Patent ID: 7908331

Claim:
A system for efficient presentation of related messages in a computer network-based messaging system, the system comprising: a message parser configured to parse at least one message in a group of related messages into at least one sub-message; a comparator configured to compare each sub-message identified by said parser to each sub-message in a set of unique sub-messages previously identified within any of said messages in said group, and add to said set any of said sub-messages identified by said parser that are not members of said set; and a message presenter configured to present a listing of a plurality of said messages in said group of related messages, wherein said listing includes at least one message in said group that does not contribute at least one of said unique sub-messages to said set of unique sub-messages, and wherein said listing includes at least one message in said group that does contribute at least one of said unique sub-messages to said set of unique sub-messages, and mark with a visual indicator only those of said messages in said listing that contributes at least one of said unique sub-messages to said set of unique sub-messages, wherein said messages in said listing that are marked with said visual indicator are visually distinguishable from all other of said messages in said group that do not contribute at least one of said unique sub-messages to said set, wherein said message parser, presenter, and comparator are implemented in at least one of a) computer hardware, and b) computer software embodied in a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium.