Automatically managing incoming communications between sender and recipient, analyzing factors, selectively applying observed behavior, performing designated action

• US 7,885,948 B2
• Filed: 06/28/2007
• Issued: 02/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Johnson, Bruce, Ozzie, Raymond E., Curtis, Pavel, McAniff, Richard J., Gupta, Anoop, Czerwinski, Mary P., Barga, Roger S.
• Primary Examiner(s): CHANNAVAJJALA, SRIRAMA T
• Application Number:
  US11/770,669
• Publication Number:
  US 20090006366A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,321 Days
• Field of Search: 707 1- 2, 707/10, 707/100, 707/102, 707/104.1, 707/200, 707204-205, 707/609, 707705-710, 707/723, 707/732, 707748-749, 707/758, 709218-224, 709206-207, 709/203, 715751-753, 379/8
• US Class Current: 707/705
• 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 processor-implemented method for automatically managing incoming communications, the method comprising:

receiving a first communication;

analyzing identifying factors of the first communication;

observing a behavior of a recipient on the first communication, wherein the behavior includes one or more actions performed upon the first communication, the one or more actions being manually directed by a user;

receiving a second communication;

analyzing identifying factors of the second communication;

based upon the identifying factors of the first and of the second communications,

determining whether the second communication is similar to the first communication,

wherein similarity of the first and the second communications is based upon the identifying factors of the first and of the second communications, wherein the first and the second communications are determined to be similar when one or more of the following identifying factors match between the first and the second communications;

a sender of each communication, keywords or phrases in a subject line of each communication, keywords or phrases in a body of each communication, the placement of the recipient in an address area of each communication, or combinations thereof; and

in response to a determination that the second communication is similar to the first communication, selectively applying the observed behavior to the second communication, wherein the applied observed behavior includes performing the one or more actions that were performed upon the first communication, wherein the one or more actions performed upon the second communication as part of the applied observed behavior include opening the second communication, flagging the second communication, deleting the second communication, moving the second communication to a designated folder, performing a designated action on the second communication at least for a defined period of time before performing any other action on the second communication, or performing a designated action on the second communication at least for a defined period of time before performing another designated action on the second communication.

2. The processor-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the identifying factors of the first or the second communications include 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.

3. The processor-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more actions performed upon the first communication include opening the first communication, flagging the first communication, deleting the first communication, moving the first communication to a designated folder, performing a designated action on the first communication at least for a defined period of time before performing any other action on the first communication, or performing a designated action on the first communication at least for a defined period of time before performing another designated action on the first communication.

4. The processor-implemented method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

ranking the first communication based on the observed behavior;

selectively outputting the ranked communication to a user;

receiving a manual override of the ranked communication;

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

5. The processor-implemented method of claim 1, wherein one or more of the actions of the ordered series of multiple actions are performed after a defined time interval.

6. The processor-implemented method of claim 1, wherein one or more of the actions of the ordered series of multiple actions are performed after a defined time interval.

7. The processor-implemented method of claim 1, the operations further comprising:

ranking the first communication based on the observed behavior;

selectively outputting the ranked communication to a user;

receiving a manual override of the ranked communication;

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

8. One or more computer-readable storage media having computer executable instructions thereon which, when executed by one or more computing devices, direct the one or more computing devices to perform operations for automatically managing incoming communications with an importance level, the operations comprising:

receiving the incoming communications, which include a first communication and a second communication;

analyzing identifying factors of the incoming communications;

observing a behavior of a recipient on the first communication, wherein the behavior includes one or more actions performed upon the first communication, the one or more actions being manually directed by a user;

based upon the identifying factors of the first and of the second communications,

determining whether the second communication is similar to the first communication,

wherein similarity of the first and the second communications is based upon the identifying factors of the first and of the second communications, wherein the first and the second communications are determined to be similar when one or more of the following identifying factors match between the first and the second communications;

a sender of each communication, keywords or phrases in a subject line of each communication, keywords or phrases in a body of each communication, the placement of the recipient in an address area of each communication, or combinations thereof; and

in response to a determination that the second communication is similar to the first communication, selectively applying the observed behavior to the second communication, wherein the applied observed behavior includes performing the one or more actions that were performed upon the first communication, wherein the one or more actions performed upon the second communication as part of the applied observed behavior include opening the second communication, flagging the second communication, deleting the second communication, moving the second communication to a designated folder, performing a designated action on the second communication at least for a defined period of time before performing any other action on the second communication, or performing a designated action on the second communication at least for a defined period of time before performing another designated action on the second communication.

9. One or more computer-readable storage media of claim 8, wherein the identifying factors of the first or the second communications include 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.

10. One or more computer-readable storage media of claim 8, wherein the one or more actions performed upon the first communication include opening the first communication, flagging the first communication, deleting the first communication, moving the first communication to a designated folder, performing a designated action on the first communication at least for a defined period of time before performing any other action on the first communication, or performing a designated action on the first communication at least for a defined period of time before performing another designated action on the first communication.

11. One or more computer-readable storage media having computer executable instructions thereon which, when executed by one or more computing devices, direct the one or more computing devices to perform operations for automatically managing incoming communications with an importance level, the operations comprising:

receiving a first communication;

analyzing identifying factors of the first communication;

observing a behavior of a recipient on the first communication, wherein the behavior includes a series of multiple actions performed upon the first communication in a defined order, the series of multiple actions being manually directed by a user;

receiving a second communication;

analyzing identifying factors of the second communication;

based upon the identifying factors of the first and of the second communications,

determining whether the second communication is similar to the first communication,

wherein similarity of the first and the second communications is based upon one or more of the following identifying factors matching between the first and the second communications;

a sender of each communication, keywords or phrases in a subject line of each communication, keywords or phrases in a body of each communication, the placement of the recipient in an address area of each communication, or combinations thereof;

in response to a determination that the second communication is similar to the first communication, selectively applying the observed behavior to the second communication, wherein the applied observed behavior includes performing the ordered series of multiple actions that were performed upon the first communication, opening the second communication, flagging the second communication, deleting the second communication, moving the second communication to a designated folder, performing a designated action on the second communication at least for a defined period of time before performing any other action on the second communication, or performing a designated action on the second communication at least for a defined period of time before performing another designated action on the second communication; and

assigning an importance level to each of the incoming communications individually;

overriding, by input from a user, the importance level by manually changing the importance level of one or more of the incoming communications; and

presenting results based on the ranking, wherein the presenting includes;

outputting the one or more incoming communications to the user at about the same time as the incoming communications are received if the importance level is high; and

retaining the one or more incoming communications in a separate location if the importance level of the one or more incoming communications is low.