Patent ID: 7870205

Claim:
A method of collaboratively filtering e-mail messages, comprising: receiving, at an e-mail service of a server system from a sender that is registered with the e-mail service, an e-mail message addressed to a plurality of recipients, the sender being different than the plurality of recipients; sending notification messages from the server system to each of the recipients regarding the e-mail message prior to a retrieval of the e-mail message, the notification messages including information for retrieving the e-mail message from the server system; sending the e-mail message to at least one of the recipients that is registered with the e-mail service; monitoring, at the server system, actions performed by the at least one of the recipients in connection with the e-mail message; generating dynamic metadata indicating the performing of said actions by the at least one of the recipients in connection with the e-mail message; storing the dynamic metadata at the server system; and selectively communicating the dynamic metadata to another recipient that has been registered with the e-mail service and that has not yet retrieved the e-mail message, based on permissions of the e-mail message, to assist said other recipient in determining whether to retrieve the e-mail message.