Using multiple simultaneous threads of communication

• US 7,328,242 B1
• Filed: 09/17/2002
• Issued: 02/05/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/09/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Mccarthy Software Incorporated
• Inventors: McCarthy, Michelle Lee, McCarthy, James Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): Dalencourt, Yves
• Application Number:
  US10/246,809
• Time in Patent Office: 1,967 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]

Abstract

A method, system, and computer-readable medium is described for providing a thread messaging system for communications between users of thread client computing devices. The thread messaging system provides significant benefits over existing prior art messaging systems such as email, IM, chat and bulletin boards. In some situations, the thread messaging system supports each user having multiple simultaneous threads of conversation with distinct user-specified groups of multiple other users, maintains communications in a persistent and virtual manner such that a user can specify communications for threads regardless of their own connectivity status or that of the intended recipients and can receive thread communications from others that occurred while the user was not connected, and allows the communications for each thread conversation to be displayed distinctly and simultaneously such that the contents of current and previous communications are displayed together in a uniform manner and in a user-specified order.

Claims

1. A method in a client computing device for maintaining multiple simultaneous interactive threads of communication for a user of the client computing device, the method comprising:

creating multiple persistent threads of communication for the user of the client computing device, each thread having a distinct group of multiple participants that includes the user and multiple other users and each having a distinct associated topic such that the communications for a thread each have contents related to the topic for that thread, the creating of each of the multiple threads occurring before receiving any communications for the thread and including,

receiving an indication from the user to create the thread, the received indication including an indication of the group of multiple participants for the thread; and

automatically communicating with computing devices of the other indicated participants to create the thread on each of those computing devices, so that each of the thread participants is enabled to send communications for the thread and is enabled to view received communications for the thread from other thread participants; and

simultaneously displaying the multiple threads of communication to the user of the client computing device in such a manner that, for each of the multiple threads, communications of the thread are displayed together in a uniform manner and are displayed separately from communications of the other threads, the displaying of each thread of communication including,

while the client computing device is actively communicating with other computing devices,

receiving multiple communications for the thread that are each from one of the multiple other users for the thread;

receiving multiple communications for the thread from the user that are each intended for the multiple other users for the thread;

sending the multiple communications from the user to the multiple other users for the thread in a manner without notification to the user; and

displaying to the user in a single window and in a specified order all the received communications for the thread from the user and from the other users such that all of the contents of all of the communications are displayed to the user in a uniform manner;

after the displaying of all the received communications for the thread and while the client computing device is no longer actively communicating with other computing devices,

receiving one or more additional communications for the thread from the user that are intended for the multiple other users for the thread; and

without sending the received additional communications to the multiple other users for the thread, updating the display for the thread to include the received additional communications from the user in such a manner that those additional communications are displayed in the same manner as the previously sent communications for the thread from the user; and

after the updating of the display and while the client computing device is again actively communicating with other computing devices,

sending the received additional communications for the thread from the user to the multiple other users for the thread, the sending performed in a manner without notification to the user;

receiving additional communications for the thread that are each from one of the multiple other users for the thread, one or more of the received additional communications sent while the client computing device was not actively communicating with other computing devices; and

updating the display for the thread to include the received additional communications from the other users in such a manner that those additional communications are displayed in the same manner as the other previously received communications for the thread from the other users,

so that the user of the client computing device can send communications to each of multiple simultaneous threads whether or not the client computing device is actively communicating with other computing devices and can see a display with all of the contents of all of the communications for a thread shown in a uniform manner.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the threads are persistent such that a thread continues to exist despite passage of time and even if all of the participants for the thread are offline and not currently participating in the thread, so that any of the participants can later continue sending and receiving communications for the thread.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the threads provides virtual interactivity to a user such that a constant connection is simulated transparently to the user for a thread even when the user is offline, the connection simulation allowing the user to view previously received communications from other thread participants and to specify new communications that will later be sent to other thread participants.

4. The method of claim 1 including, after the displaying to the user of all the received communications for one of the threads:

receiving an indication from the user to add an additional user to the group of participants for the one thread; and

communicating with the computing devices of the participants for the one thread in order to modify stored definitions for the one thread to include the additional user, so that after the modifying of the stored definitions the additional user can send communications for the one thread to the other thread participants and can view received communications for the one thread that were subsequently sent by the other thread participants.

5. The method of claim 4 including providing to the additional user communications for the one thread that were sent prior to the received indication to add the additional user, so that the additional user can view the same thread communications as other thread participants.

6. The method of claim 1 including, after the displaying to the user of the received communications for one of the threads in a specified order, modifying the order in which the received communications are displayed based on an instruction received from the user.

7. The method of claim 1 including, while the client computing device is actively communicating with other computing devices:

receiving an instruction from the user to temporarily suspend interactive communications for one or more of the multiple threads; and

during the period of temporary suspension of interactive communications,

refraining from updating the display of the received communications for the one or more threads to include additional communications sent by other thread participants during the temporary suspension period; and

refraining from sending to the other thread participants any additional communications specified by the user during the temporary suspension period.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the sending of communications for one or more of the threads includes:

generating messages corresponding to the communications in such a manner as to be specified in accordance with a distinct underlying messaging service; and

supplying the generated messages to the underlying messaging service for transfer to the other thread participants.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the underlying message service is email.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the underlying message service is Instant Messaging.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the client computing device is a thread client, and wherein the receiving and the sending of communications for one or more of the threads includes interacting with one or more thread server computing devices to facilitate the receiving and the sending.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the threads has a unique associated identifier, and wherein the communications for a thread are each associated with the unique identifier for that thread.

13. A method for a computing device of a user to assist the user in participating in multiple simultaneous threads of communication, the method comprising:

receiving multiple thread communications that are each associated with one of multiple simultaneous threads in which the user is participating, each of the threads having multiple participants selected by at least one of the participants, each received communication being from the user or from another of the participants in the thread with which the communication is associated;

for each of the multiple simultaneous threads, automatically displaying a distinct transcript for the thread to the user such that all contents of received communications for that thread are displayed together in a consistent manner as part of the transcript;

automatically storing the multiple received thread communications to enable later display to the user of the multiple received thread communications after the computing device of the user is restarted;

after the displaying of the transcripts for the multiple simultaneous threads, receiving a first next communication from the user for a first of the threads while the user is actively interacting with one or more other participants in the first thread, and in response providing the received first next communication to those other participants and updating the displayed transcript for the first thread to display all contents of the first next communication together in a consistent manner with all contents of previously received communications for the first thread; and

after the displaying of the transcripts for the multiple simultaneous threads, receiving a second next communication from the user for a second of the threads while the user is not actively interacting with any other participants in the second thread, and in response storing the received second next communication to enable later providing of the second next communication to those other participants and updating the displayed transcript for the second thread to display all contents of the second next communication together in a consistent manner with all contents of previously received communications for the second thread.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the transcripts for the multiple threads are simultaneously displayed to the user.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein each of the transcripts is displayed in a distinct window.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein a thread application program executing on the computing device assists in the receiving and the providing of thread communications, wherein at least one of the transcripts is included in a document associated with an application program distinct from the thread application program, and wherein the displaying of the included transcript is based on the display of the document by the distinct application program.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the distinct application program is an email program and the document is an email message.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein the transcript is included in the document in such a manner as to be dynamically updateable to reflect changes in the communications for the thread.

19. The method of claim 13 wherein the displaying of all contents of multiple communications for a thread together in a consistent manner includes displaying the contents with a uniform appearance.

20. The method of claim 13 wherein the displaying of all contents of multiple communications for a thread includes further displaying an indication of a sender and of an associated time for each of the multiple communications.

21. The method of claim 13 wherein the displaying of all contents of multiple communications for a thread includes displaying the multiple communications in a user-specified order.

22. The method of claim 13 including, after the displaying of all contents of multiple communications for a thread to a user, modifying a displayed order of the displayed thread communications and/or modifying the communications that are displayed for that thread based on instructions received from the user.

23. The method of claim 13 wherein each of the threads has a persistent existence despite passage of time and a lack of any participants actively participating in the thread, so that one of the participants can later continue active participation in the thread.

24. The method of claim 13 wherein a current active participation of the user in at least one of the multiple simultaneous threads is temporarily suspended, and wherein one or more communications from the user for one or more of those threads that are received during the temporary suspension are stored so that they can be provided to the other participants of those threads after the temporary suspension ends.

25. The method of claim 13 wherein a current active participation of the user in at least one of the multiple simultaneous threads is temporarily suspended, and wherein one or more communications from other thread participants for one or more of those threads that were generated by those other thread participants during the temporary suspension are provided to the user after the temporary suspension ends.

26. The method of claim 13 wherein all of the participants in one of the threads other than the user temporarily suspend their active participation in that thread, and wherein one or more communications from the user for that thread that are received during the temporary suspension of the other participants are stored so that they can be provided to the other participants of those threads after the temporary suspension ends.

27. The method of claim 13 wherein each of the threads simulates a virtual interactive connection when the user is not actively interacting with other thread participants, the virtual connection allowing the user to view previously received communications and to specify new communications that will later be sent to other thread participants.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein the virtual connection is provided in such a manner that it is transparent to the user whether the user is actively interacting with other thread participants.

29. The method of claim 13 including, for each of at least one of the threads and before receiving any communications for that thread, creating the thread based on a received instruction from the user that indicates the multiple participants for the thread.

30. The method of claim 29 wherein the creating of the thread includes obtaining approval of an indicated participant for a thread being created before adding that participant to the thread.

31. The method of claim 29 wherein at least some of the multiple participants for a thread being created are offline during the creating of the thread.

32. The method of claim 29 wherein the received instruction from the user to create a thread is to create a child thread of an existing thread, and wherein the multiple participants indicated for the child thread include the participants of the existing thread.

33. The method of claim 32 wherein the creating of the child thread of the existing thread includes inheriting properties of the existing thread and/or inheriting existing communications of the existing thread.

34. The method of claim 13 including, after multiple communications for one of the threads have been exchanged by the participants of that thread, adding an additional user as a participant for the one thread based on a received indication.

35. The method of claim 34 wherein the adding of the additional user as a participant for the one thread includes notifying the existing participants of the one thread so that later communications for the thread from the existing participants will be provided to the additional user.

36. The method of claim 34 including, before the adding of the additional user as a participant for the one thread, obtaining approval of at least some of the existing participants of the one thread.

37. The method of claim 34 wherein the received indication to add the additional user is from the user of the computing device, and including obtaining approval of the additional user before the adding of the additional user as a participant for the one thread.

38. The method of claim 34 wherein the received indication to add the additional user is from the additional user.

39. The method of claim 34 wherein the adding of the additional user as a participant for the one thread includes providing to the additional user at least some of the multiple communications for the one thread that had been exchanged by the participants prior to the adding.

40. The method of claim 13 including, after multiple communications for one of the threads have been exchanged by the participants of that thread, removing one of the participants from the one thread, and wherein subsequent communications for that one thread from other participants of the thread are not provided to the one participant.

41. The method of claim 13 including, after multiple communications for one of the threads have been exchanged by the participants of that thread, removing the user as a participant in the one thread based on an instruction received from the user, and wherein any subsequent communications for that one thread that are received are discarded.

42. The method of claim 13 wherein the receiving and the providing of communications for one or more of the threads is based on an underlying email messaging service.

43. The method of claim 13 wherein the receiving and the providing of communications for one or more of the threads is based on an underlying Instant Messaging service.

44. The method of claim 13 wherein the computing device is a thread client, and wherein the receiving and the providing of communications for one or more of the threads includes interacting with one or more thread servers to facilitate the receiving and the providing.

45. The method of claim 13 wherein the computing device is a thread client, and wherein the receiving and the providing of communications for one or more of the threads includes interacting with thread clients of the other participants of those threads without interacting with any thread servers.

46. The method of claim 13 wherein the computing device is a thread server, and wherein receiving and providing of communications for one or more of the threads is additionally performed for one or more of the other participants of those threads.

47. The method of claim 13 including determining a thread with which a received communication is associated based at least in part on a thread identifier indicated by the received communication, each of the threads having an associated identifier.

48. The method of claim 47 wherein the identifier for a thread is associated with the group of multiple participants for that thread.

49. The method of claim 13 including determining a thread with which a received communication is associated based at least in part on a subject of the received communication and/or on indicated recipients for the received communication.

50. The method of claim 13 wherein each of the multiple threads has a distinct associated topic such that the communications for a thread have contents that are related to the topic for the thread.

51. The method of claim 50 including monitoring received communications for at least one of the threads to ensure that the contents of the received communications for those threads are related to the topics for those threads.

52. The method of claim 13 including tracking attention given by the user to one or more of the received thread communications, and providing information about the tracked attention to at least one thread participant.

53. The method of claim 13 including, for each of the participants of at least one of the threads, tracking interactions of the participant with at least some of the communications of that thread, and wherein information about the tracked interactions with a thread communication are provided to a sender of that communication.

54. The method of claim 13 including assisting another user of a computing device in participating in a distinct group of multiple simultaneous threads, the distinct group of multiple simultaneous threads including at least two of the multiple threads of the user.

55. The method of claim 13 wherein multiple distinct users act as a single virtual participant of a thread, such that communications sent from any of the multiple distinct users appear to other participants of the thread as being from the single virtual participant.

56. The method of claim 13 including, in response to an indication from the user, providing a thread to another user that is not a participant of the thread in such a manner that the another user can view the transcript for the thread.

57. The method of claim 56 wherein the another user can interact with the provided thread in order to provide thread communications to the participants of the thread.

58. A computer-readable memory medium whose contents cause a computing device to assist a user in participating in multiple threads of communication, by performing a method comprising:

receiving multiple thread communications that are each for one of multiple threads in which the user is a participant, each of the threads having multiple participants selected by at least one of the multiple participants, each received communication for a thread being from the user or from another of the participants in the thread; and

for each of a plurality of the multiple threads, presenting a distinct transcript for the thread to the user such that contents of multiple communications for that thread are presented together in a consistent manner as part of the transcript;

automatically storing the multiple received thread communications to enable later persistent presentation to the user of the multiple received thread communications;

after the presenting of the transcripts for the plurality of threads, receiving a first next communication from the user for a first of the plurality of threads while one or more other participants in the first thread are currently available, providing the received first next communication to those other currently available participants, and updating the presented transcript for the first thread to include contents of the first next communication together in a consistent manner with contents of previously received communications for the first thread; and

after the presenting of the transcripts for the plurality of threads, receiving a second next communication from the user for a second of the plurality of threads while one or more other participants in the second thread are not currently available, the received second next communication to enable later providing of the received second next communication to those other participants that are not currently available, and updating the presented transcript for the second thread to include contents of the second next communication together in a consistent manner with contents of previously received communication for the second thread.

59. The computer-readable medium of claim 58 wherein the computer-readable medium is a memory of the computing device.

60. The computer-readable medium of claim 58 wherein the contents are instructions that when executed cause the computing device to perform the method.

61. The computer-readable memory medium of claim 58 wherein the transcripts for the multiple threads are simultaneously displayed to the user.

62. The computer-readable memory medium of claim 58 wherein the presenting to the user of the transcript for a thread includes presenting all contents of the multiple communications for the thread with a uniform appearance.

63. The computer-readable memory medium of claim 58 wherein one or more of the threads each has a persistent existence despite passage of time and a lack of any users actively participating in the thread, so that one of the users who previously participated in the thread can later continue active participation in the thread.

64. The computer-readable memory medium of claim 58 wherein the one or more other participants in the second thread being not currently available is based on at least one of the user temporarily suspending active participation of the user in at least the second thread and of the computing device being no longer in communication with computing devices of the one or more other participants.

65. The computer-readable memory medium of claim 58 wherein the method further comprises, before receiving any communications for one of the threads, creating the one thread based on a received instruction from the user that indicates one or more of the other selected participants in the one thread.

66. The computer-readable memory medium of claim 65 wherein the creating of the one thread includes obtaining approval of each of the one or more other participants before adding that other participant to the one thread.

67. The computer-readable memory medium of claim 58 wherein the method further comprises, after multiple communications for one of the threads have been exchanged between the participants of the one thread, adding an additional participant to the one thread, such that later communications for the one thread will be provided to the additional participant.

68. The computer-readable memory medium of claim 67 wherein the method further comprises, before the adding of the additional participant to the one thread, obtaining approval of one or more existing participants in the one thread.

69. The computer-readable memory medium of claim 67 wherein the adding of the additional participant to the one thread includes providing to the additional participant at least some of the multiple communications for the one thread that had been exchanged prior to the adding.

70. The computer-readable memory medium of claim 58 wherein the providing of the received first next communication to other currently available participants in the first thread is based on use of at least one of an email messaging service and an Instant Messaging service.

71. The computer-readable memory medium of claim 58 wherein each of the threads has a distinct associated topic such that the communications for a thread have contents that are related to the topic for the thread.

72. The computer-readable memory medium of claim 71 wherein the method further comprises monitoring received communications for a thread to ensure that the contents of the received communications for the thread are related to the topic for the thread.

73. A computing device for assisting a user in participating in multiple threads of communication, comprising:

a thread communication manager component that is capable of

receiving multiple thread communications that are each for one of multiple threads in which the user is a participant with one or more other selected participants, each received communication for a thread being from the user or from another of the participants in that thread;

providing thread communications from the user for the multiple threads to other participants of those threads that are currently available;

automatically storing the multiple received thread communications to enable later persistent presentation to the user of the multiple received thread communications;

after receiving a first next communication from the user for a first of the multiple threads, and while one or more other participants in the first thread are currently available, providing the received first next communication to those other currently available participants; and

after receiving a second next communication from the user for a second of the multiple threads, and while one or more other participants in the second thread are not currently available, storing the received second next communication to enable later providing of the received second next communication to those other participants that are not currently available; and

at least one thread participation manager component that is associated with one or more of the multiple threads and that is capable of, for each of the associated threads;

presenting a distinct transcript for the thread to the user such that contents of multiple communications for the thread are presented together in a consistent manner as part of the transcript;

if the thread is the first thread, after receiving the first next communication from the user, updating the presented transcript to include contents of the first next communication together in a consistent manner with contents of previously received communications for the first thread; and

if the thread is the second thread, after receiving the second next communication from the user, updating the presented transcript to include contents of the second next communication together in a consistent manner with contents of previously received communications for the second thread.

74. The computing device of claim 73 wherein the thread communication manager component and the thread participant manager components are executing in memory of the computing device.

75. The computing device of claim 73 further comprising an underlying message service with which the thread communication manager component interacts to facilitate the receiving and the providing of thread communications.

76. The computing device of claim 73 wherein the transcripts for the multiple threads are simultaneously displayed to the user.

77. The computing device of claim 73 wherein one or more of the threads each has a persistent existence despite passage of time and a lack of any users actively participating in the thread, so that one of the users who previously participated in the thread can later continue active participation in the thread.

78. The computing device of claim 73 wherein the thread communication manager component is configured to, before receiving any communications for one of the threads, creating the one thread based on a received instruction from the user that indicates one or more of the other selected participants in the one thread.

79. The computing device of claim 73 wherein the providing of thread communications from the user to other thread participants is based on use of at least one of an email messaging service and an Instant Messaging service.

80. The computing device of claim 73 wherein each of the threads has a distinct associated topic such that the communications for a thread have contents that are related to the topic for the thread.

81. A computer system for assisting a user in participating in multiple threads of communication, comprising:

means for;

receiving multiple thread communications that are each for one of multiple threads in which the user is a participant with one or more other selected participants, each received communication for a thread being from the user or from another of the participants in that thread;

providing thread communications from the user for the multiple threads to other participants of those threads that are currently available;

automatically storing the multiple received thread communications to enable later persistent presentation to the user of the multiple received communications;

after receiving a first next communication from the user for a first of the multiple threads, and while one or more other participants in the first thread are currently available, providing the received first next communication to those other currently available participants; and

after receiving a second next communication from the user for a second of the multiple threads, and while one or more other participants in the second thread are not currently available, storing the received second next communication to enable later providing of the received second next communication to those other participants that are not currently available; and

means for;

for each of one or more of the multiple, threads, presenting a distinct transcript for the thread to the user such that contents of multiple communications for the thread are presented together in a consistent manner as part of the transcript;

if the thread is the first thread, after receiving the first next communication from the user, updating the presented transcript to include contents of the first next communication together in a consistent manner with contents of previously received communications for the first thread; and

if the thread is the second thread, after receiving the second next communication from the user, updating the presented transcript to include contents of the second next communication together in a consistent manner with contents of previously received communications for the second thread.

82. A computer-implemented method for assisting a user of a computing device in participating in multiple simultaneous interactive threads of communication that include a first thread of communication with a first group of multiple other users and a second thread of communication with a second group of multiple other users, the method comprising:

receiving one or more communications for the first thread from the multiple other users of the first group, and receiving one or more communications for the second thread from the multiple other users of the second group;

displaying to the user the received communications for the first thread as a first transcript, and displaying to the user the received communications for the second thread as a second distinct transcript;

receiving a first communication from the user for the first thread and receiving a second communication from the user for the second thread;

updating the display of the first transcript to include the first communication and updating the display of the second transcript to include the second communication;

sending the first communication to the multiple other users of the first group and sending the second communication to the multiple other users of the second group;

while the computing device is no longer in communication with the computing devices of the users of the first group,

receiving a third communication from the user for the first thread; and

without sending the third communication to the multiple other users of the first group, updating the display of the first transcript to include the third communication in such a manner that the lack of the sending of the third communication is transparent to the user; and

when the computing device is again in communication with the computing devices of the users of the first group,

sending the third communication to the multiple other users of the first group;

receiving an additional communication for the first thread from one of the other users of the first group that was created while the computing device was not in communication with the computing device of the other user; and

updating the display of the first transcript to include the additional communication in such a manner that the lack of communication between the computing device and the computing device of the other user at the time of the communication creation is transparent to the user.

83. The method of claim 82 wherein the first and second transcripts are simultaneously displayed to the user.

84. The method of claim 82 wherein the first thread has multiple communications, and wherein the displaying to the user of the received communications for the first thread includes displaying all contents of the multiple communications together in a consistent manner.

85. The method of claim 82 wherein the first thread has a persistent existence despite passage of time and a lack of any users actively participating in the thread, so that one of the users of the first group can later continue active participation in the thread.

86. The method of claim 82 wherein the computing device being no longer in communication with the computing devices of the users of the first group is based on the user temporarily suspending active participation of the user in at least the first thread.

87. The method of claim 82 further comprising, before receiving any communications for the first thread, creating the first thread based on a received instruction from the user that indicates at least some of the multiple other users of the first group for the first thread.

88. The method of claim 87 wherein the creating of the first thread includes obtaining approval of each of the at least some other users before adding that other user to the first group for the first thread.

89. The method of claim 82 further comprising, after multiple communications for the first thread have been exchanged by the user and the other users of the first group, adding an additional user to the first group for the first thread, such that later communications for the first thread will be provided to the additional user.

90. The method of claim 89 further comprising, before the adding of the additional user to the first group, obtaining approval of one or more of the users in the first group.

91. The method of claim 89 wherein the adding of the additional user to the first group includes providing to the additional user at least some of the multiple communications for the first thread that had been exchanged prior to the adding.

92. The method of claim 82 wherein the receiving of communications for the first thread from the other users of the first group and the sending of communications for the first thread to the other users of the first group are based on use of at least one of an underlying email messaging service and an underlying Instant Messaging service.

93. The method of claim 82 wherein the first and second threads each has a distinct associated topic such that the communications for a thread have contents that are related to the topic for the thread.

94. The method of claim 93 further comprising monitoring received communications for the first thread to ensure that the contents of the received communications for the first thread are related to the topic for the first thread.