Managing electronic messages using contact information

• US 7,469,292 B2
• Filed: 12/17/2004
• Issued: 12/23/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AOL LLC (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Landsman, Richard A., Logue, Jay Dare, Sullivan, Timothy Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Kang; Paul H
• Application Number:
  US11/015,066
• Publication Number:
  US 20050198171A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,467 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/207, 709/224, 709/225, 709/245
• US Class Current: 709/225
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

A system may include an electronic messaging management application that may access contact information. The contact information may include information maintained by one or more system users. The electronic messaging management application may determine how to process an incoming electronic message using at least a portion of the contact information. The electronic messaging management application may determine whether to send a challenge-response message to a sender of an electronic message using at least a portion of the contact information.

Claims

1. A system for managing the delivery of an electronic message, the system comprising:

a data storage device comprising at least one computer-readable medium;

system contact information stored on the data storage device, the system contact information including user contact information for a plurality of users, the user contact information identifying one or more contacts;

an electronic messaging management module configured to access the system contact information and configured to determine whether a challenge-response process should be initiated at least in part based upon the accessed system contact information;

the electronic messaging management module further configured to perform the following;

determine whether the system contact information includes at least one non-rejected contact for the sender;

determine whether the sender has exceeded an activity limit;

determine whether the system contact information includes a minimum number of contacts for the sender; and

determine whether the number of rejected contacts in the system contact information exceeds a threshold; and

the electronic messaging management module further configured to deliver the electronic message to an inbox of a recipient specified in the electronic message if;

the sender is included in at least one non-rejected contact for the system contact information;

the sender has not exceeded an activity limit;

the system contact information includes a minimum number of contacts for the sender; and

the number of rejected contacts in the system contact information does not exceed a threshold.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the user contact information for the plurality of users comprises one or more contact data structures embodied on a computer-readable medium and wherein the electronic messaging management module is further configured to determine an amount of information for the sender of the electronic message that is stored in the contact data structures.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the electronic messaging management module is further configured to

determine whether the system contact information includes at least one rejected contact for the sender

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the user contact information for the plurality of users comprises one or more contact data structures embodied on a computer-readable medium and including data manually entered by a user.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein a recipient user is associated with the electronic message and wherein the electronic messaging management module is further configured to identify at least one contact chain for the recipient user and determine a length of the at least one contact chain for the recipient user.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein a recipient user is associated withthe electronic message and wherein the electronic messaging management module is furtherconfigured to identify at least one contact chain for the recipient user and calculate a strengthvalue for at least one link in the at least one contact chain for the recipient user.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein a recipient user is associated withthe electronic message and wherein the electronic messaging management module is furtherconfigured to identify at least one contact chain for the recipient user and calculate an averagestrength value for two or more links in the at least one contact chain for the recipient user.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein a recipient user is associated withthe electronic message and wherein the electronic messaging management module is furtherconfigured to identify at least one contact chain for the recipient user and calculate a totalstrength value for two or more links in the at least one contact chain for the recipient user.

9. A method for processing an electronic messagereceived within a computing system, the method comprising:

identifying a sender of the electronic message;

identifying, from a set of system contact information comprising contactinformation associated with a plurality of system users, any contact informationassociated with the sender of the electronic message; and

using the contact information associated with the sender to determine whether achallenge-response message should be sent to the sender, wherein using the contactinformation comprises;

determining whether the system contact information includes at least onenon-rejected contact for the sender; and

determining whether the system contact information comprises an amountof information about the sender of the electronic message stored on one or morecontact data structures embodied on a computer-readable medium, the amount ofinformation about the sender being information other than information included inan addressing portion of the electronic message that has been added to the one ormore contact data structures by at least one of the plurality of users; and

issuing a challenge-response message when the one or more contact datastructures do not contain information other than information included in an addressingportion of the electronic message.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein using the contactinformation comprises one or more of:

determining whether the system contact information includes at least one rejectedcontact for the sender;

determining whether the sender has exceeded an activity limit;

determining whether the system contact information includes a minimum numberof contacts for the sender; and

determining whether the number of rejected contacts in the system contactinformation exceeds a threshold.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein a recipient system user isassociated with the electronic message and wherein using the contact information comprisesidentifying at least one contact chain for the recipient system user and determining a length ofthe at least one contact chain for the recipient system user.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein a recipient system user isassociated with the electronic message and wherein using the contact information comprisesidentifying at least one contact chain for the recipient system user and calculating a strengthvalue for at least one link in the at least one contact chain for the recipient system user.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein a recipient system user isassociated with the electronic message and wherein using the contact information comprisesidentifying at least one contact chain for the recipient system user and calculating an averagestrength value for two or more links in the at least one contact chain for the recipient systemuser.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein a recipient system user isassociated with the electronic message and wherein using the contact information comprisesidentifying at least one contact chain for the recipient system user and calculating a total strengthvalue for two or more links in the at least one contact chain for the recipient system user.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the contact information comprises data stored in one or more event data structures.

16. A method for communicating an electronic messagewithin a computing system, the method comprising:

receiving a challenge-response message;

the challenge-response message sent from a computing system that

identified, from a set of system contact information comprising contactinformation associated with a plurality of system users, contact informationassociated with a sender of the electronic message; and

used the contact information associated with the sender to determine thatthe challenge-response message should be sent, the use of the contact informationcomprising determining a length of a contact chain between the sender of theelectronic message and a recipient user identified in the electronic message, thelength of the contact chain comprising one or more links of system users betweenthe sender and the recipient user, and identifying a link limit away from therecipient user on which to base use of contact information;

using only the contact information associated with the system usersbetween the recipient user and the link limit to perform two or more of;

determining whether the system contact information includes atleast one non-rejected contact for the sender;

determining whether the system contact information includes atleast one rejected contact for the sender;

determining whether the sender has exceeded an activity limit;

determining whether the system contact information includes aminimum number of contacts for the sender; and

determining whether the number of rejected contacts in the systemcontact information exceeds a threshold.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising transmitting the challenge-response message to the sender of the electronic message.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising transmitting a response to the challenge-response message.