AUTOMATIC SIGNIFICANCE TAGGING OF INCOMING COMMUNICATIONS

• US 20090006366A1
• Filed: 06/28/2007
• Published: 01/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Ozzie, Raymond E., Curtis, Pavel, McAniff, Richard J., Johnson, Bruce, Gupta, Anoop, Czerwinski, Mary P., Barga, Roger S.
• Granted Patent: US 7,885,948 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/353 into predefined classes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking

Abstract

As incoming communications are received, a priority or significance level can be assigned to each communication. A communication determined to have a high priority can be presented to a user at substantially the same time as receiving the communication. A communication having a low priority can be placed in a low priority folder or flagged differently from a high priority communication (e.g., different color-coding). Behavior of a user as it relates to a received communication can be observed for learning purposes or to modify one or more classifications or priority levels.

Claims

1. A system for automatically assigning significance levels to incoming communications, comprising:

a classification component that receives one or more incoming communications and assigns a tag to each incoming communication;

a ranking component that prioritizes each incoming communication based in part on the assigned tag; and

a presentation component that selectively outputs the incoming communication based on the prioritization.

2. The system of claim 1, the presentation component outputs the incoming communication to a user at about the same time as the incoming communication is received if the priority is high.

3. The system of claim 1, the presentation component retains the communication in a separate location if the priority is low.

4. The system of claim 1, the classification component assigns the tag based on an importance level of the incoming communication.

5. The system of claim 4, the importance level includes at least one of historical data, keywords, phrases, user instructions, time spent reviewing similar emails, changes to previous priority levels, or combinations thereof.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising an observation component that observes user actions relating to incoming communications.

7. The system of claim 1, the presentation component marks important communications in a first color and communications that are not important in a second color.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising an override component that accepts a manual change to the priority of at least one communication.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising an optimization component that seeks factors that have a significance on a priority level of the incoming communication.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising an optimization component that accesses a task database and dynamically changes the priority based on an assigned task.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising an optimization component that selectively replies to an incoming communication based on a recipient status.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising an optimization component that dynamically modifies the priority of the incoming communication based on a previously sent communication.

13. A method for automatically managing incoming communications, comprising:

receiving a first communication;

observing a behavior of a recipient on the first communication;

receiving a second communication;

determining if the second communication is similar to the first incoming communication; and

selectively applying the observed behavior to the first communication or the second communication or both communications.

14. The method of claim 13, observing the behavior comprises establishing patterns based on one or more of a sender, keywords or phrases in a subject line or body of the communication, the placement of the recipient in an address area, or combinations thereof.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprises observing a next behavior if the second communication is not similar to the first communication.

16. The method of claim 13, selectively applying the observed behavior further comprises applying the behavior observed on the first communication if the communications are similar.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

ranking a communication based on the observed behavior; and

selectively outputting the ranked communication to a user.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

receiving a manual override of the ranked communication; and

modifying a subsequent ranking, a previous ranking, or combinations thereof based on the manual override.

19. A computer-implemented system for automatically tagging an incoming communication with a significance level, comprising:

means for receiving an communication;

means for comparing the communication with a previously received communication;

means for prioritizing the communication based on the comparison; and

means for selectively outputting the communication to a user based on the prioritization.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising:

means for observing a user behavior; and

means for changing a prioritization based on the observed behavior.