Retrieving and snoozing categorized conversations in a conversation-based email system

• US 8,533,274 B2
• Filed: 11/13/2009
• Issued: 09/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Buchheit, Paul T., Chang, Bay-Wei W., Golub, Seth J., Lim, Jing Yee, Singh, Sanjeev, Tuck, Russell R. III
• Primary Examiner(s): DENNISON, JERRY B
• Application Number:
  US12/618,669
• Publication Number:
  US 20100057879A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,397 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads

Abstract

A method and system for processing messages includes receiving a plurality of messages directed to a user. Each of the plurality of messages is associated with a respective conversation and list of conversations is displayed in an order determined in accordance with second predefined criteria, as a set of rows, where each row corresponds to one of the listed conversations and includes at least a sender list, a conversation topic and a date/time value. A user is enabled to identify one or more conversations in the list of conversations, to mark the identified conversations as belonging to a particular category, and to display another list of conversations comprising conversations marked as belonging to the particular category. A user may cause a conversation to be removed from certain displays, but to become visible again after the passage of a certain amount of time or the occurrence of an event.

Claims

1. A method of processing messages, comprising:

at a computer system having one or more processors and memory storing one or more programs executed by the one or more processors;

receiving a plurality of messages directed to a particular user, each message having a unique message identifier;

determining a respective conversation for each of the plurality of messages, each conversation having a respective conversation identifier;

wherein each conversation comprises a set of one or more messages sharing a common set of characteristics that meet first predefined criteria;

sending to a client system for display a first list of conversations including the respective conversation in an order determined in accordance with second predefined criteria, as a set of rows, each row corresponding to one of the listed conversations and including at least a sender list, a conversation topic and a date/time value, the sender list configured by the computer system to include only identifiers of senders of messages in the conversation corresponding to the row;

enabling the particular user to identify one or more conversations in the first list of conversations, and to mark the identified one or more conversations as belonging to a particular category while continuing to display the first list of conversations, which includes the identified one or more conversations;

updating attributes of the identified one or more conversations to indicate that the identified one or more conversations belong to the particular category; and

sending to the client system for display a second list of conversations, the second list comprising only conversations marked as belonging to the particular category, wherein a plurality of the conversations listed in the second list each have a plurality of messages, and wherein the second list includes only a single row for each distinct conversation listed in the second list.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the particular category has a unique identifier provided by the user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the second list of conversations is produced by executing a corresponding search query.

4. The method of claim 1, including sending to the client system for display content of a respective user-selected conversation when the user selects the respective conversation in the displayed list of conversations.

5. The method of claim 4, including, enabling the user to associate the user-selected conversation with a category while the content of the user-selected conversation is being displayed, the category having a user-specified identifier.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

sending to the client system for display with the conversation content, a means for removing the user-selected conversation from the first list of conversations, while keeping the user-selected conversation in a database of conversations associated with the user; and

in response to the activation of the means for removing, removing the user-selected conversation from the first list of conversations, and preventing the user-selected conversation from being automatically added to the first list of conversations when a newly received message is associated with the user-selected conversation unless predefined criteria are met.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the means for removing the user-selected conversation from the first list of conversations includes a means for automatically bringing the user-selected conversation back to the first list of conversations when the predefined criteria are met.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the criteria include an event triggering condition upon which the user-selected conversation is brought back to the first list of conversations.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the event triggering condition is satisfied when a number of unchecked messages in the conversation has reached a predetermined limit.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the event triggering condition is satisfied by an event selected from the list consisting of:

a message from a predetermined sender is associated with the user-selected conversation, a message that specifies the user as a primary recipient is associated with the user-selected conversation, and a message that contains a specified word or phrase is associated with the user-selected conversation.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the criteria include a time triggering condition upon which the user-selected conversation is brought back to the first list of conversations.

12. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium and one or more computer programs embedded therein the one or more computer programs comprising instructions which, when executed by a computer system, cause the computer system to:

receive a plurality of messages directed to a particular user, each message having a unique message identifier;

determining a respective conversation for each of the plurality of messages, each conversation having a respective conversation identifier;

wherein each conversation comprises a set of one or more messages sharing a common set of characteristics that meet first predefined criteria;

send to a client system for display a first list of conversations including the respective conversation in an order determined in accordance with second predefined criteria, as a set of rows, each row corresponding to one of the listed conversations and including at least a sender list, a conversation topic and a date/time value, the sender list configured by the computer system to include only identifiers of senders of messages in the conversation corresponding to the row;

enable the particular user to identify one or more conversations in the first list of conversations, and to mark the identified one or more conversations as belonging to a particular category while continuing to display the first list of conversations, which includes the identified one or more conversations;

update attributes of the identified one or more conversations to indicate that the identified one or more conversations belong to the particular category; and

send to the client system for display a second list of conversations, the second list comprising only conversations marked as belonging to the particular category, wherein a plurality of the conversations listed in the second list each have a plurality of messages, and wherein the second list includes only a single row for each distinct conversation listed in the second list.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the particular category has a unique identifier provided by the user.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the second list of conversations is produced by executing a corresponding search query.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 12, further including instructions which, when executed by the computer system, cause the computer system to send to the client system for display content of a respective user-selected conversation when the user selects the respective conversation in the displayed first list of conversations.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, including instructions which, when executed by the computer system, enable the user to associate the user-selected conversation with a category while the content of the user-selected conversation is being displayed, the category having a user-specified identifier.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions further include instructions to:

send to the client system for display with content of a conversation, a means for removing the user-selected conversation from the first list of conversations, while keeping the user-selected conversation in a database of conversations associated with the user; and

in response to the activation of the means for removing, remove the user-selected conversation from the first list of conversations, and prevent the user-selected conversation from being automatically added to the first list of conversations when a newly received message is associated with the user-selected conversation unless predefined criteria are met.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, including instructions which, when executed by the computer system, cause the computer system to remove the user-selected conversation from the first list of conversations and instructions for automatically bringing the user-selected conversation back to the first list of conversations when the predefined criteria are met.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the criteria include an event triggering condition upon which the user-selected conversation is brought back to the first list of conversations.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the event triggering condition is satisfied when a number of unchecked messages in the user-selected conversation has reached a predetermined limit.

21. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the event triggering condition is satisfied by an event selected from the list consisting of:

a message from a predetermined sender is associated with the user-selected conversation, a message that specifies the user as a primary recipient is associated with the user-selected conversation, and a message that contains a specified word or phrase is associated with the user-selected conversation.

22. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the criteria include a time triggering condition upon which the user-selected conversation is brought back to the first list of conversations.

23. A message processing system, comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory storing one or more programs to be executed by the one or more processors;

the one or more programs comprising instructions for;

receiving a plurality of messages directed to a particular user, each message having a unique message identifier;

determining a respective conversation for each of the plurality of messages, each conversation having a respective conversation identifier;

wherein each conversation comprises a set of one or more messages sharing a common set of characteristics that meet first predefined criteria;

sending to a client system for display a first list of conversations including the respective conversation in an order determined in accordance with second predefined criteria, as a set of rows, each row corresponding to one of the listed conversations and including at least a sender list, a conversation topic and a date/time value, the sender list configured by the computer system to include only identifiers of senders of messages in the conversation corresponding to the row;

enabling the particular user to identify one or more conversations in the first list of conversations, and to mark the identified one or more conversations as belonging to a particular category while continuing to display the first list of conversations, which includes the identified one or more conversations;

updating attributes of the identified one or more conversations to indicate that the identified one or more conversations belong to the particular category; and

sending to the client system for display a second list of conversations, the second list comprising only conversations marked as belonging to the particular category, wherein a plurality of the conversations listed in the second list each have a plurality of messages, and wherein the second list includes only a single row for each distinct conversation listed in the second list.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the particular category has a unique identifier provided by the user.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein the second list of conversations is produced by executing a corresponding search query.

26. The system of claim 23, including instructions for sending to the client system for display content of a respective user-selected conversation when the user selects the respective conversation in the displayed list of conversations.

27. The system of claim 26, including, instructions for enabling the user to associate the user-selected conversation with a category while the content of the user-selected conversation is being displayed, the category having a user-specified identifier.

28. The system of claim 26, further comprising instructions for:

sending to the client system for display with the conversation content, a means for removing the user-selected conversation from the first list of conversations, while keeping the user-selected conversation in a database of conversations associated with the user; and

in response to the activation of the means for removing, removing the user-selected conversation from the first list of conversations, and preventing the user-selected conversation from being automatically added to the first list of conversations when a newly received message is associated with the user-selected conversation unless predefined criteria are met.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the means for removing the user-selected conversation from the first list of conversations includes a means for automatically bringing the user-selected conversation back to the first list of conversations when the predefined criteria are met.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the criteria include an event triggering condition upon which the user-selected conversation is brought back to the first list of conversations.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the event triggering condition is satisfied when a number of unchecked messages in the conversation has reached a predetermined limit.

32. The system of claim 30, wherein the event triggering condition is satisfied by an event selected from the list consisting of:

a message from a predetermined sender is associated with the user-selected conversation, a message that specifies the user as a primary recipient is associated with the user-selected conversation, and a message that contains a specified word or phrase is associated with the user-selected conversation.

33. The system of claim 29, wherein the criteria include a time triggering condition upon which the user-selected conversation is brought back to the first list of conversations.

34. A method of processing messages, comprising:

at a computer system having one or more processors and memory storing one or more programs executed by the one or more processors;

receiving a plurality of messages directed to a particular user, each message having a unique message identifier;

determining a respective conversation for each of the plurality of messages, each conversation having a respective conversation identifier;

wherein each conversation comprises a set of one or more messages sharing a common set of characteristics that meet first predefined criteria;

sending to a client system for display a first list of conversations including the respective conversation in an order determined in accordance with second predefined criteria, as a set of rows, each row corresponding to one of the listed conversations and including at least a sender list, a conversation topic and a date/time value;

sending to the client system a means for removing a user-selected conversation from the first list of conversations, while keeping the user-selected conversation in a database of conversations associated with the user,

wherein the means for removing the user-selected conversation from the first list of conversations includes a means for automatically bringing the user-selected conversation back to the first list of conversations when third predefined criteria are met;

in response to the activation of the means for removing, removing the user-selected conversation from the first list of conversations, and preventing the user-selected conversation from being automatically added to the first list of conversations when a newly received message is associated with the user-selected conversation unless the third predefined criteria are met;

enabling the particular user to identify one or more conversations in the first list of conversations, and to mark the identified one or more conversations as belonging to a particular category;

updating attributes of the identified one or more conversations to indicate that the identified one or more conversations belong to the particular category; and

sending to the client system for display a second list of conversations, the second list comprising only conversations marked as belonging to the particular category, wherein a plurality of the conversations listed in the second list each have a plurality of messages, and wherein the second list includes only a single row for each distinct conversation listed in the second list.