Method and system for providing additional information related to content of an e-mail

• US 8,250,156 B2
• Filed: 06/05/2008
• Issued: 08/21/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/08/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NHN Corporation
• Original Assignee: NHN Corporation
• Inventors: Baek, Chang Yol, Lee, Jee Sook, Choi, Han Byeol
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Haresh N
• Assistant Examiner(s): LE, CHAU D
• Application Number:
  US12/133,415
• Publication Number:
  US 20080307046A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,538 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

A method of providing additional information related to content of an e-mail is disclosed. The method includes receiving emails for a user: analyzing content of such a received email and identifying an information type of one or more strings in the content based, at least in part, upon predetermined information patterns; searching additional information related to basic information associated with a string in accordance with the identified information type; and displaying the additional information in response to receiving a user-initiated selection. The present invention is a method and system for providing additional information related to content of an e-mail such that the user can obtain additional information related to content of an e-mail without leaving the web page showing the email.

Claims

1. A method for providing information comprising:

receiving one or more E-mail content strings;

analyzing the content strings based on a unit of the content strings based upon an information pattern associated with the unit of the content strings;

classifying the information pattern based on the analyzed content strings, the classifying being having been defined and authorized by a sender or a receiver of the E-mail;

identifying one or more additional information related to the E-mail content strings according to the classified information pattern, the identification is performed based on a frequency of an access to the searched identified additional information by the sender or the receiver of the E-mail; and

selectively outputting the one or more identified additional information in response to detection of a user selection, wherein analyzing the content strings uses analyzing method comprises using a morpheme analyzer or an American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) code analyzer, wherein the information pattern is classified by using an arrangement of letters of the content strings associated with at least one of a space between the letters, locations and types of the letters, numbers, numbers associated with hyphens, or a special symbol between the letters comprising @.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying one or more additional information related to the Email-content strings is performed based on weather information, calendar information, currency and exchange rate information, and stock price information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the additional information is selectively outputted by providing a pop-up menu displayed at a region in response to detection of the user selection to the region associated with one of the content strings.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the additional information is displayed in response to detection of a mouse pointer being positioned within a region associated with one of the contents string.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the additional information is hidden in response to detection of a mouse pointer being positioned outside a region associated with one of the contents string.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the information pattern comprises a name, a title, a unit, an email address, a phone number, a location, a time, a date, or any combination thereof.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining at least one additional information according to a frequency of a prior selection made by the user; and

outputting at least one additional information.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the selectively outputting comprises displaying the email content strings to a first window and displaying the additional information to a second window.

9. A method using a processor for providing additional information related to content of an E-mail, the method comprising:

receiving, via a network, an E-mail comprising at least one additional information related to content string information of the E-mail from a server, wherein the content string information is analyzed according to an information pattern of the content string information, wherein the information pattern is classified based on the analyzed content string information and the classified information pattern is defined and authorized by a sender or a receiver of the E-mail;

identifying one or more the additional information related to the E-mail according to the classified information pattern, the identification is performed based on a frequency of an access to the identified one or more additional information by the sender or the receiver of the E-mail; and

selectively outputting the one or more identified additional information in response to detection of a user selection of the content string information, wherein the information pattern is classified by using an arrangement of letters of the content strings associated with at least one of a space between the letters, locations and types of the letters, numbers, numbers associated with hyphens, or a special symbol between the letters comprising @.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the additional information is outputted by providing a pop-up menu displayed at a region in response to detection of the user selection to the region associated with the content string.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the additional information is displayed in response to detection of a mouse pointer being positioned within a region associated with the content string.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the selectively outputting comprises displaying the email to a first window and displaying the additional information to a second window.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the additional information is hidden in response to detecting of a mouse pointer being positioned outside a region associated with the content string.

14. A system for providing additional information related to content of an E-mail, the system comprising:

means for receiving E-mails;

means for analyzing content strings of the E-mails based on a unit of the content strings based upon information patterns associated with the unit of the content;

means for classifying the information patterns based on the analyzed content strings, the classifying being defined and authorized by a sender or a receiver of the E-mail;

means for identifying one or more additional information related to the E-mail content strings according to the classified information patterns, the identification is performed based on a frequency of an access to the identified additional information by the sender or the receiver of the E-mail; and

means for outputting the one or more identified information in response to detection of a user selection, wherein the information pattern is classified by using an arrangement of letters of the content strings associated with at least one of a space between the letters, locations and types of the letters, numbers, numbers associated with hyphens, or a special symbol between the letters comprising @.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the information patterns comprise a name, a title, a unit, an email address, a phone number, a location, a time, a date, or any combination thereof.

16. A system for providing additional information associated with content of an E-mail, the system comprising:

a pattern-recognition module coupled to a server having at least one processor and at least one memory comprising computer executable program code running on the server configured to cause the server to analyze content of an E-mail based on a unit of the content, wherein the information patterns are classified based on the analyzed content, wherein the classified information patterns are defined and authorized by a sender or receiver of the E-mail; and

an information-search module coupled to the server configured to identify additional information related to the Email, the identification is performed according to the classified information patterns and a frequency of an access to the identified additional information by the sender or the receiver of the E-mail, wherein

the server is configured to provide the additional information, and wherein the information pattern is classified by using an arrangement of letters of the content strings associated with at least one of a space between the letters, locations and types of the letters, numbers, numbers associated with hyphens, or a special symbol between the letters comprising @.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the information-search module is caused to generate a message requesting the additional information to transmit to a content server that is controlled by the server via a network.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein, the information-search part is caused to select at least one additional information according to a frequency of a prior selection made by a user.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the server is configured to display of the additional information to the user terminal by linking the additional information with the content strings using Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) code or Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) code.