System and method for providing visual representations of email to enable efficient email processing

• US 9,043,403 B2
• Filed: 05/10/2013
• Issued: 05/26/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/10/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Schnitman, Yaar, Chiu, Bikin, Lee, Han Seul, Agarwal, Shalini, Yung, Clarence
• Primary Examiner(s): Chang, Jungwon
• Application Number:
  US13/891,801
• Publication Number:
  US 20140337441A1
• Time in Patent Office: 746 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/205, 715/230, 715/752, 715/808, 707/104.1
• US Class Current: 709/205
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/08 Annexed information, e.g. attachments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/18 Commands or executable codes

Abstract

An email system is disclosed which provides annotations associated with email to recipients and allows the recipients to interact with annotated email. The system receives email and determines whether the received email includes items that should be annotated. Responsive to determining that an email includes items that should be annotated, the system acquires annotated information related to the email. The received email and associated annotated information are stored in the email system. When a request is received to access email for a specific user, the email system displays an email listing, identifying email that is associated with an annotation using a visual representation. If the recipient responds to an annotation, the system receives and stores the recipient'"'"'s response. The system then sends the recipient'"'"'s response to the sender of the email. The system also receives updates to received email from email senders and displays email updates to the appropriate recipients.

Claims

1. An email system comprising:

one or more processing devices and

one or more storage devices storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processing devices, cause the one or more processing devices to;

receive email;

parse email content to determine whether a received email has an associated annotation;

responsive to determining that a received email has an associated annotation, store the email and associated annotation in persistent storage;

receive a request to access email for a specific recipient;

select visual representations, based on the parsed email content, for the emails having associated annotations; and

display an email listing including at least one received email having an associated annotation, where the visual representation for the at least one received email is interactive, allowing a user to communicate a response using the visual representation, and the received email is displayed with its associated visual representation in-line with other email information on the email listing.

2. The email system of claim 1 wherein the annotation is an actionable item.

3. The email system of claim 2, further comprising displaying the visual representation as an interactive widget which a recipient can open and use to respond to the action.

4. The email system of claim 2, further comprising receiving a recipient response to the annotation.

5. The email system of claim 4, further comprising:

associating the recipient response with the corresponding email;

storing the recipient response; and

sending the response to the third party service that sent the email.

6. The email system of claim 1, further comprising displaying the visual representation prior to the recipient interacting with the email.

7. The email system of claim 1, further comprising generating the visual representation based on an annotation category.

8. The email system of claim 1, further comprising determining whether a received email is associated with an annotation by parsing email text.

9. The email system of claim 1, further comprising determining whether a received email is associated with an annotation by using artificial intelligence.

10. The email system of claim 1, further comprising determining whether a received email is associated with an annotation by reading the email'"'"'s associated structured data.

11. The email system of claim 1, further comprising acquiring enhancement information and associating the acquired enhancement information with the email.

12. The email system of claim 11, further comprising acquiring the enhancement information from the email'"'"'s associated structured data or a third party site.

13. A method for providing annotations associated with emails to a recipient and allowing the recipient to interact with email annotations, the method comprising:

receiving email;

parsing the email content to determine whether a received email has an associated annotation;

responsive to determining that a received email has an associated annotation, storing the email and associated annotation in persistent storage;

receiving a request to access email for a specific recipient;

selecting visual representations, based on the parsed email content, for the emails having associated annotations; and

displaying an email listing including at least one received email having an associated annotation, where the visual representation for the at least one received email is interactive, allowing a user to communicate a response using the visual representation, and the received email is displayed with its associated visual representation in-line with other email information on the email listing.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the annotation is an actionable item.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising displaying the visual representation as an interactive widget which a recipient can open and use to respond to the action.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising receiving a recipient response to the annotation.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

associating the recipient response with the corresponding email;

storing the recipient response; and

sending the response to the third party service that sent the email.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising displaying the visual representation prior to the recipient interacting with the email.

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising generating the visual representation based on an annotation category.

20. The method of claim 13, further comprising determining whether a received email is associated with an annotation by parsing email text.

21. The method of claim 13, further comprising determining whether a received email is associated with an annotation by using artificial intelligence.

22. The method of claim 13, further comprising determining whether a received email is associated with an annotation by reading the email'"'"'s associated structured data.

23. The method of claim 13, further comprising acquiring enhancement information and associating the acquired enhancement information with the email.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising acquiring the enhancement information from the email'"'"'s associated structured data or a third party site.