Electronic message organization via social groups

• US 8,793,319 B2
• Filed: 07/13/2009
• Issued: 07/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Turski, Andrzej, Cheng, Lili, Affronti, Michael Anthony, Williams, Shane
• Primary Examiner(s): Pollack, Melvin H
• Application Number:
  US12/501,495
• Publication Number:
  US 20110010182A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,842 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/08 Annexed information, e.g. attachments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/226 Delivery according to priorities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services

Abstract

A mechanism for automatically organizing electronic messages is described herein. Social groups of a particular user that may be representative of topics, people, projects, and the like can be automatically learned based at least in part upon historical correspondence of the user. Moreover, messages can be automatically prioritized based at least in part upon historical correspondence patterns. Electronic messages may be presented to the user in accordance with group information and how important the messages are to the user.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving an electronic message that comprises data that identifies a sender of the electronic message and data that identifies a plurality of recipients of the electronic message, the plurality of recipients comprising a first recipient;

assigning the electronic message to a learned social group of the first recipient from amongst a plurality of potential learned social groups of the first recipient, wherein the plurality of potential learned social groups of the first recipient are learned based upon historic electronic correspondence between the first recipient and other individuals, and wherein the assigning of the electronic message to the learned social group is based on the data that identifies the sender of the electronic message and the data that identifies the plurality of recipients of the electronic message; and

causing the electronic message to be displayed to the first recipient on a display screen of a computing device, wherein the electronic message is displayed to convey to the first recipient that the electronic message is assigned to the learned social group of the first recipient, wherein the method is executed by a processor of the computing device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic message is an email message.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the email message is assigned a graphical indicator to convey an importance of the electronic message to the first recipient.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the importance is estimated based upon at least one of identity of the sender, identity of recipients other than the first recipient in the plurality of recipients of the email message, or time that the email message was sent by the sender.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising displaying an image corresponding to the sender together with the email message if the email message has an estimated importance above a threshold.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising displaying a portion of a body of the email message on the display screen of the computing device if the email message has an estimated importance above a threshold.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the estimated importance of the email message is below the predefined threshold, and further comprising:

generating a summary of the email message; and

transmitting a second email message to the first recipient, wherein the second email message comprises the summary of the email message and summaries of other low priority email messages.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying the electronic message together with a plurality of other electronic messages to convey to the first recipient that the electronic message and the plurality of other electronic messages are assigned to the learned social group of the first recipient.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the electronic message and the plurality of other electronic messages are displayed together in a field of a graphical user interface, and further comprising causing a plurality of selectable graphical items representative of attachments sent to the first recipient by at least one person in the learned social group and a plurality of selectable graphical items representative of data objects shared amongst members of the learned social group to be displayed in the field.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically updating the learned social group of the first recipient to add at least one person to the learned social group of the recipient or remove at least one person from the learned social group of the recipient based at least in part upon correspondence to and from the first recipient with respect to the learned social group of the first recipient over time.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an indication that the first recipient has selected the electronic message;

receiving an indication that the first recipient wishes to reply to the electronic message; and

causing a reply field to be displayed to the first recipient, wherein the reply field is configured to receive reply text from the first recipient, wherein the reply field is displayed in-line with content of the electronic message such that at least a portion of the electronic message is displayed above the reply field.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising causing at least one other electronic message to be displayed concurrently with the electronic message, and further causing the at least one other electronic message to be displayed to convey to the first recipient that the at least one other electronic message is assigned to a second learned social group of the first recipient that is different from the first learned social group.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request from the first recipient to review a summary of a plurality of communications assigned to the learned social group of the first recipient; and

displaying the summary, wherein the summary comprises data indicative of an amount of time the first recipient spends interacting with people in the learned social group, identities of people in the learned social group, distribution among sent emails of people in the learned social group, references to one or more messages belonging to the learned social group of the first recipient, and distribution of received emails from people in the learned social group.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic message is an email message transmitted by the sender from a first source, wherein the first source is an email application, wherein a portion of the email message is displayed in a field with portions of respective other email messages, and further comprising:

receiving data pertaining to the learned social group from a second source, wherein the second source is different from the first source; and

displaying the data pertaining to the learned social group in the field to convey to the recipient that the data corresponds to the second source.

15. The method of claim 1 configured for execution in an email application executing on a client computing device.

16. The method of claim 1 configured for execution in connection with a web-based email application.

17. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory that comprises a plurality of components that are executed by the processor, the plurality of components comprising;

a social group determiner component that, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to;

access a data repository that comprises historical emails received by a user and transmitted by the user, wherein each of the historical emails comprises a sender and at least one recipient; and

automatically learn a plurality of social groups of the user based at least in part upon the historical emails in the data repository;

a receiver component that, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to receive an email, wherein the email comprises data indicative of an identity of the sender of the email and data that is indicative of identities of other intended recipients of the email;

an assignor component that, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to automatically assign the email to a social group from amongst the plurality of learned social groups based upon the identity of the sender of the email and the identities of the other intended recipients of the email; and

a display component that, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to cause the email to be displayed on a display screen of a computing device in a manner that indicates that the email is assigned to the social group.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the assignor component, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to automatically assign a level of importance of the email based at least in part upon the identity of the first sender of the email, and wherein the display component, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to display the email in an expanded fashion if the level of importance is above a threshold.

19. The system of claim 17, further comprising a feed receiver component that, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to receive data pertaining to the first sender of the email from a social networking web site, and wherein the display component, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to display the data pertaining to the first sender of the email to indicate that the data pertaining to the first sender corresponds to the social group.

20. A computer-readable data storage device comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform acts comprising:

receiving an email message, wherein the email message comprises data that is indicative of an identity of a sender and identities of individuals that are intended recipients of the email message;

automatically assigning the email message to a first learned social group of the recipient from amongst a plurality of learned social groups of the recipient based upon the identity of the sender and the identities of individuals that are intended recipients of the email message, wherein the plurality of learned social groups of the recipient are learned based upon historic electronic correspondence between the recipient and other individuals;

automatically assigning the email message to a second learned social group from amongst the plurality of learned social groups of the recipient based upon the identity of the sender and the identities of individuals that are intended recipients of the email message; and

displaying a portion of the email message to the user together with graphical data that informs the user that the email message is assigned to the first learned social group and the second learned social group.