METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING ADDITIONAL INFORMATION RELATED TO CONTENT OF AN E-MAIL

• US 20080307046A1
• Filed: 06/05/2008
• Published: 12/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/08/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NHN Corporation
• Original Assignee: NHN Corporation
• Inventors: Lee, Jee Sook, Choi, Han Byeol, Baek, Chang Yol
• Granted Patent: US 8,250,156 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

A method of providing additional information related to content of an e-mail is disclosed. The method includes receiving emails for a user: analyzing content of such a received email and identifying an information type of one or more strings in the content based, at least in part, upon predetermined information patterns; searching additional information related to basic information associated with a string in accordance with the identified information type; and displaying the additional information in response to receiving a user-initiated selection. The present invention is a method and system for providing additional information related to content of an e-mail such that the user can obtain additional information related to content of an e-mail without leaving the web page showing the email.

Claims

1. A method for providing additional information related to content of an e-mail, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving emails for a user;

analyzing content of such a received email and identifying an information type of one or more strings in the content based, at least in part, upon predetermined information patterns;

searching additional information related to basic information associated with a string in accordance with the identified information type, the basic information being at least a portion of the content of the received email; and

displaying the additional information in response to receiving a user-initiated selection.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

linking the additional information to the basic information associated with the string.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the additional information is linked to the string associated with the basic information.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the additional information is displayed in the event that a region associated with the string is selected by the user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the additional information is displayed in the event that a mouse pointer is positioned within a region associated with the string.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the additional information is hidden in the event that a mouse pointer is positioned outside a region associated with the string.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the information type including at least one selected from the group consisting of a name/title, a unit, an email address, a phone number, a location and time/date.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

in the event that a multiple additional information related to one of the basic information are searched, selecting at least one additional information based upon prior selections made by the user or a sender of the received email; and

displaying at least a portion of the selected additional information.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the content of the received email being displayed on a first window and the additional information being displayed on a second window.

10. A method for providing additional information related to content of an e-mail, the method comprising:

receiving via a network an email including basic information associated with at least one string included in a body of the email, and additional information related to the basic information associated with each of the at least one string from a server;

detecting a user-initiated selection of a string included in the body of the received email; and

in response to receiving the user-initiated selection, displaying the additional information related to the basic information associated with the selected string.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the additional information is displayed in the event that a region associated with the string is selected by the user.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the additional information is displayed in the event that a mouse pointer is positioned within a region associated with the string.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the content of the received email being displayed on a first window and the additional information being displayed on a second window.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the additional information is hidden in the event that a mouse pointer is positioned outside a region associated with the string.

15. A system for providing additional information related to content of an e-mail, the system comprising:

at least one memory having program instructions and databases;

means for receiving emails for a user;

means for analyzing content of such a received email and identifying an information type of one or more strings in the content based, at least in part, upon predetermined information patterns;

means for searching additional information related to basic information associated with a string in accordance with the identified information type, the basic information being at least a portion of the content of the received email; and

means for displaying the additional information in response to receiving a user-initiated selection.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein the information type including at least one selected from the group consisting of a name/title, a unit, an email address, a phone number, a location and time/date.

16. A system for providing additional information related to content of an e-mail, the system comprising:

a pattern-recognition module for analyzing content of an email and identifying an information type of one or more strings in the content based, at least in part, upon predetermined information patterns;

an information-search module for searching additional information related to basic information associated with a string in accordance with the identified information type, the basic information being at least a portion of the content of the received email; and

a server-control module for providing the additional information.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the information-search module generates a message requesting the additional-information related with the strings of the classified pattern to transmit to a content server that is accessible through a network.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein in the event that a multiple additional information related to one of the basic information are searched, the information-search module selects at least one additional information based upon prior selections made by the user or a sender of the received email.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the server-control module displays the hid additional information in the user terminal according to operation of a predetermined input means by linking the additional information with the string using HTML code or CSS code.