System for replying to related messages

• US 7,657,839 B2
• Filed: 07/02/2008
• Issued: 02/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Gruen, Daniel M, Rohall, Steven L., Moody, Paul B., Kerr, Bernard J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lo; Weilun
• Assistant Examiner(s): DAM, KIM LYNN
• Application Number:
  US12/166,487
• Publication Number:
  US 20080295001A1
• Time in Patent Office: 580 Days
• Field of Search: 715/752, 709/206
• US Class Current: 715/752
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/02 using automatic reactions or user delegation, e.g. automatic replies or chatbot-generated messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads

Abstract

A system is provided which utilizes a threading service to offer enhanced features for a document management system including an email system. Various enhanced email features may be provided through one or more of the following components: a delete module, a reply module, a profile module, and a search module. The delete module enables a user to delete a selected message, a set of related messages, or the whole set except for the selected message. The reply module enables a user to send a reply message to all addresses associated and involved with an entire set of related messages. The profile module enables a dynamic interest profile to contain all relevant information from an outgoing message and a set of messages related to the outgoing message. The search module enables search results to include documents which match the user'"'"'s query as well as documents related to the documents which match the user'"'"'s query.

Claims

1. A system for replying to messages comprising:

a display device that displays a graphical user interface that presents a list of messages and one or more reply options to a user, that permits the user to select a message and that permits the user to select one of the one or more reply options through the graphical user interface, wherein the graphical user interface includes one or more views; and

a computer-readable medium that includes a reply module, the reply module including computer-readable instructions operable to be executed on a processor, that determines, in response to the selected one or more reply options, one or more related messages that are related to the selected massage, automatically populates one or more address fields of a reply message with a message address of a sender of the selected message and a message address of a recipient of the one or more related messages, wherein the recipient of the one or more related messages is neither a sender of the selected message nor a recipient of the selected message; and

stores the message address of the sender of the selected message and the message address of the recipient of the one or more related messages, along with information regarding the field of the message from which each address originated.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the reply module further automatically populates one or more address fields of the reply message with a message address of a recipient of the selected message.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more reply options include an option to reply to the sender of the selected message.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more reply options include an option to reply to the sender and the recipients of the selected message.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the selected one or more reply options comprises an option to reply to the sender and one or more recipients of one or more related messages related to the selected first message.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the selected one or more reply options comprises an option to reply to all recipients in a thread of related messages.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the reply module inserts the message address of the sender of the selected message and the message address of the recipient of the one or more related messages into fields of the reply message corresponding to the fields from the message from which the addresses originated.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein automatically populating the reply message comprises automatically inserting the name of the sender of the selected message, the name of the at least one recipient of the selected message, and a name of at least one second recipient into fields of the reply message corresponding to the fields from which the names originated.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the corresponding fields of the reply message are determined by a rule set that specifies which originating fields cause names to be inserted into which address fields of the reply message with priority information should the same name originate in more than one type of field.

10. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable instructions that when executed by a processer, are operable to enable a user to reply to a selected message in an email system, the instructions comprising:

a graphical user interface module configured to present on a display device a list of messages and one or more reply options, and receive input from the user to select a message and one of the one or more reply options; and

a reply module configured to;

(i) determine one or more related messages that are related to the user-selected massage;

(ii) populate one or more address fields of a reply message with a message address of a sender of the selected message and a message address of a recipient of the one or more related messages, wherein the recipient of the one or more related messages is neither a sender of the selected message nor a recipient of the selected message; and

(iii) store the message address of the sender of the selected message and the message address of the recipient of the one or more related messages, along with information regarding the field of the message from which each address originated.

11. The medium of claim 10, wherein the reply module further automatically populates one or more address fields of the reply message with a message address of a recipient of the selected message.

12. The medium of claim 10, wherein the one or more reply options include an option to reply to the sender of the selected message.

13. The medium of claim 10, wherein the one or more reply options include an option to reply to the sender and the recipients of the selected message.

14. The medium of claim 10, wherein the selected one or more reply options comprises an option to reply to the sender and one or more recipients of one or more related messages related to the selected first message.

15. The medium of claim 14, wherein the selected one or more reply options comprises an option to reply to all recipients in a thread of related messages.

16. The medium of claim 10, wherein the reply module inserts the message address of the sender of the selected message and the message address of the recipient of the one or more related messages into fields of the reply message corresponding to the fields from the message from which the addresses originated.

17. The medium of claim 10, wherein populating the reply message comprises automatically inserting the name of the sender of the selected message, the name of the at least one recipient of the selected message, and a name of at least one second recipient into fields of the reply message corresponding to the fields from which the names originated.

18. The medium of claim 17, wherein the corresponding fields of the reply message are determined by a rule set that specifies which originating fields cause names to be inserted into which address fields of the reply message with priority information should the same name originate in more than one type of field.