Patent ID: 6718321
Filing Date: 2004-04-06
Classification: G06Q,H04L,Y10S

Abstract:
An apparatus for accessing and organizing electronic mail messages, comprising:a first memory storing mail messages; means for adding and removing labels associated with mail messages, including system means for automatically adding and removing labels to and from mail messages by the system, and user means for adding labels to and removing labels from mail messages in accordance with user commands; a second memory storing a full-text index of the mail messages stored in the first memory and for storing a label index denoting mail messages associated with the labels; means for updating the full-text index and the label index when messages are added to the first memory, and means for updating the label index when labels are added to and removed from messages; means for accessing the mail messages using queries composed on client computers connected to the first and second memories by a network the queries searching the full-text index and the label index to locate mail messages satisfying the queries, the mail messages satisfying the queries including messages stored in the first memory prior to at least a subset of the queries being composed on the client computers; and means for sending the located mail messages to the client computers over the network.