Systems and Method for Managing Emails
The embodiment of the present invention allows for a simple and intuitive system and method to manage email by applying time-elapsed rules to emails matching specific criteria (i.e. emails coming from specific email addresses): Time-elapsed rules are rules that will execute an action on an email message after the email has been in the inbox for a certain period of time. These actions may include, but are not limited to, moving the email to another folder, copying the email to another folder, and deleting the email.
This Application is a continuation of and claims priority from U.S. application Ser. No. 14//713,097 entitled “System and Method for Managing Emails,” filed on May 15, 2015, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/581,980, entitled “Systems and methods for online marketing and advertising on email systems” filed Oct. 17, 2006, which in turn claims priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/667,103, entitled “Email method and system” filed on Sep. 17, 2003, U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/411,835, entitled “Systems and Methods for Online Direct Marketing on Web-Based Email Systems and Websites Over a Network,” filed on Sep. 18, 2002, U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/422,293, entitled “Systems and Methods for Online Direct Marketing and Advertising on Email Systems Over a Network,” filed on Oct. 30, 2002, U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/457,407, entitled “Systems and Methods for Online Marketing and Advertising on Email Systems Over a Network,” filed on Mar. 25, 2003, U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/478,212, entitled “Systems and Methods for the Enhancement of Email Client User Interfaces and Email Message Formats,” filed on Jun. 12, 2003, and U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/480,076, entitled “Systems and Methods for Online Direct Marketing and Advertising on Registration Based Websites and Web-Based Email Systems,” filed on Jun. 20, 2003, each of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
FIELD OF THE INVENTIONThe embodiment of the present invention allows for a simple and intuitive system and method to manage email by applying time-elapsed rules to emails matching specific criteria (i.e. emails coming from specific email addresses): Time-elapsed rules are rules that will execute an action on an email message after the email has been in the inbox for a certain period of time. These actions may include, but are not limited to, moving the email to another folder, copying the email to another folder, and deleting the email.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONEmail is one of the most used applications on the Internet. It is touted as a productivity miracle in helping companies and individuals communicate more efficiently than other older means such as telephone, mail and fax. However, as the volume of email increases, the management of email is becoming a burden for most individuals who rely on email to get their work done.
There have been a few ways that have been developed to manage email, such as using filters to sort incoming mail to predefined folders. The problem with this approach is that as the number of folders increase, the burden to the user increases because he now has to check these folders for new email instead of just checking his inbox.
What all the prior art does not solve is the situation wherein the user only wants to use a few folders, preferably a primary one to receive all incoming email, and yet be able to manage their email effectively.
SUMMARYThe embodiment of the present invention allows for a simple and intuitive system and method to manage email by applying time-elapsed rules to emails matching specific criteria (i.e. emails corning from specific email addresses): Time-elapsed rules are rules that will execute an action on an email message after the email has been in the inbox for a certain period of time. These actions may include, but are not limited to, moving the email to another folder, copying the email to another folder and deleting the email. The criteria for the match may include, but are not limited to, user specified email addresses, email domains, subject lines, header information, and the body of the email.
The invention also covers other variations on the “time-elapsed theme,” such as instead of just tracking on the amount of time in the inbox, the tracking includes, but is not limited to the amount of time since the email has been created, sent or received.
The gist of the invention is that users are able to easily apply time-elapsed rules to certain email addresses. The benefit of this capability is that after a certain period of time, the emails will move themselves to the appropriate folders to be “archived”. Here is a scenario:
The user elects to have all his emails sent to his inbox. Some of the emails are offer emails (offers@macys.com) and newsletters (news@myschool.edu). These emails lose their news-worthy value once the email has been in the inbox for a while. Therefore, the user could elect to apply time-elapsed rules to these emails. For example, all emails from offers@macys.com to be transferred to the “offers” folder after the email is 5 days old. This way, the user does not need to manually move or delete these specific emails.
Another example is emails from friends or work. The user could specify emails from work (i.e. with domain@mywork.com) to be moved to the “work” folder after 2 days, but only if the email has already been read. The final parameter (is read), ensures that important emails are only transferred after they have been read.
Once the user has set up a number of time-elapsed rules, the user's email management tasks will have been vastly simplified. New emails will mostly get delivered to his inbox, and the less-important ones will automatically get deleted or moved after a few days, and the more important emails either stay in the inbox, or get moved after they have been read. This Invention also gives control to the user, because it is the user that decides which emails from which email addresses are important and which are less important—unlike other methods, such as auto-expiry which delete or archive all emails in a specific folder, or sender-based expiry, in which the decision rests on the sender.
Finally, the invention also covers cases where the invention is a plugin to an existing email client such as Microsoft Outlook. The invention also allows for an alternative email listing view interface when used as a plugin, in cases where the email client does not provide for adequate customization of the email listing view interface.
A method for placing preview enhanced messages in registration-based websites comprises: a user node having a browser program coupled to a network, said user node providing requests for information on said network; a promotions server node in operative association with a data repository responsive to a request and deliver promotions to said user node where the promotions server node contains profile information about said user and is able to send targeted promotions to said user, where the promotion listing contains a mechanism to dynamically display and hide graphical elements that serve as a teaser to the promotions on top of the aggregate listing of promotions, where the mechanism is an icon, wherein the promotion listing is in a separate folder than the listing of the user's email (i.e. inbox), wherein the promotion listing is in the same page as the listing of the user's email (i.e. inbox).
The embodiment of the present invention allows for a simple and intuitive system and method to manage email by applying time-elapsed rules to emails matching specific criteria (i:e. emails coming from specific email addresses). Time-elapsed rules are rules that will execute an action on an email message after the email has been in the inbox for a certain period of time. These actions may include but not limited to, moving the email to another folder, copying the email to another folder and deleting the email. The criteria for the match may include but not limited to, user specified email addresses, email domains, subject lines, header information and the body of the email.
The Invention also covers other variations on the “time-elapsed theme”. Such as instead of just tracking on the amount of time in the Inbox, the tracking includes but is not limited to the amount of time since the email has been created, sent or received.
The gist of the invention is that users are able easily apply time-elapsed rules to certain email addresses. The benefit of this capability is that after a certain period of time, the emails is will move themselves to the appropriate folders.
In one embodiment, the system tracks the user's request to create a time-elapsed rule, by adding the rule to a time-elapsed rule list. The time-elapsed rule consists of, one or more message matching criteria (i.e. from: email address), time-elapsed duration (i.e. 5 days), action to be taken after such duration (i.e. move to some folder) and optionally, other parameters which need to be satisfied before such action takes place (i.e. message needs to be read first). Whenever new messages are received, the system checks for messages that match the criteria in its time-elapsed rule list. The message identifier (ID) of matching messages are added to a Message ID list, which the system will use to flag messages that match time-elapsed rules, but are not yet actioned upon. During specific intervals, or when the email application is launched, or other related events, the system may perform an email scan to identify messages with message IDs that are in the Message ID list, where the time-elapsed rule is due and any optional parameters are met. The system will then take the action specified in the time-elapsed rule that applies to this message and then remove this message's message ID from the message ID list. A message ID in this invention refers to any method by which the email system or application uniquely identifies this message, a preferred method in the invention uses Integer identifiers that are incremented for each new message in the system.
In one embodiment, a view of a folder listing messages in it will mark messages for which the message ID is listed in the message ID list with a visual cue to the user to let the user know that the message matches a time-elapsed criteria and action will be taken on that message when the time-elapsed criteria and parameters are met.
In an embodiment of the invention, there are two types of time-elapsed rules that can be created: Simple and Advanced 202. In the Simple method, the user only needs to define four basic criteria: The email address that this rule applies to 203, the folder that the email will be moved to after the predefined time has elapsed 204, the time-elapsed length 205 and an option to only move the message after the message has been read or marked read 206. Other permutations and criteria may be added, but the basic premise is that the rules apply to messages matching a specific criteria present in the message, a predefine time-elapsed (which may Include but not limited to the time after the message has arrived, created, sent), the action to take at or after such time and any other pre-conditions that need to be met before such action is taken.
In
Integration With Existing Email Applications:
The embodiment of the invention discussed in the previous section does not differentiate between whether the time-elapsed rule system is directly integrated into the email client or is integrated via an external architecture such as a plugin, application programming interface (API) or some other methods familiar to those skilled in the art.
The preceding discussion would be adequate for those skilled in the art to directly integrate the time-elapse function into an email client. However, in cases where a plugin or API is used the process might not be so straightforward—it is the aim of this discussion to address integrating with an existing email client via an architecture such as a plugin or API.
Microsoft Outlook is an email client that provides numerous avenues to customize and enhance its function. These functions include ActiveX, Outlook Object Model (OOM), Collaborative Data Objects (CDO) and Component Object Model (COM). While it is straightforward to implement the most of the time-elapsed functionality via OOM, CDO or COM, certain aspects of the invention may be more difficult to implement this way, such as the enhanced drop-down menu (114 in
However, Microsoft Outlook in particular also gives the ability to the user to create folders which display HTML pages (the page points to a URL). It is an object of this invention to allow for the integration of a new user-interface directly into the user-interface of the email client (Outlook). In one embodiment of the invention that uses this approach, the “folder view” (112 in
Claims
1. A computer implemented method of managing electronic emails, the method comprising:
- detecting receipt of an email, received over a communications network, from a sender for an email account of a recipient;
- executing, via a processor, upon the receipt of the email, an instruction based on a rule defined by the recipient prior to receipt of the email, the rule specifying deletion of emails from the sender upon elapse of a defined time period, wherein the elapse of the defined time period becomes satisfied at a future time; and
- deleting the email from the sender upon elapse of the defined time period.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising an action of moving the email to another location, performed after elapse of the predefined time period.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one additional condition set by the user is satisfied before performing the deletion of the email.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein the additional condition relates to the email being marked as read.
5. The method of claim 3 further comprising the step of displaying an identifier associated with the email within a list of emails, the identifier indicating that the action is scheduled to be performed at a future time based on satisfying the at least one condition.
6. The method of claim 5 wherein the identifier visually indicates the at least one condition and/or the action.
7. The method of claim 1,
- wherein creation of the rule comprises the recipient selecting at least one email in a plurality of emails displayed in the recipient interface and selecting at least one menu option that triggers the recipient interface to display (1) a window containing the sender of the at least one email, (2) an option to set the defined time period for the sender, and (3) a confirmation control, and
- wherein the rule results in emails from the sender that arrive at different times being deleted at different times, each email from the sender being deleted after elapse of the predefined time period from receipt of each of the at least one email.
8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
- detecting receipt of a second email, received over a communications network, from the sender for an email account of a recipient;
- executing, via a processor, upon the receipt of the second email, an instruction based on the rule defined by the recipient prior to receipt of the email, the rule specifying deletion of emails from the sender upon elapse of a defined time period,
- wherein the elapse of the defined time period becomes satisfied at a future time;
- wherein the defined time period for the email is measured from receipt of the email; and
- deleting the second email from the sender upon elapse of the defined time period, wherein the second email is deleted at a different time than the first email but after the same predefined time.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein all rules defined by the recipient to delete received emails in the future use the same predefined time period.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein different rules defined by the recipient to delete received emails in the future use different predefined time periods.
11. The method of claim 1, wherein the defined time period for the email is measured from receipt of the email.
12. A computer implemented method of managing electronic emails, the method comprising:
- detecting receipt of an email, received over a communications network, from a sender for a user's email account;
- executing, via a processor, an instruction based on a rule defined by the recipient before receipt of the email to delete the email upon elapse of a defined time period associated with the sender in the rule, wherein a future expiration time for the email is determined when receipt of the email is detected, the future expiration time being a predefined time period after receipt of the email;
- wherein the first sender is identified by an email address; and
- deleting the email upon elapse of the first defined time period.
13. The method of claim 12,
- wherein the rule is created upon receipt from the user of a request to create the rule and the rule comprises an identity of the sender and the defined time period;
- wherein, upon the selection by the recipient of at least one email in a plurality of emails and at least one option, the user interface is triggered to display to the user both the identity of the sender of the at least one email and at least an option to set the first defined time period, which is to be associated with the sender; and
- wherein the rule is added to a rule list.
14. A computer implemented method of managing electronic emails, the method comprising:
- detecting receipt of a first email in an email inbox of a user, received over a communications network, from a sender;
- detecting receipt of a second email in the email inbox of the user, received over a communications network, from the sender;
- executing, via a processor, an instruction based on a rule defined by the recipient before receipt of the first email to delete the first email upon elapse of a defined time period associated with the sender in the rule, wherein a first future expiration time for the first email is determined when receipt of the first email is detected, the first future expiration time being a predefined time period after receipt of the first email;
- executing, via a processor, an instruction based on the rule to delete the second email upon elapse of a defined time period associated with the sender in the rule, wherein a second future expiration time for the second email is determined when receipt of the second email is detected, the second future expiration time being the predefined time period after receipt of the second email and being different from the first future expiration time;
- wherein the sender is identified by an email address;
- deleting the first email at the first future expiration time and
- deleting the second email at the second future expiration time.
15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:
- receiving, from the user, a selection of the defined time period, wherein the defined time period identifies the duration that will elapse between receipt and deletion of emails received from the sender;
- generating a rule for the user's email account, wherein the rule comprises the identification of the first sender and the first defined time period associated with deletion of emails received from the sender;
- providing a deletion indicator in an email list view of the user's inbox interface for emails marked for deletion; and
- activating the deletion indicator for emails marked for deletion, wherein said activation effects display of deletion criterion associated with said emails marked for deletion.
Type: Application
Filed: Feb 1, 2018
Publication Date: Jun 7, 2018
Inventor: Justin Khoo (San Francisco, CA)
Application Number: 15/886,765