Systems and methods to provide assistance during user input

• US 9,819,765 B2
• Filed: 03/02/2012
• Issued: 11/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/08/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo Holdings, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Thatcher, Gregory Garland, Jacobson, Joshua Robert Russell, Cort, Frank J., Smith, Adam Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Fibbi, Christopher J
• Application Number:
  US13/411,310
• Publication Number:
  US 20120166999A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,083 Days
• Field of Search: 715752, 715780
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/313 Selection or weighting of terms for indexing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3322 using system suggestions G06F16/3325 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3326 using relevance feedback from the user, e.g. relevance feedback on documents, documents sets, document terms or passages
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3334 Selection or weighting of terms from queries, including natural language queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/337 Profile generation, learning or modification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0237 using prediction or retrieval techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04895 Guidance during keyboard input operation, e.g. prompting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• 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 51/02 using automatic reactions or user delegation, e.g. automatic replies or chatbot-generated messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 : Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals

Abstract

Systems and methods to provide assistance for completion during user input. In one embodiment, a method includes automatically generating profiles for persons identified in messages, such as incoming and outgoing emails. When a user is typing an input, the profiles are used to identify suggestions for the completion of the user input.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

scanning, by a computer, a set of messages of a user sent to or received from a plurality of persons, the messages comprising a first message from a first person;

generating a plurality of profiles for the persons, each profile comprising a name of a respective person from one of the messages, and at least one of a social network profile name or a link to a social network profile for the respective person, the plurality of profiles including a first profile for the first person;

extracting information from the messages to form search queries, the extracted information comprising a domain obtained from an address of the first message, the domain corresponding to a first website, the search queries including a first query, and the first query comprising search criteria including the domain;

communicating, over a network, with a plurality of servers in an automated way to extract data from the servers, the extracting data comprising querying the servers using the search queries, the extracted data comprising first data obtained from the first website;

storing a respective portion of the data extracted from the servers in each profile of the plurality of profiles, the storing comprising storing the first data in the first profile;

in response to an incomplete input in an input field for a new address of a new message being composed by the user, identifying a set of persons in the plurality of profiles that match the incomplete input, the set of persons including the first person;

determining, using the plurality of profiles, a relevancy score for each person of the set of persons based on a type of communication of the new message, wherein an address for a same type of communication as the new address is given more weight than an address for another type of communication, and the relevancy score further based on types of fields in which addresses of senders and recipients of the messages appear, wherein a weight given for an address in a From field is greater than a weight given for an address in a CC or BCC field; and

presenting to the user a plurality of suggestions to complete the incomplete input based on the set of persons, wherein the suggestions are presented in an order based on the respective relevancy score for each person of the set of persons.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the search queries is selected from the group consisting of a name, a social network profile name, a physical address, an email address, and a telephone number.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein each profile further comprises at least one of a business association or a job title of the respective person.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of messages includes messages received at a user terminal for the user and messages sent by the user from the user terminal.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the names of the persons is identified via the computer automatically querying a server over a computer network.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the server is one of:

a web server engine, an online directory, a social network server, or a media-sharing website.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more suggestions are a first set of suggestions, and the method further comprises:

obtaining a second set of suggestions from a message compose window; and

presenting the first and second sets of suggestions in a window.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the first and second sets of suggestions are presented as separate lists.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the messages are email messages.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more suggestions are presented for selection on a browser running on a user terminal remote from the computer.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein each profile of the plurality of profiles further comprises information about the respective person that is available online during creation or updating of the profile for the respective person as a result received from a web search engine or an online directory in response to a search query.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein each profile of the plurality of profiles further comprises information about the respective person that is available on a social network site during creation or updating of the profile for the respective person.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying the set of persons comprises matching the incomplete input to at least one field of the plurality of profiles other than a name field.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the information extracted from the messages comprises a phone number for the first person.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the first data comprises contact information for the first person.

16. A system, comprising:

a storage device to store a set of messages for a user, the messages comprising a first message from a first person;

a display device;

at least one processor;

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

scan the set of messages, and to identify names of persons from the messages to generate a plurality of profiles for the persons, each profile of the plurality of profiles comprising a name of a respective person, and a telephone number for the respective person, the plurality of profiles including a first profile for the first person;

extract information from the first message to form a search query, the extracted information comprising a domain obtained from an address of the first message, the domain corresponding to a first website, and the search query comprising search criteria including the domain;

communicate with a server to extract data from the server, the extracting data comprising querying the server using the search query, the extracted data comprising first data obtained from the first website;

store at least a portion of the data extracted from the server in a first profile of the plurality of profiles, the storing comprising storing the first data in the first profile;

identify, in response to an incomplete input in an input field presented on the display device for a new address of a new message being composed by the user, a set of persons in the plurality of profiles that match the incomplete input, to present a plurality of suggestions to complete the incomplete input based on the set of persons, and to replace the incomplete input with a suggestion selected by the user from the suggestions, wherein the set of persons includes the first person, and wherein the suggestions are presented in an order based on a respective relevancy score for each person of the set of persons; and

determine, using the plurality of profiles, the respective relevancy score for each person of the set of persons based on a type of communication of the new message, wherein an address for a same type of communication as the new address is given more weight than an address for another type of communication, and the relevancy score further based on types of fields in which addresses of senders and recipients of the messages appear, wherein a weight given for an address in a From field is greater than a weight given for an address in a CC or BCC field.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the identifying the set of persons comprises matching the incomplete input to a plurality of fields in the profiles, the incomplete input matched to at least one field of the plurality of fields.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-readable instructions, which when executed, cause a system to:

scan, by at least one processor, a set of messages of a user sent to or received from a plurality of persons;

identify names of the persons to generate a plurality of profiles for the persons, wherein each of the plurality of profiles includes at least one of a social network profile name or a link to a social network profile for a respective person;

extract information from one of the messages to form a search query, the extracted information comprising a domain obtained from an address of a first message, the domain corresponding to a first website, and the search query comprising search criteria including the domain;

communicate with at least one server to extract data from the at least one server, the extracting data comprising querying the at least one server using the search query;

store a portion of the data extracted from the at least one server in one of the plurality of profiles;

in response to an incomplete input in an input field for a new address of a new message being composed by the user, identify a set of persons in the plurality of profiles that match the incomplete input;

determine, using the plurality of profiles, a relevancy score for each person of the set of persons based on a type of communication of the new message, wherein an address for a same type of communication as the new address is given more weight than an address for another type of communication, and the relevancy score further based on types of fields in which addresses of senders and recipients of the messages appear, wherein a weight given for an address in a From field is greater than a weight given for an address in a CC or BCC field; and

present a plurality of suggestions to complete the incomplete input based on the set of persons, wherein the suggestions are presented in an order based on the respective relevancy score for each person of the set of persons.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the instructions further cause the system to, in response to the user selecting a suggestion from the one or more suggestions, replace the incomplete input with an address corresponding to the suggestion selected by the user.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the identifying the set of persons comprises matching the incomplete input to a plurality of fields in the profiles, the plurality of fields including a domain name.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein each profile of the plurality of profiles comprises a total number of messages received from a respective person.