronic message to the recipient user at different times.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein forming the combined term vector comprises:

decaying the weights of the individual term vectors responsive to elapsed times since the messages corresponding to the individual term vectors were last accessed; and

summing decayed weights of common terms of the individual term vectors to form the combined term vector.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining an elapsed time since a message corresponding to an individual term vector was last accessed; and

responsive to a comparison of the elapsed time since the message was accessed with a threshold, excluding the individual term vector from the combined term vector.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having executable computer program instructions recorded thereon for dynamically prioritizing electronic messages, the computer program instructions comprising instructions for:

receiving an electronic message having one or more terms;

forming an incoming term vector for the incoming electronic message, the incoming term vector including terms from the electronic message and associated weights;

forming a combined term vector for a recipient user of the incoming electronic message, the combined term vector formed of individual term vectors for electronic messages previously received by the recipient user of the incoming electronic message, the weights of the individual term vectors decayed responsive to elapsed times since the previously received electronic messages were last accessed;

determining a relevance of the incoming electronic message based on a comparison of the incoming term vector with the combined term vector;

determining a priority of the electronic message based on the determined relevance; and

presenting an indication of the priority of the electronic message to the recipient user.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein determining a priority of the electronic message comprises:

detecting the presence of a request in the electronic message; and

increasing the priority of the electronic message responsive to detecting the presence of the request.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein determining a priority of the electronic message comprises:

determining a social weight of a sender of the electronic message, wherein the social weight of a sender is a measure of the closeness or importance of the sender to the recipient user.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein determining a priority of the electronic message comprises:

locating a time reference in the electronic message; and

determining a temporal urgency of the electronic message, the temporal urgency based on a comparison of the time reference in the electronic message with a current time.

17. A computer system for dynamically prioritizing electronic messages, the system comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable computer program modules for;

receiving an electronic message having one or more terms;

forming an incoming term vector for the incoming electronic message, the incoming term vector including terms from the electronic message and associated weights;

forming a combined term vector for a recipient user of the incoming electronic message, the combined term vector formed of individual term vectors for electronic messages previously received by the recipient user of the incoming electronic message, the weights of the individual term vectors decayed responsive to elapsed times since the previously received electronic messages were last accessed;

determining a relevance of the incoming electronic message based on a comparison of the incoming term vector with the combined term vector;

determining a priority of the electronic message based on the determined relevance; and

presenting an indication of the priority of the electronic message to the recipient user; and

a processor for executing the computer program modules.

18. The computer system of claim 17, wherein determining a priority of the electronic message comprises:

detecting the presence of a request in the electronic message; and

increasing the priority of the electronic message responsive to detecting the presence of the request.

19. The computer system of claim 17, wherein determining a priority of the electronic message comprises:

determining a social weight of a sender of the electronic message, wherein the social weight of a sender is a measure of the closeness or importance of the sender to the recipient user.

20. The computer system of claim 17, wherein determining a priority of the electronic message comprises:

locating a time reference in the electronic message; and

determining a temporal urgency of the electronic message, the temporal urgency based on a comparison of the time reference in the electronic message with a current time.