Generating a relationship history

• US 9,183,544 B2
• Filed: 12/13/2011
• Issued: 11/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yahoo Assets LLC
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Monaco, Peter, Steger, Angel
• Primary Examiner(s): Walsh, John B
• Application Number:
  US13/324,480
• Publication Number:
  US 20120150978A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,428 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/043 using or handling presence information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

Systems and methods for generation of a relationship history. In one embodiment, a method includes: scanning, by a computing device, a set of messages to or from a user to generate a plurality of profiles for persons associated with the messages, each person being a sender or a recipient of at least one of the set of messages, and the persons including a first person; generating, via the computer, a relationship history using the plurality of profiles, wherein the relationship history is for a relationship between the user and the first person; and presenting the relationship history to the user.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

scanning a set of messages to or from a user to generate a plurality of profiles for persons associated with the messages, each person being a sender or a recipient of at least one of the set of messages, and the persons including a first person having a first profile and a second person having a second profile;

generating, via a computing device, a relationship history using the plurality of profiles, wherein the relationship history is for a relationship between the user and the first person, the relationship history comprising information regarding a history of prior communications between the user and the first person;

receiving, via the computing device, an input in an address field of a user interface of a communications client, the input made to compose a new message to the first person; and

in response to receiving the input in the address field, automatically generating and inserting text in a body of the new message, the text customized using the first profile and the second profile, the text including information regarding the history of prior communications between the user and the first person, and the communications client allowing the user to edit the inserted text.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the relationship history comprises a name of a person first introducing the first person and the user.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the relationship history further comprises a count of the number of messages exchanged between the user and the first person.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the relationship history comprises a date of first introduction, via one of the set of messages, of the first person and the user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the relationship history comprises a topic associated with the first person'"'"'s relationship to the user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each profile of the plurality of profiles comprises a name of a respective person, and at least two addresses for the respective person.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising computing scores of the persons using the plurality of profiles to determine relevancy of the persons to the user, the computing scores comprising determining a relevancy of the first person to the user.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the presenting the relationship history is based at least in part on the relevancy of the first person.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first profile comprises a rank of the first person, and the customized text further includes the rank.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-readable instructions, which when executed, cause a user terminal to:

store a plurality of profiles relating to a plurality of persons in messages sent from or received by a user of the user terminal, each person being a sender or a recipient of at least one of the messages, and the persons comprising a first person having a first profile;

generate a relationship history based on at least a portion of the plurality of profiles, the relationship history comprising information regarding a history of prior communications between the user and the first person;

receive, via the user terminal, an input in an address field of a user interface of a communications client, the input made to compose a new message to the first person; and

in response to receiving the input in the address field, automatically generate and insert, by the user terminal, text in a body of the new message, the text customized using the first profile, and the text including information regarding the history of prior communications between the user and the first person.

11. The storage medium of claim 10, wherein the relationship history comprises a name of a person first introducing the first person and the user.

12. The storage medium of claim 11, wherein the relationship history further comprises a count of the number of messages exchanged between the user and the first person.

13. A system, comprising:

a display device;

a communications client to receive an edit from a user in a user interface presented to the user via the display device;

at least one processor; and

memory storing instructions configured to instruct the at least one processor to;

scan a set of messages to or from the user to generate a plurality of profiles for persons associated with the messages, each person being a sender or a recipient of at least one of the set of messages, and the persons including a first person having a first profile;

generate a relationship history using the plurality of profiles, wherein the relationship history is for a relationship between the user and the first person, the relationship history comprising information regarding a history of prior communications between the user and the first person;

receive an input in an address field of the user interface of the communications client, the input made to compose a new message to the first person;

in response to receiving the input in the address field, automatically insert text into a body of the new message, the text customized using the first profile, and the text comprising information regarding the history of prior communications between the user and the first person; and

after inserting the text, edit the inserted text based on the edit from the user in the user interface.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the relationship history comprises a name of a person first introducing the first person and the user.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the relationship history further comprises a count of the number of messages exchanged between the user and the first person.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the relationship history comprises a date of first introduction, via one of the set of messages, of the first person and the user.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the relationship history comprises a subject associated with the first person'"'"'s relationship to the user.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein each profile of the plurality of profiles comprises a name of a respective person, and at least two addresses for the respective person.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the instructions are configured to further instruct the at least one processor to compute scores of the persons using the plurality of profiles to determine relevancy of the persons to the user, the computing scores comprising determining a relevancy of the first person to the user, and wherein the presenting the relationship history is based at least in part on the relevancy of the first person.