Systems and methods of adjusting contact importance for a computing device

• US 8,751,591 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2011
• Issued: 06/10/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Becker, Stephen IV, Turner, Benjamin John
• Primary Examiner(s): Lai, Michael C
• Application Number:
  US13/249,561
• Publication Number:
  US 20130086177A1
• Time in Patent Office: 984 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/204, 709/223, 706/52, 707/100, 713/201
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

A list of contacts is stored in at least one contact repository such as an address book of an electronic device. Contacts can be assigned an importance value. An importance value is determined for contacts based on criteria such as the recentness that a contact'"'"'s information was updated or revised, how recently the contact was added to an electronic device'"'"'s address book, whether a contact'"'"'s website was recently accessed by an electronic device, the identity of a contact or the nature of the relationship between a contact and an electronic device. Contact importance criteria can be set in response to selections and inputs, for example via the use of slider bar on a display. Contacts can be dynamically ranked according to their importance and a ranked list of contacts can be displayed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

importing contacts from at least one social media;

monitoring the at least one social media for at least one communication associated with each contact;

determining an importance value for each contact based at least in part on an amount of communications associated with each contact;

ranking the contacts based at least in part on the importance value associated with each contact; and

displaying the contacts based at least in part on the ranking of the contacts, wherein displaying the contacts comprises;

displaying a name for each contact and the importance value determined for each contact, and

displaying, a name of a company associated with each contact in the event a company is associated with each contact, a number of social media sources, a number of emails sent to each contact for a given period of time, a number of emails received from each contact for the given period of time, and a date of the last sent email or a date of the last received email.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising adjusting the importance value for each contact based on a type of at least one monitored communication.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising adjusting the importance value for each contact based on information contained within at least one monitored communication.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the at least one social media includes social networks comprising email accounts, Linkedln®

, Facebook®

, Twitter®

, and Chatter®

.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining the importance value comprises determining at least one numerical value.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the importance value includes a fixed value based on the at least one social media being monitored for communications.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the importance value of each contact is periodically adjusted based on each email exchange with each contact.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the importance value is adjusted for email exchanges over time.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising revising the importance value for a given contact in response to receiving input from an input device.

10. An electronic device, comprising:

at least one processor;

at least one non-transitory computer readable medium in communication with the at least one processor;

at least one display in communication with the at least one processor and the at least one non-transitory computer readable medium;

at least one program module, stored on the at least one medium, and operative upon execution by the at least one processor to;

import contacts from at least one social media;

monitor the at least one social media for at least one communication associated with each contact;

determine an importance value for each contact based at least in part on an amount of communications associated with each contact;

rank the contacts based at least in part on the importance value associated with each contact; and

display on the at least one display the contacts based at least in part on the ranking of the contacts, wherein displaying the contacts comprises;

displaying a name for each contact and the importance value determined for each contact, and

displaying, a name of a company associated with each contact in the event a company is associated with each contact, a number of social media sources, a number of emails sent to each contact for a given period of time, a number of emails received from each contact for the given period of time, and a date of the last sent email or a date of the last received email.

11. The electronic device of claim 10, further comprising adjusting the importance value for each contact based on a type of at least one monitored communication.

12. The electronic device of claim 10, further comprising adjusting the importance value for each contact based on information contained within at least one monitored communication.

13. The electronic device of claim 10, wherein the at least one social media includes social networks comprising email accounts, LinkedIn®

, Facebook®

, Twitter®

, and Chatter®

.

14. The electronic device of claim 10, wherein determining the importance value comprises determining at least one numerical value.

15. The electronic device of claim 14, wherein the importance value includes a fixed value based on the at least one social media being monitored.

16. The electronic device of claim 14, wherein the importance value is periodically adjusted based on each email exchange with the contact.

17. An electronic device, comprising:

at least one processor;

at least one non-transitory computer readable medium in communication with the at least one processor;

at least one display in communication with the at least one processor and the at least one non-transitory computer readable medium;

at least one program module, stored on the at least one medium, and operative upon execution by the at least one processor to;

import contacts from at least one social media;

receive from a remote source, an importance value for each contact based at least on an amount of communications associated with each contact;

receive from a remote source, a ranking of the contacts based on an importance value associated with each contact; and

display on the at least one display the contacts based on the ranking of the contacts, wherein displaying the contacts comprises;

displaying a name for each contact and the importance value for each contact, and

displaying, a name of a company associated with each contact in the event a company is associated with each contact, a number of social media sources, a number of emails sent to each contact for a given period of time, a number of emails received from each contact for the given period of time, and a date of the last sent email or a date of the last received email.