Patent Document ID: 8024412
Application ID: 12031973

Base Claim:
1. A method to be executed at least in part in a computing device for providing a user interface that displays messages as part of a conversation, the method comprising: receiving a new message; determining a conversation associated with the received message, wherein messages forming the conversation conform to a predefined relationship with at least one other message within the conversation, wherein the predefined relationship is an “in-reply-to” relationship within the conversation; determining a conversation break within the conversation, the conversation break comprising a plurality of elements, presented in the user interface, between at least one preceding message having the “in-reply-to” relationship within the conversation and a message which lacks the “in-reply-to” relationship within the conversation with respect to the at least one preceding message, the plurality of elements comprising extra spacing between the message having the “in-reply-to” relationship and the message which lacks the “in-reply-to” relationship, an excerpt from a parent message, the excerpt immediately preceding the message which lacks the “in-reply-to” relationship with respect to the at least one preceding message, and a graphic element appended only to the message which lacks the “in-reply-to” relationship; determining a message of interest for a user; and displaying the conversation within the user interface by: presenting message parts associated with each message within the conversation according to a selected order, wherein each message part includes a user name associated with a message, a time of receipt, and a portion of body of the message that is unique compared to a parent of the message based on the “in-reply-to” relationship; and presenting a relationship of the message of interest within a parental structure of the messages forming the conversation visually.

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Claim 4:
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein a relationship of the message of interest with its parent is presented employing at least one from a set of: a color scheme, a graphic scheme, an indentation scheme, and a shading scheme.