Patent ID: 7814165

Claim:
An adaptive message classification system comprising: a message server for handling message traffic of a user; a classification system having a plurality of folders therein, each folder storing previously received messages of the user; a data store to store predictive address values for address identifiers contained in stored messages in the messaging classification system, wherein each address identifier is associated with a predictive address value, the predictive address value is calculated by tallying number of occurrences of the address identifier in all stored messages and applying a predetermined function to the tallied number, the predetermined function generates a larger number for an address identifier that appears in a fewer number of stored messages than an address identifier that appears in a larger number of stored messages, and repeated appearances of the address identifier in one stored message count as one occurrence for the tallying; and a message classification agent, responsive to a newly received message, to: check each stored message among the plurality of folders to identify a stored message as having a best predictive message value than predictive message values for other stored messages among the plurality of folders, wherein each predictive message value for a respective stored message is calculated by: extracting an address identifier from the newly received message, comparing the extracted address identifier with each address identifier in the respective stored message, adding a predictive address value associated with the extracted address identifier to a running summation for the respective stored message when the extracted address identifier exits in the respective stored message, and repeating the above extracting, comparing and adding steps for each address identifier contained in address fields of the newly received message to get a final result of the running summation for the respective previously stored message, wherein the best predictive message value corresponding to a previously stored message is the highest final result among all running summations for all previously stored messages, select the folder storing the identified previously stored message as the destination folder, cluster the newly received message with the identified stored message, and store the newly received message in the selected destination folder.