Automatic non-junk message list inclusion

• US 8,380,793 B2
• Filed: 09/05/2008
• Issued: 02/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/05/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Shahine, Omar
• Primary Examiner(s): Backer, Firmin
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chambers, Michael A
• Application Number:
  US12/205,648
• Publication Number:
  US 20100064011A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,628 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/217, 709/225, 709/224, 705/67
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

Method to effectively include a transaction electronic mail (e-mail) message to a non-junk mail list of an email account of a user. The method includes interacting with the user to start to complete a business transaction at a transaction web site of a party. A confirmation step is defined to be a second to last step in a plurality of transaction steps to complete the business transaction. A request associated with the defined confirmation step is provided to the user and the request includes adding a transaction e-mail address to the non-junk mail list. The e-mail account is further received from the user, and properties of the received e-mail account are identified. The method further interacts with the user to log-in to the received e-mail account and interacts with the user to include the transaction e-mail address to the non-junk mail list of the e-mail account of the user.

Claims

1. A method to effectively include a transaction electronic mail (e-mail) message to a non-junk mail list of an existing email account of a user, said method comprising:

interacting with the user to start to complete a business transaction at a transaction web site of a party, said business transaction including a plurality of transaction steps;

defining a confirmation step being a step in the plurality of transaction steps to complete the business transaction;

providing a request associated with the defined confirmation step to the user to add a transaction e-mail address to the non-junk mail list of the existing email account of the user, said transaction e-mail address being associated with the transaction e-mail message sent by the transaction web site and including transaction information relating to the confirmation step, wherein said adding comprises;

receiving the existing e-mail account of the user from the user, said e-mail account having an e-mail address associated therewith;

identifying properties of the received existing e-mail account, said identified properties including log-in information of the received existing e-mail account;

generating a link directing the user to log-in to the existing e-mail account of the user, said generated link including at least a domain of the existing e-mail address, an end point that processes the provided request, the existing e-mail account of the user, and a return uniform resource locator;

interacting with the user to log-in to the received existing e-mail account using the generated link;

interacting with the user to include the transaction e-mail address to the non-junk mail list of the received existing e-mail account of the user; and

in response to interacting with the user to include the transaction e-mail address to the non-junk mail list, directing the user to a web page associated with return uniform resource locator.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a list of potential e-mail account providers to the user, and further comprising receiving a selection from the provided list from the user.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein interacting with the user to log-in comprises interacting with the user to log-in to the existing e-mail account in response to the received selection from the provided list, said interacting including automatically directing the user to a web site of the provider of the existing e-mail account from the transaction web site.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising suggesting additional e-mail addresses from the party in response to said adding.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a web feed to the user in response to said adding, said web feed including a list of address and descriptions thereof for the user to consider to be included in the non-junk mail list.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising directing the user back to the transaction web site as a last step to complete the business transaction, said last step indicating the confirmation step has completed and that the transaction e-mail address has been successfully included in the non-junk mail list of the existing user e-mail account.

7. A system to effectively include a transaction electronic mail (e-mail) message to a non-junk mail list of an existing email account of a user, said system comprising:

at least one e-mail provider server from an e-mail provider for providing the existing e-mail account of the user, said existing e-mail account having an e-mail address associated therewith;

at least one transaction party server for interacting with the user to start to finish a business transaction at a transaction web site of a party, said business transaction including a transaction workflow having one or more steps therein;

wherein the at least one transaction party server defines a confirmation step being a second to last step in the workflow to finish the business transaction;

wherein the at least one transaction party server provides a request associated with the defined confirmation step to add a transaction e-mail address to the non-junk mail list of the existing email account of the user, said transaction e-mail address being associated with the transaction e-mail message sent by the transaction web site and including transaction information relating to the confirmation step, wherein said adding comprises;

receiving e-mail account information for the existing email account of the user from the user, said received existing e-mail account information identifying the at least one e-mail provider server;

generating a link directing the user to log-in to the existing e-mail account of the user at the at least one e-mail provider server, said generated link including at least a domain of the existing e-mail address, an end point associated with the at least one e-mail provider server that processes the provided request, the existing e-mail account of the user, and a return uniform resource locator;

interacting with the user to log-in to the received existing e-mail account with the at least one e-mail provider server using the generated link; and

interacting with the user to include the transaction e-mail address to the non-junk mail list of the received existing e-mail account of the user;

wherein the at least one e-mail provider server directs the user to a location corresponding to the return uniform resource locator as a last step of the workflow to complete the business transaction, said last step indicating that the confirmation step is complete and indicating that the transaction e-mail address has been successfully included in the non-junk mail list of the existing user e-mail account.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the at least one transaction party server further provides a list of additional e-mail account providers to the user, and further comprising receiving a selection from the provided list from the user.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one transaction party server interacts with the user to log-in to the existing e-mail account in response to the received selection from the provided list, said interacting including automatically directing the user to a web site of the provider of the existing e-mail account from the transaction web site.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the at least one transaction party server further suggests additional e-mail addresses from the party in response to said adding.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the at least one transaction party server further provides a web feed to the user in response to said adding, said web feed including a list of address and descriptions thereof for the user to consider to be included in the non-junk mail list.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the at least one e-mail provider server and the at least one transaction party server maintains a transaction status as a function of the transaction workflow.

13. A method to effectively include a transaction electronic mail (e-mail) message to a non-junk mail list of an existing email account of a user, said method comprising:

receiving a request from a party for adding a transaction e-mail address to the non-junk mail list of the existing e-mail account of the user, said party providing a transaction web site for interacting with the user to start to complete a business transaction at the transaction web site of the party, said business transaction including a transaction workflow having one or more steps therein, wherein the party defines a confirmation step being a second to last step in the workflow to complete the business transaction, wherein the received request is associated with the defined confirmation step, said transaction e-mail address being associated with the transaction e-mail message sent by the transaction web site and including transaction information relating to the confirmation step, said request further includes an address of the transaction web site and the existing e-mail account of the user;

in response to the received request, populating a link received from the party with information related to the existing e-mail account of the user, said link directing the user to log-in to the existing e-mail account of the user, said link including at least a domain of the e-mail address associated with the existing e-mail account of the user, an end point that processes the received request, a log-in web site for the user to log-in to the existing e-mail account of the user, and a return uniform resource locator corresponding the transaction web site;

interacting with the user to log-in to the log-in web site using the populated link;

interacting with the user to include the transaction e-mail address to the non-junk mail list of the e-mail account of the user, said interacting including an indication that the transaction e-mail address has been successfully included in the non-junk mail list of the user e-mail account; and

receiving additional e-mail addresses from the party in response to the transaction e-mail address being included in the non-junk mail list of the existing e-mail account of the user, said additional e-mail addresses including e-mail addresses for the user to consider to be included in the non-junk mail list.

14. The method of claim 13, further receiving a web feed from the party to the user in response to the transaction e-mail address being included in the non-junk mail list, said web feed including a list of address and descriptions thereof for the user to consider to be included in the non-junk mail list.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising maintaining a state of the transaction workflow as a function of the confirmation step.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising directing the user to a location corresponding to the return uniform resource locator in the populated link as a last step of the workflow to complete the business transaction as a function of the maintained state, said last step indicating the confirmation step has completed and that the transaction e-mail address has been successfully included in the non-junk mail list of the existing user e-mail account.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein providing the following information comprises providing the following information to the party in a uniform resource identifier pattern or a uniform resource locator pattern:

a domain of the e-mail address associated with the existing e-mail account, an end point associated processes the received request, and a log-in web site for the user to log-in to the existing e-mail account.