Email characterization

• US 8,631,080 B2
• Filed: 03/12/2009
• Issued: 01/14/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Goodman, Robert F., Gretzinger, Michael R., Burkhardt, John R., Schiff, Rachel R., Claydon, Barnaby M., Rae, Katherine W., Sturtevant, Reed P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Dharia, Rupal
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Van Kim T
• Application Number:
  US12/402,735
• Publication Number:
  US 20100235447A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,769 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/207, 709/225, 709/238, 709/242, 709/246
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

Email users may feel overwhelmed with the abundance of emails they receive. Many current email management techniques require at least some manual intervention that may be time consuming and/or otherwise frustrating to a user. As provided herein, emails may be characterized based upon content of the email and domain classification data (e.g., a company name, business category, or a website name associated with the domain name of the sender). One or more viewing panels may be populated with the characterized emails. A viewing panel may present emails corresponding to a particular characterization (e.g., a shopping viewing panel may display emails characterized as shopping). To enhance characterization, rules used to characterize emails may learn from a user'"'"'s actions. For example, a user may move an email from a shopping viewing panel to a travel viewing panel, thus altering the characterization of the email from shopping to travel.

Claims

1. A method for characterizing emails comprising:

extracting non-user tagged email content and a domain identifier from an email, the domain identifier merely comprising at least some of a domain of a sender of the email;

in response to sending the domain identifier extracted from the email to a domain directory service, receiving business information, from the domain directory service, that comprises at least one of a business name associated with the domain identifier, a business website associated with the domain identifier, or a business category associated with the domain identifier;

determining a domain classification associated with the email based upon the business information;

characterizing the email with a first characterization based upon executing a pattern matching rule set upon the extracted email content and the domain classification, the pattern matching rule set comprising a matching algorithm not predefined by the sender of the email;

extracting second non-user tagged email content and a second domain identifier from a second email, the second domain identifier merely comprising at least some of a second domain of a second sender of the second email;

in response to sending the second domain identifier extracted from the second email to a second domain directory service, receiving second business information, from the second domain directory service, that comprises at least one of a second business name associated with the second domain identifier, a second business website associated with the second domain identifier, or a second business category associated with the second domain identifier;

determining a second domain classification associated with the second email based upon the second business information;

characterizing the second email with a second characterization based upon executing a second pattern matching rule set upon the second extracted email content and the second domain classification, the second pattern matching rule set comprising a second matching algorithm not predefined by the second sender of the second email;

populating a viewing panel with at least an indication of the email based upon the first characterization;

populating merely the viewing panel with at least one of supplemental content or supplemental formatting based upon the first characterization but not populating one or more other viewing panels characterized with one or more other characterizations not comprising the first characterization with at least one of the supplemental content or the supplemental formatting;

populating a second viewing panel with at least an indication of the second email based upon the second characterization;

populating merely the second viewing panel with at least one of second supplemental content or second supplemental formatting based upon the second characterization but not populating one or more other viewing panels characterized with one or more other characterizations not comprising the second characterization with at least one of the second supplemental content or the second supplemental formatting; and

updating one or more rules of at least one of the pattern matching rule set or the second pattern matching rule set based upon a user dragging and dropping at least one of;

at least a representation of the email from the viewing panel to a viewing panel other than the viewing panel;

or

at least a representation of the second email from the second viewing panel to a viewing panel other than the second viewing panel, at least some of the method implemented at least in part via a processing unit.

2. The method of claim 1, at least one of the supplemental formatting or the second supplemental formatting comprising highlighting.

3. The method of claim 1, at least one of the supplemental content or the second supplemental content comprising a map.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising executing a bulk user command upon one or more emails within at least one of the viewing panel or the second viewing panel.

5. The method of claim 1, at least one of the extracted email content or the second extracted email content comprising at least one of:

a sender name;

a subject line;

or

message text.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising filtering one or more emails within at least one of the viewing panel or the second viewing panel based upon a filter.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising:

creating one or more domain identifier variations based upon at least one of the domain identifier or the second domain identifier; and

sending the one or more domain identifier variations to at least one of the domain directory service or the second domain directory service resulting in at least one of the received business information or the received second business information.

8. A system comprising:

one or more processing units; and

memory comprising instructions that when executed by at least some of the one or more processing units, perform a method for characterizing emails comprising;

extracting email content and a domain identifier from an email;

in response to sending the domain identifier extracted from the email to a domain directory service, receiving business information, from the domain directory service;

determining a domain classification associated with the email based upon the business information;

characterizing the email with a first characterization based upon executing a pattern matching rule set upon the extracted email content and the domain classification;

extracting second email content and a second domain identifier from a second email;

in response to sending the second domain identifier extracted from the second email to a second domain directory service, receiving second business information, from the second domain directory service;

determining a second domain classification associated with the second email based upon the second business information;

characterizing the second email with a second characterization based upon executing a second pattern matching rule set upon the second extracted email content and the second domain classification;

populating a viewing panel with at least an indication of the email based upon the first characterization;

populating merely the viewing panel with at least one of supplemental content or supplemental formatting based upon the first characterization but not populating one or more other viewing panels characterized with one or more other characterizations not comprising the first characterization with at least one of the supplemental content or the supplemental formatting;

populating a second viewing panel with at least an indication of the second email based upon the second characterization;

populating merely the second viewing panel with at least one of second supplemental content or second supplemental formatting based upon the second characterization but not populating one or more other viewing panels characterized with one or more other characterizations not comprising the second characterization with at least one of the second supplemental content or the second supplemental formatting; and

updating one or more rules of at least one of the pattern matching rule set or the second pattern matching rule set based upon a user dragging and dropping at least one of;

at least a representation of the email from the viewing panel to a viewing panel other than the viewing panel;

or

at least a representation of the second email from the second viewing panel to a viewing panel other than the second viewing panel.

9. The system of claim 8, at least one of the supplemental formatting or the second supplemental formatting comprising highlighting.

10. The system of claim 8, at least one of the supplemental content or the second supplemental content comprising a map.

11. The system of claim 8, the method comprising executing a bulk user command upon one or more emails within at least one of the viewing panel or the second viewing panel.

12. The system of claim 8, at least one of the extracted email content or the second extracted email content comprising at least one of:

a sender name;

a subject line;

or

message text.

13. The system of claim 8, the method comprising filtering one or more emails within at least one of the viewing panel or the second viewing panel based upon a filter.

14. The system of claim 8, the method comprising:

creating one or more domain identifier variations based upon at least one of the domain identifier or the second domain identifier; and

sending the one or more domain identifier variations to at least one of the domain directory service or the second domain directory service resulting in at least one of the received business information or the received second business information.

15. A computer readable storage memory excluding signals comprising instructions that when executed, perform a method for characterizing emails comprising:

extracting email content and a domain identifier from an email;

in response to sending the domain identifier extracted from the email to a domain directory service, receiving business information, from the domain directory service;

determining a domain classification associated with the email based upon the business information;

characterizing the email with a first characterization based upon executing a pattern matching rule set upon the extracted email content and the domain classification;

extracting second email content and a second domain identifier from a second email;

in response to sending the second domain identifier extracted from the second email to a second domain directory service, receiving second business information, from the second domain directory service;

determining a second domain classification associated with the second email based upon the second business information;

characterizing the second email with a second characterization based upon executing a second pattern matching rule set upon the second extracted email content and the second domain classification;

populating a viewing panel with at least an indication of the email based upon the first characterization;

populating merely the viewing panel with at least one of supplemental content or supplemental formatting based upon the first characterization but not populating one or more other viewing panels characterized with one or more other characterizations not comprising the first characterization with at least one of the supplemental content or the supplemental formatting;

populating a second viewing panel with at least an indication of the second email based upon the second characterization;

populating merely the second viewing panel with at least one of second supplemental content or second supplemental formatting based upon the second characterization but not populating one or more other viewing panels characterized with one or more other characterizations not comprising the second characterization with at least one of the second supplemental content or the second supplemental formatting; and

updating one or more rules of at least one of the pattern matching rule set or the second pattern matching rule set based upon a user dragging and dropping at least one of;

at least a representation of the email from the viewing panel to a viewing panel other than the viewing panel;

or

at least a representation of the second email from the second viewing panel to a viewing panel other than the second viewing panel.

16. A computer readable storage memory excluding signals of claim 15, at least one of the supplemental formatting or the second supplemental formatting comprising highlighting.

17. A computer readable storage memory excluding signals of claim 15, at least one of the supplemental content or the second supplemental content comprising a map.

18. A computer readable storage memory excluding signals of claim 15, the method comprising executing a bulk user command upon one or more emails within at least one of the viewing panel or the second viewing panel.

19. A computer readable storage memory excluding signals of claim 15, at least one of the extracted email content or the second extracted email content comprising at least one of:

a sender name;

a subject line;

or

message text.

20. A computer readable storage memory excluding signals of claim 15, the method comprising filtering one or more emails within at least one of the viewing panel or the second viewing panel based upon a filter.