Associating one or more terms in a message trail with a task entry

• US 9,569,422 B1
• Filed: 08/15/2016
• Issued: 02/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Tomkins, Andrew, Ravikumar, Shanmugasundaram, Agarwal, Shalini, Pang, Bo, Li, Mark Yinan
• Primary Examiner(s): Hang, Vu B
• Application Number:
  US15/237,152
• Time in Patent Office: 183 Days
• Field of Search: 704/9, 704/231, 704/235, 704/239, 704/240, 704/251, 704/257, 704/266, 704/270
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/30 of unstructured textual data document management systems G06F16/93
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/313 Selection or weighting of terms for indexing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3334 Selection or weighting of terms from queries, including natural language queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/253 Grammatical analysis; Style critique
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/268 Morphological analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/279 Recognition of textual entities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/55 Rule-based translation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/58 Use of machine translation, e.g. for multi-lingual retrieval, for server-side translation for client devices or for real-time translation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1093 Calendar-based scheduling for persons or groups

Abstract

Methods and apparatus related to determining an association between a message trail and a task entry of a user and associating an n-gram with the task entry, wherein the n-gram is based on one or more messages of the message trail. A similarity score between the n-gram and one or more aspects of the associated task entry may be determined. The similarity score may be utilized, for example, to determine when to associate the n-gram with the task entry and/or how to utilize the associated n-gram with the task entry.

Claims

1. A method implemented by one or more processors, comprising:

identifying one or more messages sent or received by a user, wherein each of the messages includes one or more message terms;

determining that one or more of the message terms are associated with a task entry of the user;

identifying user input provided in an interface of an application that enables modification of the task entry, wherein the user input is generated in response to interaction by the user with a user interface input device of a computing device of the user;

determining a textual suggestion to provide for presentation to the user in response to the user input, wherein determining the textual suggestion is based on at least one message term of the message terms determined to be associated with the task entry; and

in response to the user input, providing the determined textual suggestion for presentation of the textual suggestion to the user in the interface.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user input is a partial term and wherein determining the textual suggestion is further based on the partial term.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining the textual suggestion based on the partial term comprises:

identifying the textual suggestion based on the textual suggestion including the partial term and including additional characters that are in addition to the partial term.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein determining the textual suggestion based on the at least one message term comprises:

ranking the textual suggestion relative to other textual suggestions based on similarity of the textual suggestion to the at least one message term; and

selecting the textual suggestion in lieu of at least one of the other textual suggestions based on the ranking.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the textual suggestion based on the at least one message term comprises generating the textual suggestion based on the at least one message term.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein generating the textual suggestion based on the at least one message term comprises including a first term of the at least one message term in the textual suggestion.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein generating the textual suggestion based on the at least one message term further comprises:

determining a sentiment for the first term based on a second term of the at least one message term; and

including an indication of the sentiment in the textual suggestion.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to the user input, providing an additional textual suggestion for presentation along with the textual suggestion;

wherein providing the textual suggestion and the additional textual suggestion comprises;

providing the textual suggestion for presentation with different non-textual visual characteristics than the additional textual suggestion based on the textual suggestion being determined based on the at least one message term.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the task entry includes a plurality of information fields and wherein determining that one or more of the message terms are associated with the task entry comprises:

determining that the at least one message term is associated with a particular information field of the information fields;

wherein the user input is directed to modification of the particular information field; and

wherein the textual suggestion is determined based on the at least one message term in response to both the user input and the at least one message term being associated with the particular information field.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one message term is included in a message, of the one or more messages, that was sent or received by the user after an initial creation of the task entry.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the task entry includes a plurality of information fields, wherein the user input is directed to modification of a current value assigned to a particular information field of the information fields, and wherein the textual suggestion is provided as a potential replacement for the current value.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an indication of a selection, by the user, of the textual suggestion; and

in response to the selection, modifying the task entry to include content that is based on the textual suggestion.

13. A system comprising:

memory storing instructions;

one or more processors configured to execute the instructions, wherein in executing the instructions one or more of the processors are to;

identify one or more messages sent or received by a user, wherein each of the messages includes one or more message terms;

determine that one or more of the message terms are associated with a task entry of the user;

identify user input provided in an interface of an application that enables modification of the task entry, wherein the user input is generated in response to interaction by the user with a user interface input device of a computing device of the user;

determine a textual suggestion to provide for presentation to the user in response to the user input, wherein in determining the textual suggestion one or more of the processors are to determine the textual suggestion based on at least one message term of the message terms determined to be associated with the task entry; and

in response to the user input, provide the determined textual suggestion for presentation of the textual suggestion to the user in the interface.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the user input is a partial term and wherein in determining the textual suggestion one or more of the processors are further to determine the textual suggestion based on the partial term.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein in determining the textual suggestion based on the partial term one or more of the processors are to:

identify the textual suggestion based on the textual suggestion including the partial term and including additional characters that are in addition to the partial term.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein in determining the textual suggestion based on the at least one message term one or more of the processors are to:

rank the textual suggestion relative to other textual suggestions based on similarity of the textual suggestion to the at least one message term; and

select the textual suggestion in lieu of at least one of the other textual suggestions based on the ranking.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein in determining the textual suggestion based on the at least one message term one or more of the processors are to generate the textual suggestion based on the at least one message term, wherein in generating the textual suggestion based on the at least one message term one or more of the processors are to include a first term of the at least one message term in the textual suggestion.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein in generating the textual suggestion based on the at least one message term one or more of the processors are further to:

determine a sentiment for the first term based on a second term of the at least one message term; and

include an indication of the sentiment in the textual suggestion.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein one or more of the processors are further to:

in response to the user input, provide an additional textual suggestion for presentation along with the textual suggestion;

wherein in providing the textual suggestion and the additional textual suggestion one or more of the processors are to;

provide the textual suggestion for presentation with different non-textual visual characteristics than the additional textual suggestion based on the textual suggestion being determined based on the at least one message term.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein the task entry includes a plurality of information fields, wherein the user input is directed to modification of a current value assigned to a particular information field of the information fields, and wherein the textual suggestion is provided as a potential replacement for the current value.

21. At least one non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, in response to execution of the instructions by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the following operations:

identifying one or more messages sent or received by a user, wherein each of the messages includes one or more message terms;

determining that one or more of the message terms are associated with a task entry of the user;

identifying user input provided in an interface of an application that enables modification of the task entry, wherein the user input is generated in response to interaction by the user with a user interface input device of a computing device of the user;

determining a textual suggestion to provide for presentation to the user in response to the user input, wherein determining the textual suggestion is based on at least one message term of the message terms determined to be associated with the task entry; and

in response to the user input, providing the determined textual suggestion for presentation of the textual suggestion to the user in the interface.