Patent ID: 8346881

Claim:
A method performed by a computing device having at least one processor, the method comprising: determining an identity of an originator of an incoming communication using an originating address of the incoming communication; applying a first set of rules to the identity of the originator of the incoming communication to determine an importance of the incoming communication, wherein the first set of rules comprise rules generated based at least on information about the originator of the incoming communication included in a directory of the computing device, and wherein the directory includes information about potential originators of incoming communications based on a location of each of the potential originators; applying a second set of rules to the identity of the originator of the incoming communication to determine the importance of the incoming communication, wherein the second set of rules comprise rules generated based at least on previous interactions between the computing device and the originator of the incoming communication; generating a prioritization score based on the importance determined by the first and second sets of rules; outputting, by the computing device, at least one of information about the originator of the incoming communication and a basis for the generated prioritization score; transmitting usage data of the incoming communication to a server, wherein the server collects usage data from multiple recipients of communications to update the importance of a contact and to maintain one or more block lists; and receiving at least one of an updated importance of a contact and one or more updated block lists.