PATENT DOCUMENT

Publication Number: US-7421690-B2
Application Number: US-60233503-A
Country: US
Kind Code: B2

Title: Threaded presentation of electronic mail

Abstract:
A threaded list of e-mail messages is provided by checking each received message against previous messages to determine whether the new message is associated with previous messages. If so, then a new thread is created. The new thread has an associated thread header, which stores metadata bout the messages in the thread. If the received message is related to messages in an existing thread, then the received message is added to that thread, and the thread header for that thread is updated to reflect data from the received message. The thread header appears with messages in a message list view of the inbox, and provides data about the thread. Messages that are not part of a thread are shown in the same view as threaded messages, without a thread header. This allows a user to view both threaded and non-threaded messages in a single view.

Claims:
1. A system for threading e-mail messages, comprising:
 a mailbox processor module for receiving e-mail messages including a first e-mail message and a second e-mail message; 
 a mailbox, communicatively coupled to the mailbox processor module, for electronically storing the received e-mail messages; 
 a threading engine, communicatively coupled to the mailbox processor module, for:
 determining that the first received e-mail message is related to the second e-mail message, the second e-mail message received subsequent to the first e-mail message; 
 creating an e-mail thread if the first e-mail message is related to the second e-mail message; 
 associating the e-mail thread with the first e-mail message and the second e-mail message, the e-mail thread additionally including a thread header, the thread header having e-mail thread information derived from attributes of at least one of the first or second e-mail messages; and 
 
 a display device operable to display information about one or more received e-mail messages in a user interface including displaying information from at least one unthreaded e-mail message and thread header information, the displayed thread header information being distinct from information displayed for individual e-mail messages and where the thread header information is displayed in the mailbox in place of mailbox entries for the first e-mail message and the second e-mail message associated with the e-mail thread. 
 
     
     
       2. The system of  claim 1  wherein the threading engine additionally updates the thread header associated with the e-mail thread. 
     
     
       3. The system of  claim 2  wherein the thread header includes a subject of the e-mail thread. 
     
     
       4. The system of  claim 2  wherein the thread header includes an originator of the e-mail thread. 
     
     
       5. The system of  claim 2  wherein the thread header includes indicia of the number of messages in the e-mail thread. 
     
     
       6. The system of  claim 2  wherein the thread header includes a time that the e-mail thread was most recently updated. 
     
     
       7. The system of  claim 1  wherein the threading engine is further configured for:
 receiving a third e-mail message; 
 determining that the third e-mail message is related to the e-mail thread; 
 associating the third e-mail message with the e-mail thread; and 
 updating the thread header to include information derived from attributes of the third e-mail message. 
 
     
     
       8. A method for threading e-mail messages, comprising:
 receiving a first e-mail message; 
 receiving a second e-mail message subsequent to the first e-mail message; 
 determining that the first e-mail message is related to a second e-mail message; 
 creating an e-mail thread if the second e-mail message is related to the first e-mail message; 
 associating the e-mail thread with the first e-mail message and the second e-mail message, the e-mail thread including a persistent thread header, the thread header having e-mail thread information derived from attributes of at least one of the first or second e-mail messages; and 
 displaying information from at least one unthreaded e-mail message and thread header information in a user interface where the thread header information is displayed in a mailbox in lieu of information for individual e-mail messages associated with the e-mail thread. 
 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 8  wherein the persistent thread header includes a subject of the e-mail thread. 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 8  wherein the persistent thread header includes an originator of the e-mail thread. 
     
     
       11. The method of  claim 8  wherein the persistent thread header includes indicia of the number of messages in the thread. 
     
     
       12. The method of  claim 8  wherein the persistent thread header includes a time that the e-mail thread was most recently updated. 
     
     
       13. The method of  claim 8  further comprising:
 receiving a third e-mail message; 
 determining that the third e-mail message is related to the e-mail thread; 
 associating the third e-mail message with the e-mail thread; and 
 updating the thread header to include information derived from attributes of the third e-mail message. 
 
     
     
       14. The method of  claim 8  wherein the displayed thread header information includes displaying a color associated with a sender of the first e-mail message. 
     
     
       15. The method of  claim 8  wherein the displayed thread header information includes displaying a color associated with a sender of the second e-mail message. 
     
     
       16. The method of  claim 8  wherein each sender of an e-mail has an associated priority, and the displayed thread header information is displayed in a color associated with a sender having the highest priority. 
     
     
       17. The method of  claim 8  further comprising displaying an expansion icon associated with the thread header in the user interface. 
     
     
       18. The method of  claim 17  further comprising:
 responsive to a selection of the expansion icon, displaying information about each individual e-mail message associated with the e-mail thread in the user interface. 
 
     
     
       19. The method of  claim 18  further comprising highlighting for selection an oldest unread e-mail message associated with the e-mail thread. 
     
     
       20. The method of  claim 18  wherein e-mail messages associated with the e-mail thread are displayed in a common color. 
     
     
       21. The method of  claim 8  wherein the second e-mail message is related to the first e-mail message if it is a reply to the first e-mail message. 
     
     
       22. The method of  claim 8  wherein the second e-mail message is a reply to the first e-mail message if a In-Reply-To field of a header of the second e-mail message identifies the first e-mail message. 
     
     
       23. The method of  claim 8  wherein the second e-mail message is related to the first e-mail message if it includes a forward of the first e-mail message. 
     
     
       24. The method of  claim 8  wherein the first e-mail message and the second e-mail message are stored in different folders of a user&#39;s mailbox. 
     
     
       25. The method of  claim 24  wherein at least one of the e-mail messages is stored in the user&#39;s sent items folder. 
     
     
       26. The method of  claim 24  wherein at least one of the e-mail messages is stored in the user&#39;s personal items folder. 
     
     
       27. A computer program product for threading e-mail messages, the program product stored on a computer readable storage medium and adapted to perform the operations of:
 receiving a first e-mail message; 
 receiving a second e-mail message subsequent to the first e-mail message; 
 determining that the first e-mail message is related to a second e-mail message; 
 creating an e-mail thread if the second e-mail message is related to the first e-mail message; 
 associating the e-mail thread with the first e-mail message and the second e-mail message, the e-mail thread including a thread header, the thread header having e-mail thread information derived from attributes of at least one of the e-mail messages; and 
 displaying information from at least one unthreaded e-mail message and thread header information in a user interface where the information from the at least one unthreaded e-mail message and the thread header information is displayed in a mailbox, the displayed thread header information being distinct from information displayed for individual e-mail messages and where the thread header information is displayed in place of the information for each e-mail message associated with the e-mail thread. 
 
     
     
       28. The computer program product of  claim 27 , further adapted for:
 receiving a third e-mail message; 
 determining that the third e-mail message is related to the e-mail thread; 
 associating the third e-mail message with the e-mail thread; and 
 updating the thread header to include information derived from attributes of the third e-mail message. 
 
     
     
       29. The computer program product of  claim 27  wherein the thread header includes a subject of the e-mail thread. 
     
     
       30. The computer program product of  claim 27  wherein the thread header includes an originator of the e-mail thread. 
     
     
       31. The computer program product of  claim 27  wherein the thread header includes indicia of the number of messages in e-mail thread. 
     
     
       32. The computer program product of  claim 27  wherein the thread header includes a time that the e-mail thread was most recently updated. 
     
     
       33. A system for threading e-mail messages, comprising:
 receiving means, for receiving a first e-mail and a second e-mail message; 
 determining means, communicatively coupled to the receiving means, for determining that the first e-mail message is related to a second e-mail message, the second e-mail message received subsequent to the first e-mail message; 
 creating means, communicatively coupled to the determining means, for creating an e-mail thread if the first e-mail message is related to the second e-mail message; and 
 associating means, communicatively coupled to the creating means, for associating the e-mail thread with the first e-mail message and the second e-mail message, the e-mail thread additionally including a thread header, the thread header having e-mail thread information derived from attributes of at least one of the e-mail messages; and 
 a display device operable to display information about one or more received e-mail messages in a user interface including displaying information from at least one unthreaded e-mail message and thread header information as entries in a mailbox and where the thread header information is displayed in place of mailbox entries for each e-mail message associated with the e-mail thread. 
 
     
     
       34. The system of  claim 33 , wherein:
 the receiving means are further configured to receive a third e-mail message; 
 the determining means are further configured to determine that the third e-mail message is related to the e-mail thread; and 
 the associating means are further configured to associate the third e-mail message with the e-mail thread and to update the persistent thread header to include information derived from the attributes of the third e-mail message. 
 
     
     
       35. A method for threading e-mail messages, comprising:
 receiving a first e-mail message; 
 receiving a second e-mail message that is related to the first e-mail message; and 
 threading the first e-mail message and the second e-mail message, the threading including:
 creating an e-mail thread having a thread header, the thread header having e-mail thread information derived from attributes of at least one of the first or second e-mail messages; and 
 displaying information from one or more unthreaded e-mail messages and the thread header as respective entries in a mailbox. 
 
 
     
     
       36. The method of  claim 35 , further comprising:
 receiving a third e-mail message related to either the first e-mail message or the second e-mail message; and 
 updating the thread including updating the displayed thread header. 
 
     
     
       37. A method for threading e-mail messages, comprising:
 receiving a first e-mail message; 
 receiving a second e-mail message related to the first e-mail message; and 
 threading the first e-mail and the second e-mail, the threading including displaying a display item indicating a nature of the relationship between the first e-mail message and the second e-mail message and where the display item is displayed in a mailbox in place of mailbox entries for the first e-mail message and the second e-mail message, where information from at least one unthreaded e-mail message is displayed in the mailbox. 
 
     
     
       38. A method for threading e-mail messages, comprising:
 receiving a first e-mail message; 
 receiving a second e-mail message subsequent to the first e-mail message; 
 determining that the first e-mail message is related to a second e-mail message, where determining if the first e-mail message is related to the second e-mail message includes:
 identifying whether a subject field of the first e-mail message and the subject field of the second e-mail message include common data, and 
 if the subject field includes common data, determining whether the second e-mail message includes a message identifier included in the first e-mail message; 
 
 creating an e-mail thread if the second e-mail message is related to the first e-mail message; 
 associating the e-mail thread with the first e-mail message and the second e-mail message, the e-mail thread including a thread header, the thread header having thread information derived from attributes of at least one of the first or second e-mail messages; and 
 displaying information from at least one unthreaded e-mail message and thread header information in a user interface. 
 
     
     
       39. The method of  claim 38 , where determining whether the subject field includes common data includes disregarding subject prefixes. 
     
     
       40. A method comprising:
 receiving a first e-mail message and a second e-mail message; 
 determining that the first e-mail message is related to the second e-mail message; 
 creating an e-mail thread associated with the first e-mail message and the second e-mail message; 
 displaying information from one or more unthreaded e-mail messages and a thread header as respective entries in a mailbox, the thread header being displayed in place of entries in the mailbox for the first e-mail message and the second e-mail message.

Description:
COPYRIGHT NOTICE 
     A portion of this disclosure contains material in which copyright is claimed by the applicant. The applicant does not object to the copying of this material in the course of making copies of the application file or any patents that may issue on the application, but all other rights whatsoever in the copyrighted material are reserved. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates generally to the field of presentation of electronic mail. More specifically, the present invention provides an improved access to e-mail display by using threading to organize messages in a user&#39;s mailbox. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     As the amount of e-mail people receive continues to rise almost geometrically, there is an increased need for a way in which to manage that e-mail. When a user receives dozens or even hundreds of e-mails in a single day, the messages become difficult to usefully organize and contextualize. Add to that the occasional vacation, leaving no access to e-mail, and imagine the horror waiting for the user upon his return to find several hundred unread e-mails. 
     In an effort to help users get a handle on displaying their e-mails, some solutions have already been tried. The most simple example allows a user&#39;s inbox to be sorted by one or more various criteria. For example, a user can sort his inbox by message sender, by subject, by date, by file size, or by conversation. Sorting by message sender is helpful because it allows all messages from a single sender to be grouped together in the inbox view. This approach ignores the fact that individual e-mail messages are often part of a chain of messages from different users, forming a discussion. The user therefore loses the context of the conversation. That is, one can see only one side of the conversation. If someone else, including the mailbox user himself has responded to the sender in between two of the sender&#39;s messages, that response is lost. Thus, sorting messages merely by message sender is not an adequate solution to the problem of organizing one&#39;s inbox. Similarly, organizing messages by received date or by sent date is useful in that it allows messages to be read in the order in which they were received or sent, but does not really give the mailbox owner any context, especially since the user may be participating in multiple conversations at once via e-mail, and there is no grouping of the individual conversations. This problem is addressed partially by the ability to group messages by “conversation”, offered by Outlook, a product of Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. Outlook simply lists messages that are related to a single conversation, even if any message sender subsequently changes the subject line of the message in response to a previous message in that conversation. While this partially addresses the problem, the grouping adds no information about the group itself—it merely organizes the messages to be together in a list in the user&#39;s view of the inbox. In addition, all messages become conversations, even where there is only a single message in the conversation. This only adds extra overhead to the already encumbered inbox view. Thus, there is still room for refinement. 
     In view of the foregoing, a need therefore exists for a way to manage a user&#39;s inbox that organizes e-mails in such a way as to provide a thread of messages, including contextual information about the contents of each thread. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention satisfies the foregoing need by providing a threaded list of messages in a user&#39;s mailbox. Each message received is checked to determine whether the new message is associated with one or more previous messages. If the received message is related to a single previous message, then a new thread is created. The new thread has an associated thread header, which stores metadata about the messages in the thread. If the received message is related to messages in an existing thread, then the received message is added to that thread, and the thread header for that thread is updated to reflect data from the received message. The thread headers are persistent data, that are stored in addition to the actual messages themselves. This allows various types of organizational and viewing operations to be performed directly on the thread headers. In a preferred embodiment, the thread header appears along with messages in a message list view of the user&#39;s inbox, and provides data about the thread to the user, including the number of messages in the thread, originator of the thread, the subject of the thread, and the time that the thread was most recently updated. Messages that are not part of a thread are preferably shown in the same view as threaded messages, but without a thread header. This allows a user to view both threaded and non-threaded messages in a single view. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 2  illustrates a view of the user&#39;s mailbox prior to activating the threading feature in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIGS. 3 and 4  illustrate the selection of an “Organize by Thread” option in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 5  illustrates an example view of a user&#39;s inbox with threading turned on in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 6  illustrates a view of a collapsed thread header in a user&#39;s inbox in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 7  illustrates a view of a user&#39;s inbox in which a selected thread header is located towards the top of the message index list in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 8  illustrates a view of the user&#39;s inbox in which a thread header has been expanded in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 9  illustrates a view of the user&#39;s inbox in which the threads are sorted by date received. 
         FIG. 10  is a flowchart illustrating a method of threading e-mail in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     The figures depict preferred embodiments of the present invention for purposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the following discussion that alternative embodiments of the structures and methods illustrated herein may be employed without departing from the principles of the invention described herein. 
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Referring now to  FIG. 1 , there is shown a block diagram of a system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. System  100  includes a mailbox processor module  102  for receiving e-mails; threading engine  104  for organizing and displaying e-mail in a threaded fashion; and mailbox  106  for storing e-mail messages. System  100  can be implemented as part of a general e-mail and/or calendaring and/or contact management solution in a variety of ways, as will be appreciated by those of skill in the art. The system can operate on a user&#39;s client computer, on a server computer, or in some combination using both such computers. Those of skill in the art appreciate that the particular implementation and distribution of functionality between various computers is not material to the invention. 
     An e-mail message (or, simply, “an e-mail”) existing on its own is not part of a thread. A thread exists when there are two or more e-mails that bear a relationship to one another. In a preferred embodiment, an e-mail is part of a thread if it is a reply to an earlier message, or a forward of an earlier message. The earlier message is also part of the thread, once the thread comes into being. Note that the e-mails in a thread do not have to be located within a single folder in the user&#39;s mailbox. For example, a thread may include messages from the user&#39;s sent items folder, personal archive folders; inbox, and other folders used to organize the user&#39;s email. Accordingly, though the present invention is described in the context of threads within a single folder, it should be understood that this is for clarity of explanation only, and by no means intended as a limitation of the invention. 
     One way to determine whether an e-mail is part of a thread is to check whether messages have the same subject. In a preferred embodiment, when a message arrives, threading engine  104  first ignores any subject prefixes (such as RE:, FWD:, etc.) and then compares the remainder of the subject line heading with the subject headings of messages already in the recipient&#39;s inbox, here too ignoring their subject line prefixes. Because this method alone is over inclusive (two or more unrelated e-mails can have the same subject), a check is also performed to validate that the message rightfully belongs to the thread. For example, many people send e-mails having the subject “Hello.” As a result, there may be many messages in the user&#39;s inbox that have the subject “Hello,” but are not related to one another. Accordingly, in one embodiment, threading engine  104  checks the “In-Reply-To” field of the header of the incoming message to confirm that it shares the same message ID as an earlier message in the thread. The In-Reply-To SMTP header is a standard field in Internet e-mail as specified by RFC 822. In an alternative embodiment, other headers may be used, such as the message ID header. 
     When it is determined that a thread exists, threading engine  104  generates a thread header for the thread. A thread header contains information about the thread that it heads, including in one embodiment a sender, a subject, a date, and a number of messages unread in the thread. The thread header is a set of data about the thread that exists independently of the thread itself. Each thread has its own thread header. Threads within mailbox  106  can be sorted and displayed according to any sort criteria found in their respective thread header. For example, if the mailbox is sorted by Subject, then threads will be displayed in ascending or descending lexicographic order according to the subject of the earliest (oldest) message in the thread. If the mailbox is sorted by date, then threads will be displayed in order based upon the date appearing in the thread header, as set forth below. 
       FIG. 2  illustrates a view of the user&#39;s mailbox prior to activating the threading feature. In the illustrated embodiment of  FIG. 2 , the main view is split into two sub parts: a list  220  of email messages, and a content view  218  of the contents of either a message or thread selected in the list  220 . Message list  220  includes a “From” column  202 , a Subject column  204 , and a Date Received column  206 . Each of these columns is one that can be sorted on, and in the illustrated embodiment, Date Received  206  is the column being sorted on. Accordingly, each of the messages listed is sorted in the order in which it was received. A message that is currently being viewed is highlighted in list  220  in a preferred embodiment, and displayed in content view  218 . In  FIG. 2 , message  208  is being viewed, and is from Scott Forstall, with the subject “Sampler Icon”, and was received Wednesday, Jun. 18, 2003 at 11:01 PM. The text of message  208  is displayed in content view  218 . 
     Although messages in this view are not threaded, it is apparent from a review of inbox window  220  that some of the other messages are related to message  208 . For example, messages  210 ,  212 ,  214 , and  216  each have the subject “Sampler Icon.” Accordingly, in a threaded view, we would expect to see these messages grouped together. 
       FIG. 3  shows how an option  304  can be selected from a menu such as View menu  302  to turn on “Organize by Thread.”  FIG. 4  illustrates that in one embodiment when the Organize by Thread option  402  is selected, a check mark appears next to the item in the menu  302 . 
     Referring now to  FIG. 5  there is shown an example view of a user&#39;s inbox with threading turned on. Again, the view is split into two panels: the message listing  520 , and the content view  518  of a single message. In message listing  520 , there are again three columns: a “From” column  502 , “Subject” column  504 , and “Date Received” column  506 . In the illustrated embodiment, sorting is again being done on the Date Received  506  column. When threading is turned on, a thread column  522  is also displayed in a preferred embodiment. Tbe presence of an arrow in the thread column  522  pointing either to the right or down in indicates the beginning of a thread, and the line on which the arrow appears contains data from the thread header for the thread. Header  524  is one example of a thread header. Like a message line, header  524  includes From. Subject and Date Received data. Since the thread header is intended to give information to the user about the contents of the thread, contextual information from the thread is included in the header  524 . For example, the From entry  528  provides the name of the person who started the thread. The Subject  530  in the thread header  524  is the original subject of the thread. The Date Received  532  entry is the date on which the most recent message in the thread was received. In alternative embodiments, other criteria could be used for the thread header. For example, the From entry could reflect the name of the person who most recently sent a message in the thread, instead of the person who originated the thread. Similarly, the subject entry could be the subject of the message as changed by one of the forwarders or respondents in the thread, or it could be the originating subject; and the Date Received could be the date on which the first message was received in the thread, instead of the most recent message. Other modifications could also be made as will be readily appreciated by those of skill in the art. Appropriately, the five messages  208 ,  210 ,  212 ,  214  and  216  ( FIG. 2 ) referred to above as belonging to a single conversation have now been grouped into a single thread  534 . Each of the messages in the thread has the subject “Sampler Icon,” and some of the subjects are preceded by subject prefixes such as “Re:” and “Fwd.” The most recent message  516  was received Thursday June 19, 2003 at 12:38 AM, from Scott Forstall. This information is extracted and appears again in the thread header  524 . Thread header  524  also includes a number of unread messages  526 . In the case of the illustrated header  524 , there are four unread messages in the thread. In a preferred embodiment, thread headers can be either expanded or collapsed. When a thread is collapsed, the arrow in column  522  points to the right, as is standard to indicate collapsed data. An example is the thread  536  from Ali Ozer. When expanded, the arrow points down, and the messages within the expanded thread are shown with the From data indented to help the user identify the messages as belonging to the thread. Using threads only where there are two or more related emails avoids the unnecessary clutter that would otherwise result if a single email was designated as a thread: if a thread header, such as header  524  was displayed for each individual message, then the user would expand the header only to find a single email. This only wastes the user&#39;s time, as there is no more useful information in the thread header than in the single email itself. 
     In one embodiment messages within a thread are displayed against a colored background to separate them from other threads, or from messages not within any thread. For example, message  538  from Heather M. Snow with Subject “Ice cream today at 4 pm” is not within a thread. It is preferably displayed against a white or plain background. On the other hand, messages within thread  534  are displayed against a light blue background; thread header  524  is displayed against a darker background; and the message currently being viewed  508  is displayed against a high contrast background. Those of skill in the art will recognize that the particular colors or shades of colors used are not material to the present invention, and that any suitable manner of demarcating threads can be used. 
       FIG. 6  shows thread header  524  in a collapsed mode, where only the header itself is visible in the message list area  602 , and none of the messages within the thread is visible. However, in a preferred embodiment when the collapsed header is selected in the message listing area  602 , content view area  604  shows the details of the thread header  606  and a list  608  of all the messages in that thread. Details of the thread header  606  include in a preferred embodiment the title of the thread, which is the original subject of the thread, the originator of the thread, and the time at which the thread was started, and the number of messages and unread messages in the thread. List  608  indicates for each of the messages in the thread its status (read, unread, attachments, dates, times, subjects, etc.). Selecting one of the messages from the list  608  expands the thread in the messages listing area  602  and displays the message that was selected. 
       FIG. 7  illustrates a view in which the selected thread header  702  is located towards the top of the message index list  704 . When this thread is expanded to reveal its contents, highlighted bar  706  remains in the same position relative to the index screen  704 , and the thread expands above and below the bar, showing the emails in the thread that are prior to the selected email (based on the current sort order) above the selected email, and those emails in the thread that are after the selected email below it. This preserves the visual context for the user by keeping the highlighted bar  706  consistently located in the same position in the view. This is illustrated further with reference to  FIG. 8 , in which the thread has been expanded to reveal a message from Marcel van Os  808  located in the same position as the thread header  702  was previously located. In one embodiment, when messages belonging to a single thread are located in different folders, opening the thread header in any one folder brings all the messages together to be viewed. Collapsing the thread restores the messages to their original location. 
     When a new message arrives, threading engine  104  examines the subject and In-Reply-To fields of the message header to determine whether the message is related to any other messages already in the user&#39;s mailbox. Alternatively, the threading engine  104  may use just the In-Reply-To field to determine the existence of a thread. If the message is so related, and if a thread header has previously been created (i.e. there are already at least two related messages in the user&#39;s mailbox), the current message is added to the existing thread. Alternatively, if the message is related to another message, but a thread does not yet exist, a thread header is created for the new thread. The thread header information is updated, for example, to store the sender information for the most recent message, an updated count of the messages in the thread, the time of the most recent message, and any other attributes or fields that may be usefully included in the summary information of the thread header. The message inbox view is then adjusted as necessary, depending on its sort criteria. For example, if the message inbox is sorted according to Date Received, and the thread header indicates the date received of the most recent message, then when a new message arrives, the thread containing the new message will become the first message thread in the message list, if the list is in descending order of date received. This is illustrated further with respect to  FIG. 9 , in which a message has just arrived in the “remaining items for scott&#39;s WWDC slides” thread. Accordingly, that thread  904  is moved to the top of the message inbox list  902 , since the date received category is being sorted on in descending order. 
     In one embodiment, when a user expands a thread, the oldest unread message in the expanded thread is automatically highlighted. One implication of this is that if a user reads a message, collapses the thread, and then re-expands the thread, he is automatically shown the next unread message in the thread. This enables the user to review a some of the messages in a thread, close the thread, and then return to it later, and immediately pick up the review where he left off, without having to remember which was the last message reviewed. 
     In one embodiment, mailbox processor module  104  supports attribute-based color coding of messages, in which messages having certain attributes are automatically colored a certain color. In particular, one attribute for color coding is the message sender, so that all messages from a given sender have the same color. When threading is activated, the color of a thread takes on the color, if any, of the sender who initiated the thread. In an alternative embodiment, the color of the thread is the color associated with the sender who sent the most recent e-mail in the thread. This allows the user to tell from the thread header who has most recently added a message to the thread. In another embodiment, each sender may have an associated priority value. In this case, the color of the thread will be the color of the sender of a message in the thread having the highest priority. 
     Referring now to  FIG. 10 , there is shown a flowchart of a method in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. When an e-mail is received  1002  by mailbox processor module  102 , threading engine  104  first determines  1004  whether the e-mail is related to either an existing thread or an earlier single message. If the message is not related to an existing thread or earlier message, no more threading is necessary for that message, and it is displayed  1006  in an unthreaded fashion in the mailbox index. If the message is part  1005  of an existing thread, then threading engine  104  associates  1014  the message with the existing thread. If the message is related to an earlier single message but there is no existing thread, threading engine  104  creates  1010  a new thread header for the new thread, and associates  1012  both the earlier message and the current message with the new thread. Next, threading engine  104  updates  1016  the thread header with information gleaned from the incoming message. For example, in a preferred embodiment, the thread header is updated to have as its Date Received information the Date Received of the most recent e-mail in the thread. Finally, the message is displayed  1018  in the thread. 
     The present invention has been described in particular detail with respect to a limited number of embodiments. Those of skill in the art will appreciate that the invention may additionally be practiced in other embodiments. First, the particular naming of the components, capitalization of terms, the attributes, data structures, or any other programming or structural aspect is not mandatory or significant, and the mechanisms that implement the invention or its features may have different names, formats, or protocols. Further, the system may be implemented via a combination of hardware and software, as described, or entirely in hardware elements. Also, the particular division of functionality between the various system components described herein is merely exemplary, and not mandatory; functions performed by a single system component may instead be performed by multiple components, and functions performed by multiple components may instead performed by a single component. For example, the particular functions of the threading engine  104  and so forth may be provided in many or one module. 
     Some portions of the above description present the feature of the present invention in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on information. These algorithmic descriptions and representations are the means used by those skilled in the e-mail management arts to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. These operations, while described functionally or logically, are understood to be implemented by computer programs. Furthermore, it has also proven convenient at times, to refer to these arrangements of operations as modules or code devices, without loss of generality. 
     It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the present discussion, it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizing terms such as “processing” or “displaying” or the like, refer to the action and processes of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical (electronic) quantities within the computer system memories or registers or other such information storage, transmission or display devices. 
     Certain aspects of the present invention include process steps and instructions described herein in the form of an algorithm. It should be noted that the process steps and instructions of the present invention could be embodied in software, firmware or hardware, and when embodied in software, could be downloaded to reside on and be operated from different platforms used by real time network operating systems. 
     The present invention also relates to an apparatus for performing the operations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for the required purposes, or it may comprise a general-purpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored in the computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a computer readable storage medium, such as, but is not limited to, any type of disk including floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, magnetic-optical disks, read-only memories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs), EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), or any type of media suitable for storing electronic instructions, and each coupled to a computer system bus. Furthermore, the computers referred to in the specification may include a single processor or may be architectures employing multiple processor designs for increased computing capability. 
     The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently related to any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general-purpose systems may also be used with programs in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may prove convenient to construct more specialized apparatus to perform the required method steps. The required structure for a variety of these systems will appear from the description above. In addition, the present invention is not described with reference to any particular programming language. It is appreciated that a variety of programming languages may be used to implement the teachings of the present invention as described herein, and any references to specific languages are provided for disclosure of enablement and best mode of the present invention. 
     Finally, it should be noted that the language used in the specification has been principally selected for readability and instructional purposes, and may not have been selected to delineate or circumscribe the inventive subject matter. Accordingly, the disclosure of the present invention is intended to be illustrative, but not limiting, of the scope of the invention.

Metadata:
Filing Date: 20030623
Publication Date: 20080902
Grant Date: 20080902
Priority Date: 20030623
Inventors: FORSTALL SCOTT
CHRISTIE GREG
LEMAY STEPHEN O
Assignee: APPLE INC
CPC Classifications: [{"code": "H04L51/00", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G06Q10/107", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L51/216", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G06Q10/107", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}]
Family ID: 33518072