Image based electronic mail system

• US 8,413,059 B2
• Filed: 01/03/2007
• Issued: 04/02/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/03/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Social Concepts Incorporated (Aristocrat Leisure Limited)
• Original Assignee: Social Concepts Incorporated (Aristocrat Leisure Limited)
• Inventors: Lee, Joseph William, Hedlund, Michael R., Grendler, Peter August
• Primary Examiner(s): Zele, Krista
• Assistant Examiner(s): DESAI, MARGISHI V
• Application Number:
  US11/619,520
• Publication Number:
  US 20080162649A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,281 Days
• Field of Search: 713/186, 705/10, 345/329
• US Class Current: 715/752
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services

Abstract

An image based email system associates images with different electronic mail (email) senders. The email system receives email messages from different email senders and then looks through either website member profiles or user contacts for associated images. Any located image is displayed in a list of recent senders. This allows the email user to associate recently received email messages with particular sender images or photographs. The images can also be used in a list of favorite or most frequent email senders. Other features of the email system extract information from received email messages to better identify the email senders. These and other features of the email system provide more intuitive and easier to perform email operations.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

storing in a database on a network a plurality of profiles each corresponding to a respective member of a social networking website, wherein each profile specifies at least contact information for its respective social networking website member and an image selected by its respective social networking website member;

after said storing, receiving, at a network device, an email originating from a user terminal remote from the network device;

processing the received email to enable an addressee of the email to display at least a portion of the email on a user terminal operated by the addressee;

comparing a sender email address of the received email to the database to identify a corresponding one of the profiles; and

responsive to identifying the corresponding one of the profiles, causing the image of the corresponding one of the profiles to be displayed by the user terminal operated by the addressee concurrently with the displayed email portion.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the concurrently displayed image is a picture of the email sender.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the email is a first email of a first, second, and third sequentially received email for the addressee, the image is a first image of a first, second, and third image respectively associated with the first, second, and third emails, and the method further comprises:

displaying the first image concurrently with the first email portion in a first position on an email display page;

displaying the second image in the first position on the email display page and moving the first image to a second position on the email display page adjacent to the first position; and

displaying the third image in the first position, moving the second image to the second position, and moving the first image to a third position on the email display page adjacent to the second position.

4. The method according to claim 3, including:

displaying the first, second, and third images at the same time in a sender bar;

receiving a new email from a new sender;

displaying a new image associated with the new sender at the beginning of the sender bar;

moving each of the first, second, and third images currently displayed in the sender bar over one location either in back of or below the new image associated with the new sender; and

displaying the new image, and the first, second, and third images at the same time in the sender bar.

5. The method according to claim 1, including, responsive to receiving a user selection of the displayed image, displaying in a message list only those email messages received from the sender email address.

6. The method according to claim 5, including:

detecting movement of a cursor over the displayed image and detecting selection of the displayed image using the cursor; and

in response to said detected movement of the cursor over the displayed image and said detected selection, displaying the sender email address.

7. The method according to claim 6, including:

displaying a tooltip providing email options for the sender email address;

tracking the number of unread email messages for the sender email address; and

displaying the number of tracked unread messages in the tooltip.

8. The method according to claim 6, including:

displaying a tooltip providing email options for the sender email address; and

displaying an option in the tooltip to add a current image of the corresponding profile of the sender email address in a favorites list of constantly displayed images and adding the sender email address to a contacts list.

9. The method according to claim 6, including:

displaying a tooltip providing email options for the sender email address;

displaying a new mail option in the tooltip for sending an email message to the sender email address; and

presenting a new email compose page that includes the sender email address pre-populated in response to selection of the new mail option.

10. The method according to claim 1, including:

displaying the image in a senders bar concurrently with other images, wherein the images in the senders bar continue to be replaced with images of more recently received emails; and

displaying a favorites list that persistently and simultaneously displays the images for a selected subset of multiple different senders that have sent emails to the addressee, wherein the favorites list and the senders bar are spaced apart and displayed concurrently.

11. The method according to claim 10, including:

monitoring a number of email messages received from the sender email address; and

responsive to the monitored number reaching a threshold amount within a predetermined time period, automatically displaying the image in the favorites list.

12. The method according to claim 1, including:

displaying a new email composition page for sending a new email message;

assigning points to a user for sending the new email message;

displaying virtual gift icons in the email composition page;

associating points with the virtual gift icons;

identifying attachment of one of the virtual gift icons to the new email message; and

subtracting the points associated with the virtual gift from the user when the new email message is sent.

13. The method according to claim 1, including:

identifying sender contact or image information responsive to receiving the email;

adding any identified sender contact information to a sender contact list; and

displaying any identified image information in a recent sender bar simultaneously with other displayed images representing other different email senders of other most recently received emails.

14. The method according to claim 13, further comprising:

receiving a first email containing image data representing a first facial expression;

displaying the image data of the first email in the recent sender bar;

receiving a second email containing image data representing a second facial expression;

comparing the second facial expression with the first facial expression;

displaying both the image data from the first email and the image data from the second email concurrently in the recent sender bar if the second facial expression is different from the first facial expression; and

displaying only the image data from the first email in the recent sender bar and not displaying the image data from the second email if the second facial expression is the same as the first facial expression.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the image is displayed in a first section and a first location of an email viewing page different from a second section and second location of the email viewing page that displays a message list of sender names and subject lines for the received emails, and different from a third section and third location of the email viewing page that shows a body of selected email messages.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying the image responsive to delivering the email without having to first open up the delivered email.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising, responsive to receiving an additional email that does not correspond to any of the images of any of the profiles, displaying a random place holder or advertisement for the additional email.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

persistently displaying images for a set of preferenced email senders in a favorites bar, wherein the images displayed in the favorites bar are displayed simultaneously with the image displayed in the first section, and wherein the first section and the favorites bar are displayed in different locations in the viewing page; and

automatically opening an email composition page in response to selection of one of the images in the favorites bar, wherein a destination address field in the email composition page is preaddressed to the email address corresponding to the selected image in response to said selection thereof.

19. The method according to claim 1, including:

assigning points to the members that send email messages to other ones of the members;

displaying multiple different virtual gift icons in an email composition page;

associating points with the virtual gift icons;

identifying when one of the virtual gift icons is attached to a new email message; and

subtracting the points associated with the identified one of the virtual gift icons from the points previously assigned to one of the website members sending the email message.

20. An email system, comprising:

a processor configured to;

store in a database on a network a plurality of profiles each corresponding to a respective member of a social networking website, wherein each profile specifies at least contact information for its respective social networking website member and an image selected by its respective social networking website member;

after said storing, receive, at a network device, an email originating from a user terminal remote from the network device;

process the received email to enable an addressee of the email to display at least a portion of the email on a user terminal operated by the addressee;

compare a sender email address of the received email to the database to identify a corresponding one of the profiles; and

responsive to identifying the corresponding one of the profiles, cause the image of the corresponding one of the profiles to be displayed by the user terminal operated by the addressee concurrently with the displayed email portion.

21. The email system of claim 20, wherein the processor comprises a plurality of processors distributed over the network device and the user terminal operated by the addressee.

22. The email system of claim 21, wherein the processor operates on the network device.

23. The email system of claim 20, wherein the processor is further configured to:

responsive to receiving a user selection of the displayed image, display in a message list only those email messages received from the sender email address.

24. The email system of claim 23, wherein the processor is further configured to:

detect movement of a cursor over the displayed image and detect selection of the displayed image using the cursor; and

in response to said detected movement of the cursor over the displayed image and said detected selection, display the sender email address.

25. The email system of claim 23, wherein the processor is further configured to:

display a tooltip providing email options for the sender email address;

track the number of unread email messages for the sender email address; and

display the number of tracked unread messages in the tooltip.

26. The email system of claim 23, wherein the processor is further configured to:

display a tooltip providing email options for the sender email address; and

display an option in the tooltip to add a current image of the corresponding profile of the sender email address in a favorites list of constantly displayed images and add the sender email address to a contacts list.

27. The email system of claim 23, wherein the processor is further configured to:

display a tooltip providing email options for the sender email address;

display a new mail option in the tooltip for sending an email message to the sender email address; and

present a new email compose page that includes the sender email address pre-populated in response to selection of the new mail option.

28. The email system of claim 20, wherein the processor is further configured to:

display the image in a senders bar concurrently with other images, wherein the images in the senders bar continue to be replaced with images of more recently received emails; and

display a favorites list that persistently and simultaneously displays the images for a selected subset of multiple different senders that have sent emails to the addressee, wherein the favorites list and the senders bar are spaced apart and displayed concurrently.

29. The email system of claim 28, wherein the processor is further configured to:

monitor a number of email messages received from the sender email address;

responsive to the monitored number reaching a threshold amount within a predetermined time period, automatically display the image in the favorites list.

30. The email system of claim 20, wherein the processor is further configured to:

display a new email composition page for sending a new email message;

assign points to a user for sending the new email message;

display virtual gift icons in the email composition page;

associate points with the virtual gift icons;

identify attachment of one of the virtual gift icons to the new email message; and

subtract the points associated with the virtual gift from the user when the new email message is sent.

31. The email system of claim 20, wherein the processor is further configured to:

identify sender contact or image information responsive to receiving the email;

add any identified sender contact information to a sender contact list; and

display any identified image information in a recent sender bar simultaneously with other displayed images representing other different email senders of other most recently received emails.

32. The email system of claim 31, wherein the processor is further configured to:

receive a first email containing image data representing a first facial expression;

display the image data of the first email in the recent sender bar;

receive a second email containing image data representing a second facial expression;

compare the second facial expression with the first facial expression;

display both the image data from the first email and the image data from the second email concurrently in the recent sender bar if the second facial expression is different from the first facial expression; and

display only the image data from the first email in the recent sender bar and not displaying the image data from the second email if the second facial expression is the same as the first facial expression.

33. The email system of claim 20, wherein the image is displayed in a first section and a first location of an email viewing page different from a second section and second location of the email viewing page that displays a message list of sender names and subject lines for the received emails, and different from a third second and third location of the email viewing page that shows a body of selected email messages.

34. The email system of claim 20, wherein the processor is further configured to display the image responsive to delivering the email without having to first open up the delivered email.

35. The email system of claim 33, wherein the processor is further configured to, responsive to receiving an additional email that does not correspond to any of the images of any of the profiles, display a random place holder or advertisement for the additional email.

36. The email system of claim 33, wherein the processor is further configured to:

persistently display images for a set of preferenced email senders in a favorites bar, wherein the images displayed in the favorites bar are displayed simultaneously with the image displayed in the first section and wherein the first section and the favorites bar are displayed in different locations in the viewing page; and

automatically open an email composition page in response to selection of one of the images in the favorites bar, wherein a destination address field in the email composition page is preaddressed to an email address corresponding to the selected image in response to said selection thereof.

37. The email system of claim 20, wherein the processor is further configured to:

assign points to the members that send email messages to other ones of the members;

display multiple different virtual gift icons in an email composition page;

associate points with the virtual gift icons;

identify when one of the virtual gift icons is attached to a new email message; and

subtract the points associated with the identified one of the virtual gift icons from the points previously assigned to one of the website members sending the email message.