Patent Document ID: 8898230
Application ID: 11616553
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A probabilistic prediction method for instant messaging, the method comprising: collecting statistics for when different collaborators in an instant messaging system become available and unavailable; selecting a particular one of the different collaborators; computing a probabilistic likelihood that the particular one of the collaborators will become available by a specified time; and, rendering in a probabilistic pop up within at least part of an instant messaging window of the instant messaging system, the computed probabilistic likelihood and also the specified time that the particular one of the different collaborators will become available, the probabilistic pop up configured to be a portion of a size of the instant messaging window and also rendered in response to the detection of a proximity event for the selected particular one of the different collaborators, the specified time being an activatable specified time control being adjustable by a collaborator different from the particular one of the different collaborators, the specified time consisting of one of a time of day and a range of time in a day.