Graphically indicating relevancy of electronic messages

• US 8,930,825 B2
• Filed: 09/09/2010
• Issued: 01/06/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Brugler, Thomas S., Conzola, Vincent C., Craig, Randall A., Eischeid, Todd M., Molander, Mark E.
• Primary Examiner(s): SHIAU, SHEN C
• Application Number:
  US12/878,280
• Publication Number:
  US 20120066615A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,580 Days
• Field of Search: 715/752, 709/206
• US Class Current: 715/752
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking

Abstract

Methods and systems for determining a relevancy of an electronic message, and for graphically indicating the relevancy to a user are disclosed. A method may include receiving an electronic message, such as an email, at an electronic messaging system. The method may also include determining a relevance level of the electronic message to a user based on one or both of a number of primary addressees and a number of secondary addressees identified in the electronic message. Further, the method may include displaying graphical indicia based on the relevance level.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a plurality of electronic messages at an electronic messaging system of a user; and

for each of the electronic messages;

determining whether the user is either a primary addressee or a secondary addressee;

determining a number of other users identified as a primary addressee and a number of other users identified as a secondary addressee;

determining first graphical indicia based on the user being a primary addressee and the number of other users identified as a primary addressee;

determining second graphical indicia based on the user being a secondary addressee and the number of other users identified as a secondary addressee;

determining third graphical indicia based on the user being a primary addressee or a secondary addressee;

defining first and second portions within a display space associated with each of the electronic messages;

displaying a first indicator to indicate that the first portion is designated for display of relevancy information based on the primary addressee;

displaying a second indicator to indicate that the second portion is designated for display of relevancy information based on the secondary addressee;

displaying the first and second graphical indicia within the first and second portion, respectively; and

displaying the third graphical indicia within one of the first and second portions in response to determining that the user is the primary addressee or the secondary addressee.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the third graphical indicia comprises displaying the third graphical indicia at a predetermined position on a display screen based on whether the user is identified in the electronic message as one of the primary addressee and the secondary addressee.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising:

receiving user input identifying one of a message sender and an addressee of the electronic messages;

determining whether each electronic message identifies the one of the message sender and the addressee; and

wherein displaying the first and second graphical indicia comprises displaying the first and second graphical indicia based on whether each electronic message identifies one of the message sender and the addressee.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining a number of other users comprises determining a number of primary addressees and a number of carbon copy (Cc) secondary addressees of other users identified in the electronic message, and

wherein displaying the first graphical indicia comprises displaying the first graphical indicia in a respective primary header field of the electronic message;

and

wherein displaying the second graphical indicia comprises displaying the second graphical indicia in a Cc secondary addressee header field of the electronic message.

5. The method according to claim 1, comprising:

receiving user input to interact with one of the first and second graphical indicia; and

in response to receiving the user input to interact with the one of the first and second graphical indicia, displaying one of the numbers of primary addressees and the numbers of secondary addressees.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining a number of other users comprises determining whether the user is a blind carbon copy (Bcc) addressee, and

wherein determining the second graphical indicia comprises determining the second graphical indicia based on the determination that the user is Bcc addressee.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein displaying the second graphical indicia comprises displaying the second graphical indicia at a predetermined position within the second portion based on the determination that the user is a Bcc addressee.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic messages are one of an email, a short message service (SMS) message, and a multimedia messaging service (MMS) message.

9. A system comprising:

a display;

an input/output (I/O) module configured to receive a plurality of electronic messages;

at least a processor and memory; and

an electronic messaging manager configured to, for each of the electronic messages;

determine whether the user is either a primary addressee or a secondary addressee;

determine a number of other users identified as a primary addressee and a number of other users identified as a secondary addressee;

determine first graphical indicia based on the user being a primary addressee and the number of other users identified as a primary addressee;

determine second graphical indicia based on the user being a secondary addressee and the number of other users identified as a secondary addressee;

determine third graphical indicia based on the user being a primary addressee or a secondary addressee;

define first and second portions within a display space associated with each of the electronic messages;

display a first indicator to indicate that the first portion is designated for display of relevancy information based on the primary addressee;

display a second indicator to indicate that the second portion is designated for display of relevancy information based on the secondary addressee;

control the display to display the first and second graphical indicia within the first and second portion, respectively; and

control the display to display third graphical indicia within one of the first and second portions in response to determining that the user is the primary addressee or the secondary addressee.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the electronic messaging manager is configured to control, for each of the electronic messages, the display to display the third graphical indicia at a predetermined position on a display screen based on whether the user is identified in the electronic message as one of a primary addressee and a secondary addressee.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the electronic messaging manager is configured to, for each of the electronic messages:

receive user input identifying one of a message sender and an addressee of the electronic messages;

determine whether each electronic message identifies the one of the message sender and the addressee; and

control the display to display the first and second graphical indicia based on whether each electronic message identifies the one of the message sender and the addressee.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the I/O module is configured to receive user input to interact with one of the first and second graphical indicia, and

wherein the electronic messaging manager is configured to display, for each of the electronic messages, one of the numbers of primary addressees and the numbers of secondary addressees in response to receiving user input interacting with the one of the first and second graphical indicia.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the electronic messaging manager is configured to, for each of the electronic messages:

determine whether the user is a blind carbon copy (Bcc) addressee; and

control the display to display the second graphical indicia based on whether the user is a Bcc addressee.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the electronic messaging manager is configured to control, for each of the electronic messages, the display to display the second graphical indicia at a predetermined position within the second portion based on whether the user is identified in the electronic message as a Bcc addressee.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the electronic messages are one of an email, a short message service (SMS) message, and a multimedia messaging service (MMS) message.

16. A computer program product for displaying graphical indicia associated with an electronic message, said computer program product comprising:

a non-transitory, computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising;

computer readable program code configured to receive a plurality of electronic messages at an electronic messaging system of a user;

computer readable program code configured to determine, for each of the electronic messages, whether the user is either a primary addressee or a secondary addressee;

computer readable program code configured to determine, for each of the electronic messages, a number of other users identified as a primary addressee and a number of other users identified as a secondary addressee;

computer readable program code configured to determine, for each of the electronic messages, first graphical indicia based on the user being a primary addressee and the number of other users identified as a primary addressee;

computer readable program code configured to determine, for each of the electronic messages, second graphical indicia based on the user being a secondary addressee and the number of other users identified as a secondary addressee;

computer readable program code configured to determine third graphical indicia based on the user being a primary addressee or a secondary addressee;

computer readable program code configured to define first and second portions within a display space of a display associated with each of the electronic messages;

computer readable program code configured to control the display to display a first indicator to indicate that the first portion is designated for display of relevancy information based on the primary addressee;

computer readable program code configured to control the display to display a second indicator to indicate that the second portion is designated for display of relevancy information based on the secondary addressee;

computer readable program code configured to control the display to display, for each of the electronic messages, the first and second graphical indicia within the first and second portion, respectively; and

computer readable program code configured to control the display to display third graphical indicia within one of the first and second portions in response to determining that the user is the primary addressee or the secondary addressee.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, comprising computer readable program code configured to control a display to display, for each of the electronic messages, the third graphical indicia at a predetermined position thereon based on whether the user is identified in the electronic message as one of the primary addressee and the secondary addressee.