EMAIL CHARACTERIZATION

• US 20100235447A1
• Filed: 03/12/2009
• Published: 09/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Burkhardt, John R., Gretzinger, Michael R., Claydon, Barnaby M., Schiff, Rachel R., Sturtevant, Reed P., Rae, Katherine W., Goodman, Robert F.
• Granted Patent: US 8,631,080 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

Email users may feel overwhelmed with the abundance of emails they receive. Many current email management techniques require at least some manual intervention that may be time consuming and/or otherwise frustrating to a user. As provided herein, emails may be characterized based upon content of the email and domain classification data (e.g., a company name, business category, or a website name associated with the domain name of the sender). One or more viewing panels may be populated with the characterized emails. A viewing panel may present emails corresponding to a particular characterization (e.g., a shopping viewing panel may display emails characterized as shopping). To enhance characterization, rules used to characterize emails may learn from a user'"'"'s actions. For example, a user may move an email from a shopping viewing panel to a travel viewing panel, thus altering the characterization of the email from shopping to travel.

Claims

1. A method for characterizing emails comprising:

extracting email content and a domain identifier from an email;

determining a domain classification based upon the domain identifier; and

characterizing the email based upon the extracted email content and the domain classification.

2. The method of claim 1, the determining comprising:

querying a domain directory service with the domain identifier to determine the domain classification.

3. The method of claim 1, the determining comprising:

creating one or more domain identifier variations based upon the domain identifier; and

querying a domain directory service with the one or more domain identifier variations and the domain identifier to determine the domain classification.

4. The method of claim 1,

the domain classification comprising at least one of:

a company name;

a business category;

a canonical site name; and

a domain name description; and

the extracted email content comprising at least one of;

a sender name;

a subject line; and

message text.

5. The method of claim 1, the characterizing comprising:

executing a first pattern matching rule set upon the domain classification and the extracted email content to determine the characterization; and

associating the email with the characterization.

6. The method of claim 5, comprising:

executing a second pattern matching rule set upon the extracted email content to determine a subcharacterization; and

associating the email with the subcharacterization.

7. A method claim 1, comprising:

populating a viewing panel having particular characterization related properties with the email based upon the characterization.

8. The method of claim 7, comprising:

updating a pattern matching rule set based upon a viewing panel email swap.

9. The method of claim 7, comprising:

filtering one or more emails within the viewing panel based upon a filter.

10. The method of claim 7, comprising:

executing a bulk user command upon one or more emails within a viewing panel.

11. The method of claim 7, comprising:

presenting the email in the viewing panel in a particular format based upon the characterization.

12. A system for characterizing emails comprising:

an extraction component configured to extract email content and a domain identifier from an email;

a domain classification component configured to determine a domain classification based upon the domain identifier; and

a characterization component configured to characterize the email based upon the extracted email content and the domain classification.

13. The system of claim 12, comprising:

a presentation component configured to populate a viewing panel having particular characterization related properties with the email based upon the characterization.

14. The system of claim 12, the domain classification component configured to query a domain directory service with the domain identifier to determine the domain classification.

15. The system of claim 12, the domain classification component configured to:

create one or more domain identifier variations based upon the domain identifier; and

query a domain directory service with the one or more domain identifier variations and the domain identifier to determine the domain classification.

16. The system of claim 12, the characterization component configured to:

execute a pattern matching rule set upon the domain classification and the extracted email content to determine the characterization; and

associate the email with the characterization.

17. The system of claim 13, comprising:

a command execution component configured to;

execute a bulk user command upon one or more emails within a viewing panel; and

filter one or more emails within the viewing panel based upon a filter.

18. The system of claim 13, the command execution component configured to update a pattern matching rule set based upon a view panel email swap.

19. The system of claim 13, the presentation component configured to present the email in the viewing panel in a particular format based upon the characterization.

20. A system for characterizing emails comprising:

an extraction component configured to extract email content and a domain identifier from an email;

a domain classification component configured to query a domain directory service with the domain identifier to determine a domain classification;

a characterization component configured to;

execute a pattern matching rule set upon the domain classification and the extracted email content to determine a characterization; and

associate the email with the characterization;

a presentation component configured to populate a viewing panel having particular characterization related properties with the email based upon the characterization; and

a command execution component configured to;

execute a bulk user command upon one or more emails within the viewing panel;

filter one or more emails within the viewing panel based upon a filter; and

update the pattern matching rule set based upon a view panel email swap.