Patent Application
20190372926
Electronic Mail (“email” or “e-mail”) is a technique of exchanging messages between users using computers, smart phones, or other suitable types of electronic devices. Email exchanges operate across computer networks such as the Internet or an intranet. Today's email systems are typically based on a store-and-forward model utilizing email servers to accept, forward, and store email messages. Users or their computers can connect to email servers or webmail interfaces via a computer network to send or receive email messages.
This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.
An email message typically includes a message header, a message body, and optionally one or more attachments appended to the email message. A message header can include structured data fields individually containing source/destination addresses (e.g., “To:” or “From”), subject, and/or other suitable information describing the email message. A message body can contain data, such as in plain text or Hypertext Markup Language text, representing information conveyed in the email message. Attachments can include Microsoft Word® documents, images, videos, or other suitable types of files.
According to the store-and-forward model of email processing, when an email message is sent via an email server of a sender, a copy of the email message including the email header, the message body, and the one or more optional attachments is first received and stored on the email server in, for example, an “outbox” folder of the sender. Similarly, when an email message is received at the email server, a copy of the email message is first stored on the email server in, for example, an “inbox” folder of a recipient. The email server can then forward a copy of the received/sent email message to a recipient (or the recipient's email server) via a computer network, such as the Internet.
To provide convenience for inputting email addresses of recipients during email composition, certain email systems provide a feature according to which an email server can provide email address suggestions based on accumulated contact relevance data such as email addresses of other users a sender has previously communicated with. For example, the email server can accumulate contact relevance data representing how often (e.g., frequency, a total number, etc.) or how recent (e.g., two days ago or two years ago) the sender has sent and/or received email messages to/from a particular recipient. Based on the accumulated data and/or other suitable criteria, the email server can provide email address suggestions to the sender when or even before the sender starts typing an email address in, for example, a “To:” field in an email client. For instance, if the sender often sends email messages to “jeff” at “jeff@amazon.com,” the email server can provide a suggestion to the sender (e.g., “jeff@amazon.com”) when the sender clicks on the “To:” field in the email client, or when the sender types only an “j” in the “To:” field. The sender can then select the suggested email address (e.g., by clicking on the suggestion or pressing “Enter” on a keyboard) without having to type in the entire email address.
The foregoing convenience, however, may not be available when a sender is new to an email system (e.g., a corporate email system). For example, a sender can be a new user of an email system by, for instance, subscribing to email services provided by the email system, or installing an email client for accessing the email system. As such, there is no or little history of any previous email addresses the sender has communicated with. When the sender starts to use the email services, the email system may be unable to provide any email address suggestions of potential recipients. Only after a period of use (e.g., days or weeks), the email system may then provide the suggestions as described above after accumulated sufficient contact relevance data.
Several embodiments of the disclosed technology can provide little or no delay in providing suggestion of email addresses of potential recipients to new users of an email system or service by implementing a reverse index database for accumulating contact relevance data according to email addresses instead of user identifications. In one implementation, an email server can receive an incoming email message from a non-registered email address destined to another email address corresponding to a registered or non-registered user. Even though the non-registered email address does not belong to any registered user, the email server can still create a reverse index record in a database indexed or keyed to the non-registered email address. In the created reverse index record, data representing one or more of a source/destination email address, a date/time of transmission, a size of the email message, and/or other suitable information of the email message can be recorded. In another implementation, when a registered user of the email services sends an email message to the same non-registered email address, the email server can be configured to create another reverse index record keyed to the non-registered email address by recording data representing various parameters of the email message. Thus, over time, the reverse index database can contain multiple reverse index records indexed or keyed to individual non-registered email addresses.
Subsequently, when a new user registers with the email system or service using the previously non-registered email address, the email system can use the non-registered email address as a key to locate all or a part of entries corresponding to the email address in the reverse index database and copy the corresponding reverse index records to a file location (e.g., a recipient cache) to provision the contact relevance data. The email system can then use the information in the reverse index records to provide email address suggestions of potential recipients without any delay. Thus, when the newly user starts typing in the “To:” filed in an email client immediately after registration, the email system can instantly provide email address suggestions. As such, the newly registered user can enjoy the convenience of email address suggestions without spending a period to accumulate the contact relevance data, thereby improving user experience with the email system or service.
Certain embodiments of systems, devices, components, modules, routines, data structures, and processes for automatic image classification in computing systems are described below. In the following description, specific details of components are included to provide a thorough understanding of certain embodiments of the disclosed technology. A person skilled in the relevant art will also understand that the technology can have additional embodiments. The technology can also be practiced without several of the details of the embodiments described below with reference to
As used herein, the term “email server” generally refers to computer dedicated to running such applications that are configured to receive incoming emails from senders and forward outgoing emails to recipients via a computer network, such as the Internet. Examples of such applications include Microsoft Exchange®, qmail, Exim, and sendmail. An email server can maintain and/or access one or more inboxes for corresponding users. As used herein, an “inbox” is a file folder configured to contain data representing incoming emails for a user. The email server can also maintain and/or access one or more outboxes configured to contain outgoing emails and/or other suitable mailboxes. Also used herein, a “recipient cache” generally refers to a file holder that contains records of contact relevance data of a user. In certain implementations, a recipient cache can be located on an email server. In other implementations, a recipient cache can be located on a client device and on an email server. In further implementations, a recipient cache can be located on a client device of the user alone.
Also used herein, the term “contact relevance data” generally refers to data representing contact information of one or more of a person, an organization, a group, a department, a team, or other suitable types of entity that a user has communicated with. In one example, contact relevance data can include data records of email addresses, phone numbers, instant message aliases, social network aliases, or other suitable contact data according to which a user can communicated with other users. Contact relevance data can also include time stamps, a number of messages per period, or other suitable parameters associated with the previous communications. In one particular example, a record of contact relevance data of a user can include one or more email addresses of other users the user has communicated with previously.
In certain implementations, contact relevance data can be organized and stored in a “forward index” database in which contact data of other users a user communicated with previously are indexed or keyed according to an identification of the user. Thus, a search based on the identification of the user can locate contact relevance data of all communications to/from the user. In accordance with embodiments of the disclosed technology, contact relevance data can also be stored in a “reverse index” database in which entries are indexed or keyed to an email address, a phone number, an instant message alias, or other suitable types of contact data. Data in each entry can represent a source or destination from/to which communications has been received/transmitted. For example, a record in the reverse index database can be indexed, keyed, or otherwise identified by an email address and include data that represents one or more other email addresses, user identifications, or other suitable information the indexed email address has either received an email message from or transmitted an email message to.
Further used herein, a “registered user” generally refers to a user who has created a user account with a computing service (e.g., email service provided by one or more email servers in a corporation) by providing, inter alia, information such as user name, contact information, communications preferences, or other suitable types of information. A “registered email address” is an email address that has a corresponding registered user in an email system. On the other hand, a “non-registered email address” is an email address that does not have a corresponding registered user with an account in an email system. For example, a user who is an employee of a company (e.g., Jeff Bezos) is a registered user to an email service of Amazon.com. An email address of Jeff Bezos (e.g., “jeff@amazon.com”) is a registered email address to the email service of Amazon.com. On the other hand, an email address from a different domain, organization, etc., (e.g., “jon@gmail.com”) can be a non-registered email address to the email system at Amazon.com.
Certain email systems can provide a convenience feature to users by offering email address suggestions (or other suitable types of communications addresses) of potential recipients when a user starts typing in a destination address. The user can then select one or more of the suggested email addresses to efficiently complete an email message. Such a convenience feature, however, depends on accumulation of contact relevance data such as email addresses of other users the user has previously communicated with. As such, when a user is a new user to the email service, this convenience feature may not be available for a lack of accumulated contact relevance data.
Several embodiments of the disclosed technology can provide email suggestions of potential recipients for new users with little or no delay by implementing a reverse index database for accumulating contact relevance data of non-registered email addresses. Subsequently, when a new user registers with the email service using the previously non-registered email address, the email server can use the non-registered email address as a key to locate all or a part of entries in the reverse index database and copy the corresponding reverse index records from the database to a file location (e.g., a recipient cache) of the new user to provision the contact relevance data. Thus, when the newly user starts using the email service, for instance, by typing in the “To:” filed in an email client, the email system can instantly provide email address suggestions of potential recipients based on the copied reverse index records. As such, the newly registered user can enjoy the convenience of email address suggestions without having to wait for a period to accumulate the contact relevance data, as described in more detail below with reference to
The client devices 102 can each include a computing device that facilitates corresponding users 101 (shown as “User A 101a,” “User B 101b,” and “User C, 101c”) to access email and other suitable types of computing services provided by the email server 106 via the computer network 104. For example, in the illustrated embodiment, the client devices 102 individually include a desktop computer. In other embodiments, the client devices 102 can also include laptop computers, tablet computers, smartphones, or other suitable computing devices. Even though three users 101 are shown in
The email server 106 can be configured to facilitate email reception, storage, forwarding, and other related functionalities. For example, as shown in
Upon receiving the email 116 from the first user 101a, the email server 106 can store a copy of the email 116 in an inbox 114 on the network storage 112 that correspond to the third user 101c. Subsequently, the email server 106 can forward a copy of the email 116 to the client device 102 of the third user 101c. Even though the email server 106 is described above as being configured to facilitate storing and forwarding emails 116 for both the first and third users 101a and 101c, in other embodiments, additional email servers (not shown) may be utilized to separately facilitate similar functionalities for the first and third users 101a and 101c.
As shown in
In accordance with embodiments of the disclosed technology, the email server 106 can also include a reverse index engine 130 (shown in
Components within a system may take different forms within the system. As one example, a system comprising a first component, a second component and a third component can, without limitation, encompass a system that has the first component being a property in source code, the second component being a binary compiled library, and the third component being a thread created at runtime. The computer program, procedure, or process may be compiled into object, intermediate, or machine code and presented for execution by one or more processors of a personal computer, a network server, a laptop computer, a smartphone, and/or other suitable computing devices.
Equally, components may include hardware circuitry. A person of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that hardware may be considered fossilized software, and software may be considered liquefied hardware. As just one example, software instructions in a component may be burned to a Programmable Logic Array circuit, or may be designed as a hardware circuit with appropriate integrated circuits. Equally, hardware may be emulated by software. Various implementations of source, intermediate, and/or object code and associated data may be stored in a computer memory that includes read-only memory, random-access memory, magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash memory devices, and/or other suitable computer readable storage media excluding propagated signals.
As shown in
The interface component 132 can be configured to detect an incoming or outgoing email message 116 to/from the email server 106. For example, as shown in
The record generator 134 can be configured to generate a reverse index record 110 of contact relevance data 115 in the reverse index database 108 for email addresses that are non-registered. For instance, in the illustrated example in
In the illustrated example in
In accordance with embodiments of the disclosed technology, using the accumulated records 110 of contact relevance data, the email server 106 can be configured to provide immediate email address suggestions of potential recipients when a previously non-registered user 101 (
In response, the registration component 136 can be configured to query the reverse index records 110 in the reverse index database 108 using the “jon@gmail.com” as an index key. In response to locating at least one record 110, the registration component 136 can be configured to copy the queried reverse index records 110 into the recipient cache 113′ in an email folder 114′ corresponding to the first user 101a on the email server 106 as contact relevance data 115′. The email server 106 can then utilize the contact relevance data 115′ to provide email address suggestions of potential recipients to the first user 101a without the first user 101a waiting for a period (e.g., days or weeks) to accumulate sufficient contact relevance data 115′, as described in more detail below with reference to
As shown in
The first user 101a can then select one or more of the suggested email addresses without typing in the entire email address of a recipient. For example, as shown in
As shown in
Even though the disclosed technology is described above in the context of email communications, in other implementations, the same or similar techniques may also be applied to other forms of communications. For instance, instead of email addresses, a reverse index record 110 (
Depending on the desired configuration, the processor 304 can be of any type including but not limited to a microprocessor (μP), a microcontroller (μC), a digital signal processor (DSP), or any combination thereof. The processor 304 can include one more levels of caching, such as a level-one cache 310 and a level-two cache 312, a processor core 314, and registers 316. An example processor core 314 can include an arithmetic logic unit (ALU), a floating point unit (FPU), a digital signal processing core (DSP Core), or any combination thereof. An example memory controller 318 can also be used with processor 304, or in some implementations memory controller 318 can be an internal part of processor 304.
Depending on the desired configuration, the system memory 306 can be of any type including but not limited to volatile memory (such as RAM), non-volatile memory (such as ROM, flash memory, etc.) or any combination thereof. The system memory 306 can include an operating system 320, one or more applications 322, and program data 324. This described basic configuration 302 is illustrated in
The computing device 300 can have additional features or functionality, and additional interfaces to facilitate communications between basic configuration 302 and any other devices and interfaces. For example, a bus/interface controller 330 can be used to facilitate communications between the basic configuration 302 and one or more data storage devices 332 via a storage interface bus 334. The data storage devices 332 can be removable storage devices 336, non-removable storage devices 338, or a combination thereof. Examples of removable storage and non-removable storage devices include magnetic disk devices such as flexible disk drives and hard-disk drives (HDD), optical disk drives such as compact disk (CD) drives or digital versatile disk (DVD) drives, solid state drives (SSD), and tape drives to name a few. Example computer storage media can include volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information, such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data. The term “computer readable storage media” or “computer readable storage device” excludes propagated signals and communication media.
The system memory 306, removable storage devices 336, and non-removable storage devices 338 are examples of computer readable storage media. Computer readable storage media include, but not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other media which can be used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by computing device 300. Any such computer readable storage media can be a part of computing device 300. The term “computer readable storage medium” excludes propagated signals and communication media.
The computing device 300 can also include an interface bus 340 for facilitating communication from various interface devices (e.g., output devices 342, peripheral interfaces 344, and communication devices 346) to the basic configuration 302 via bus/interface controller 330. Example output devices 342 include a graphics processing unit 348 and an audio processing unit 350, which can be configured to communicate to various external devices such as a display or speakers via one or more A/V ports 352. Example peripheral interfaces 344 include a serial interface controller 354 or a parallel interface controller 356, which can be configured to communicate with external devices such as input devices (e.g., keyboard, mouse, pen, voice input device, touch input device, etc.) or other peripheral devices (e.g., printer, scanner, etc.) via one or more I/O ports 358. An example communication device 346 includes a network controller 360, which can be arranged to facilitate communications with one or more other computing devices 362 over a network communication link via one or more communication ports 364.
The network communication link can be one example of a communication media. Communication media can typically be embodied by computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data in a modulated data signal, such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism, and can include any information delivery media. A “modulated data signal” can be a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media can include wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, radio frequency (RF), microwave, infrared (IR) and other wireless media. The term computer readable media as used herein can include both storage media and communication media.
The computing device 300 can be implemented as a portion of a small-form factor portable (or mobile) electronic device such as a cell phone, a personal data assistant (PDA), a personal media player device, a wireless web-watch device, a personal headset device, an application specific device, or a hybrid device that include any of the above functions. The computing device 300 can also be implemented as a personal computer including both laptop computer and non-laptop computer configurations.
From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that specific embodiments of the disclosure have been described herein for purposes of illustration, but that various modifications may be made without deviating from the disclosure. In addition, many of the elements of one embodiment may be combined with other embodiments in addition to or in lieu of the elements of the other embodiments. Accordingly, the technology is not limited except as by the appended claims.
