Identifying and using identities deemed to be known to a user

Identifying And Using Identities Deemed To Be Known To A User

The present invention relates to network communication.

With the advent of the Internet and falling computer prices, many people are communicating with other people through computers interconnected by networks. Many other communication media have evolved to facilitate such communication between computer users.

This application is hereby incorporated by reference to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 60/457,320, filed March 26, 2003, and U.S. Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 60/488,376, filed July 21, 2003, 35 USC §119 (e) claim priority under the Regulations.

In one aspect, a list of persons associated with the user is maintained. An inference that any person is associated with the user is made based, at least in part, on whether the random person is included in the second random person's contact list. And, the second arbitrary person is not a user. The estimated person is added to a list of persons related to the user, and the list is used to control the appearance of communication between the user and other persons included in the list.

In another aspect, a list of persons associated with the user is maintained. An inference that any person is associated with the user is made based, at least in part, on registering said first person associated with another person in a contact list. In addition, the access list is not configured by the user for direct access. The estimated person is added to a list of persons related to the user, and the list is used to control a communication aspect between the user and other persons included in the list.

In another aspect, a list of persons associated with the user is maintained. An inference that any person is associated with a user is made based, at least in part, on a characteristic of one or more contact lists associated with the other user. The lists associated with the other user include a communication identifier selected by the other user. The estimated person is added to a list of persons related to the user, and the list is used to control a communication aspect between the user and other persons included in the list.

Implementations include one or more of the following descriptions. For example, a person may be included in a user's contact list, and the user's contact list may be a friend list.

Communication may include email communication. And, the presumption that any person is associated with the user may be based, at least in part, on positive user behavior associated with an email communication from the arbitrary person. The positive action includes sending, replying, forwarding, storing an email to the person, copying an email received from the random person, moving the email from the first folder to the second folder, or receiving an email from the random person. This may include keeping the email open for a period of time. When the positive action includes moving an email from a first folder to a second folder, the first folder may be a receiving folder, and the second folder may be a folder other than a delete folder or a spam folder.

The inference that any person is associated with the user may be based, at least in part, on sensing a communication between the user and the random person. The communication may be instant message communication.

Inferring that any person is associated with the user may include sensing the user's action to mitigate against factors that would otherwise be used to infer any person associated with the user. The user's action may include taking an action to report a communication from the arbitrary person as spam, the user taking an action to add the arbitrary person to a blacklist, or the user taking an action to report the communication from the arbitrary person to a blacklist. This may include taking action to move the communication to a spam folder or a delete folder.

Persons related to the user may not be persons distrusted by the user. The persons associated with the user may be persons known by the user.

Use of the list may include using the list as a white list to avoid spam filtering of communications received from persons on the list. Using the list may include using the list to limit communications received from persons on the list to the communications. The communication may be an email or an instant message.

The use of the list may be used to filter the display device of emails, such that emails from persons on the list are displayed on the display and emails from persons not on the list are not displayed on the display. This may include using lists. The use of the list may include using the list to filter the display device of emails, such that emails from persons not on the list are displayed on the display without showing emails from persons on the list on the display. may include using Use of the list may include using the list to limit the instant messaging interface indicating the user's online presence to the instant messaging interface associated with persons on the list.

The use of the list includes an indication that the content of the communication is inappropriate for a teenage or child customer user to filter communications from persons not on the list, operating in conjunction with parental control means. This may include using the list as a white list.

Filtering a communication may include blocking communication from persons not on the list when the content of the communication includes an indication that it is inappropriate for a teen or young customer user. Filtering communications may include placing communications from people not on the list in a spam folder when the content of the communications includes an indication that the content is inappropriate for a teen or young customer user. The spam folder may be locked to the teenage or child customer user.

Inferring that any person is associated with the user may be based, at least in part, on including the arbitrary person in a contact list of any person registered with the user's contact list. Inferring that a person is associated with the user may be based, at least in part, on including the person in a contact list of any person that the user has added to the user's friends list.

The implementation of the above-described techniques may include hardware, method or process, computer software on a computer-accessible medium.

The detailed description of one or more implementations is set forth in the description below and in the accompanying drawings. Other features will become apparent from the detailed description, drawings and claims.

1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a typical networked computing environment.

2 is a flowchart showing a process of maintaining and using a list of known people.

3 is an exemplary diagram illustrating an interface for designating a white list and a black list.

4 is an exemplary diagram illustrating an interface for an address book.

5 is an exemplary diagram showing an interface for an instant message customer program.

6 is an exemplary diagram illustrating an interface for reading an email message.

7 is an exemplary diagram illustrating an interface for writing an e-mail message.

8 is a flowchart illustrating a process of estimating that another user's connection is known.

9, 10, and 11 are exemplary views showing an interface for managing an e-mail message.

12 is an exemplary diagram showing an interface for setting and modifying mail and spam control means.

13, 14, and 15 are exemplary diagrams illustrating an environment in which current information on the Internet can be limited when using a list of known people.

16 is a flow chart showing the process of filtering communications sent to teenage and child customers.

Persons that the user is assumed to know or be related to will be determined using a number of techniques. For example, the user may manually designate the persons known to him individually by manually changing the address book, friends list or white list. Alternatively or additionally, the persons known to the user may be inferred by observing the user's behavior. For example, persons to whom the user has sent an e-mail may be regarded as persons known to the user. Likewise, storing a message from any person may be a signal that the user knows that person.

This information about people the user knows is used in relation to the user's communication. For example, the presentation of an email may only indicate to the user an email from people on a list of known people. Names on the list can be added to a white list, and the list of people known thereby can be used to limit the email allowed to only people the user knows or vice versa. Furthermore, the list can be used to restrict access only when a user is present. And, the access may be provided only to people the user knows.

Referring to FIG. 1 , a typical networked computing environment 100 supports communication between computer users. Computer users are geographically distributed and communicate using customer systems 102 . The network 104 is interconnected with the customer system 102 . Customer system 102 may be connected to a modem or direct internetwork connection (eg, a transmission control protocol and through various communication media such as those using Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)).

For example, each of the customer systems 102 may be a general purpose computer, personal computer, special purpose computer, workstation, server, device, component, other device or command capable of executing commands in response to commands in a defined manner. may be implemented using a combination of the above capable of executing an instruction in response to For example, customer system 102 may receive instructions from a software application, program, some code, device, computer, computer system, or combination thereof. And, as described above, directly or independently or collectively. Such instructions may take the form of one or more communication programs that facilitate communication between users of the customer system 102 . For example, such communication programs may include email programs, instant message (IM) programs, file conversion protocol (FTP) programs, and voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) programs. The instructions may be embodied permanently or temporarily, in any form of a machine, component, device, storage medium, or propagated signal that may be transmitted to the customer system 102 .

Customer system 102 includes a communications interface (not shown) used by communications programs to send communications over network 104 . The communication may include email, audio data, video data, general binary data or text data (eg encoded in ASCII format). The customer system 102 also includes one or more input devices, such as a keyboard, mouse, stylus, or microphone, as well as one or more output devices, such as a monitor, touch screen, speaker, or printer.

The network 104 typically includes a series of inlets interconnected through a connection system. Examples of the network 104 include the Internet, wide area networks (WANs), local area networks (LANs), analog or digital wired and wireless telephone networks (eg, public switched telephone networks (PSTN)), integrated information networks (ISDN), digital Subscriber Line (DSL) or other wired and wireless networks. The network 104 may include a plurality of networks or secondary networks. And, for example, each of the networks may include a wired/wireless data path.

In addition, the host server 106 may be connected to the network 104 and may be used to facilitate direct or indirect communication between the customer systems 102 . Like the customer system 102, the host server 106 may be a general purpose computer, personal computer, special purpose computer, workstation, server, device, component, etc. capable of executing commands in response to commands in a defined manner. may be implemented using devices or combinations of the above capable of executing instructions in response to instructions. For example, the host server 106 may receive instructions from a software application, program, some code, device, computer, computer system, or combination thereof. And, as described above, directly or independently or collectively. These instructions may take the form of one or more communication programs. For example, such communication programs may include e-mail programs, instant message (IM) programs, file conversion protocol (FTP) programs, and voice packet network (VOIP) programs, and the like. The instructions may be embodied permanently or temporarily, in a machine, component, device, storage medium, or some form of a propagated signal that may be transmitted to the host server 106 . In addition, it includes a communications interface (not shown) used by communications programs to transmit communications over the network 104 . The communication may include email, audio data, video data, general binary data or text data (eg encoded in ASCII format).

Each customer system 102 has one or more associated users. And, the user of the customer system 102 would like to have an aspect of communication with other users managed based on whether the other users are known. To facilitate such management, a list is maintained. The list includes persons the user is supposed to know. The list is maintained on the customer system 102 , the host server 106 , or other device connected to the network 104 .

The word 'persons' is used in its entirety to refer to an entity that induces communication. However, the communication may take place with an entity other than a person. Communication may take place with a company, organization, or system that is not itself a person. For example, the email may be sent to a technical support group at a computer software company. The word 'persons' is used in its entirety to more generally refer to any entity that can trigger communication, including entities that are not real people. Moreover, when 'persons' are described as known, it means at least one of the various communication identifiers known to them, whether or not the persons or entities are actually known or not.

The communication identifier is an identifier of a person used to communicate with the person. For example, the communication identifier may be an address such as an email address, screen name, or Internet Protocol (IP) address, and may be a number such as a phone number or VoIP number. In one implementation, this communication identifier is stored in a list of known persons. Storing the communication identifier in the list helps to easily recognize a communication from a known person. This facilitates control of the communication modality depending on whether the sender is known. Therefore, the words 'persons' or 'person' should be understood to have a meaning that includes any identifier of a person or organization.

Referring to Figure 2, process 200 is used to maintain and use a list of persons known to the user. A list of persons known to the user is stored (202). A communication identifier is stored in the list to indicate the known persons.

The user may manually add 210 to the list of known persons. Eventually, the user may explicitly designate a communication identifier as known (212). For example, a graphical user interface (GUI) may be provided that allows a user to enter a communication identifier. Alternatively, there may be a voice-based interface that allows a communication identifier to be added to the list of known persons by speaking. Such an interface may allow a user to indirectly expand the list of known persons by allowing them to add to a contact list such as, for example, a customer dispatch list, address book or friends list.

However, the user may wish to manually add a person directly to the contact list rather than just the list of known persons. An interface may optionally appear ( 214 ) to allow the user to confirm that the manually entered communication identifier has been added to the list of known persons. The confirmation may be enabled by means of a GUI that allows the user to select the entered communication identifier for which the user actually wishes to be included in the list of known persons. This confirmation may occur after a predetermined number of communication identifiers have been entered. Alternatively, it may occur at logon or logoff to seek confirmation of persons entered during a previous online period. Then, the identifiers identified by the user are added to the list ( 216 ). If no confirmation interface exists, all entered communication identifiers are added to the list of known persons. Optionally, there may be an interface that allows the user to directly enter an identifier into the list of known persons.

Conversely, the communication identifier may be estimated as a person based on the user's behavior ( 220 ). First, a communication identifier known to the user is estimated (222). For example, if an email message is sent to a communication identifier, the communication identifier may be assumed to be known. If an instant messaging program is used, the communication identifier of the person with which the user is communicating may be designated as known to the user.

A known communication identifier may be inferred based on the user's interaction with the received message. For example, also, if a message from the communication identifier is read, replies, forwarded, stored or printed, the communication identifier may be assumed to be known. Likewise, if the message is moved from the receiving folder to a folder for deletion or spam, or if the message remains open for a certain period of time, the communication identifier that sent the email message can be designated as known.

In addition, the known communication identifier may be estimated based on evidence excluding the user's behavior. For example, persons designated as known to persons known to the user may be designated as known to the user. For example, if an arbitrary person B is designated as a person known to the user A, the persons designated as known to the arbitrary person B may be designated as known to the user A. For example, the way this could be implemented is to designate persons in the address book and/or friends list of the arbitrary person B as known to the user A.

When estimating known persons, an action may be considered to cancel the interface for which any person is known ( 224 ). For example, an email received from a random person may be forwarded to a designated email address to log spam. And, then the assumption that the user knows the arbitrary person can be canceled. As another example, if any person is included in the explicit black list of persons with whom communication does not occur, the interface with which the arbitrary person is known may be revoked or created by the user or network administrator.

After the known communication identifier has been estimated, it may optionally appear 226 to allow the user to verify that the estimated communication identifier is actually known. The confirmation may be enabled by means of a GUI that allows the user to select a presumed communication identifier that the user actually wants or knows to be included in the list of known persons. Such verification may occur after a predetermined number of communication identifiers are assumed to be known. Alternatively, it may occur at logon or logoff to seek confirmation of persons identified during a previous online period. Then, the identifiers identified by the user are added to the list ( 228 ). If no confirmation interface exists, the presumed communication identifier is added to the list of known persons.

The list of estimated communication identifiers may be stored as part of the user's address book or contact list. That is, the user's address book or contact list may be manually personalized based on the estimated communication identifier. For example, the presumed communication identifier may be added to a transparent group (ie, not visible by the user) in the user's address book or contact list. Optionally, the estimated communication identifier may be added to a group visible to the user.

Branches 210 and 220 may occur simultaneously or sequentially. After at least one branch has occurred, the user may optionally view a list of the known persons. Then, the user may delete other users who are no longer known or required (230). In addition, the communication identifier in the list of known persons may optionally be used 232 to find another communication identifier for that person. For example, the e-mail address of any person may be obtained from a parser associated with the screen name. Similarly, if the email address is known, it can be used to get the screen name. The screen name, e-mail or predetermined communication identifier may be used to determine whether the known person communicates with the user or another way the user communicates with the known person.

In this regard, the list may be used to control an aspect of electronic communication between the user and the other users based on whether or not the communication identifiers of the other users are known ( 234 ). For example, within an email system that implements spam filtering, email addresses of known persons may be added to a white list, wherein the white list contains email addresses that do not need to be filtered and otherwise treated as spam. specify As another example, if a user's address book or contact list is manually personalized, the list of estimated communication identifiers added to the address book or contact list, together with the communication identifier explicitly entered into the contact list by the user, is , can be used as a white list for spam filtering.

Also, the email addresses of the known people may be used to filter or sort the email display to more prominently display emails from people on the list than emails from people not on the list. For example, the user may indicate that only emails from known persons are displayed. In this case, only emails from people on the list of known people appear on the email display. Optionally or additionally, emails from known persons may be clearly marked on the list, while e-mails from unknown persons may not be clearly marked. Another way to unambiguously indicate known persons, for example, includes sorting all emails from known persons in a portion of the display device at the beginning or at the end of an email list.

An acquaintance's email address can be used to limit received emails to only people the user knows. Similarly, the IM screen names of people you know can be used to limit who can see your presence information to those people you know. That is, other users are limited from seeing whether or not the user is online, even though they know the user. In addition, some services, such as ICQ (Instant Message Service) and America Online, display online presence information through IM friend lists and other channels. The display of such online presence information may also be limited as described further below.

In addition, by determining multiple communication identifiers as described above, aspects of user communication over a complex different message medium may be controlled. For example, aspects of user communication using, for example, a combination of email and instant message clients may be controlled using an acquaintance list.

Figures 3-5 show a typical way in which acquaintances can be explicitly assigned by entering them into a contact list. The contact list may be, for example, a white list, an address book or an instant message friend list. People added to one or more contact lists are added to the next known people list.

Referring to FIG. 3 , the customer dispatch list interface 300 allows for passive addition of the communication identifier to the list of acquaintances through the detailed description of the white list or the black list. A white list refers to email addresses that do not need to be filtered so that email messages from these addresses do not pass through spam filters and are delivered to users. A blacklist, on the other hand, refers to email addresses that must be filtered so that email messages from these addresses are not treated as spam or viewed by users. The customer dispatch list interface 300 allows the user to explicitly point to communication identifiers as known by adding them to a white list. Identifiers placed on the white list are added to the known people list.

Selection of radio button 302 indicates specification of a black list, while selection of radio button 304 indicates specification of white list. Only one of the radio buttons 302 and 304 can be selected at a time. The communication identifier may be defined in the text field 306 . The communication identifier entered in the text field 306 may be added to the black list or white list by clicking on the "Add" button 308, depending on whether radio button 302 or radio button 304 is selected. This action will add the communication identifier entered in text box 310, along with all other previously entered communication identifiers.

A communication identifier can be selected from a list included in text box 310 by clicking on the communication identifier. Clicking the "Delete" button 312 thereafter will delete the communication identifier from the list. Any changes made to the blacklist or whitelist may be saved by clicking on the "Save" button, and any changes may be canceled or abandoned using the "Cancel" button 316 .

Referring to FIG. 4 , the address book interface 400 considers the passive addition of a person to the list of known persons through adding the lists to the address book. Each listing in the address book contains information about a particular person, including that person's communication identifier. The address book interface 400 allows a user to explicitly point to communication identifiers as known by adding them to lists in the address book. The option prohibits the addition of currently added identifiers or, when the option is selected, prohibits all input identifiers from being added to the list of known persons.

The address book interface 400 includes a contact list 406 listed in contacts in the address book. All listings within the selected category and/or matches of the current search condition are listed by name in the contact list 406 . The illustrated contact list 406 includes three lists: a list 408a of "Kevin Green", a list 408b of "quoteomatic", and a list 408c of "zolaonaol".

The address book interface 400 also includes a personal information list 410 for displaying personal information of a list in the address book. Selecting a list from such a list in the contact list 406 causes the corresponding person's information to be displayed in the personal information list 410 . For example, Kevin Green's selection of list 408a enumerates his personal information in personal information list 410 . Personal information includes his personal name (412; Kevin Green), email address (414; kg@somewhere.com) and category 416; Uncategorized meaning that listing 408a is not located in a category. Other types of information including different communication identifiers may be included in the personal information list 410 .

Address book interface 400 also includes buttons 418-422 for adding, removing, and changing lists in the address book. The list may be added to the address book by clicking on the "Add" button 418 . This will bring up a dialog where the required information for the new listing in the address book can be entered. The current list can also be changed by selecting a list from these lists in text box 406 and then clicking on the "Edit" button 420 . This will bring up a dialog with information from the current list. This information is subject to change and may be added to it. Finally, the current list may be deleted from the address book by selecting a list from this list in text box 406 and then clicking the "Delete" button 422 . Any communication identifiers added to the address book through the user of the address book interface 400 are considered known, and thus they are added to the list of known people.

Lists in the address book can be separated into different categories. The address book interface allows the user to view all listings within a particular category; It also allows the user to see all listings in the address book regardless of category. Valid categories are listed in a drop down category selection box 420 . Selecting a category name from the category selection box 402 will filter the settings of the list in the address book to include only those belonging to the selected category. Selecting "all" from the category selection box 402 will include all listings in the address book. A set of listings in the address book may be searched using a search text box 404 . A search condition may be entered in the search text box 404 . The set of lists is filtered to include those lists that satisfy the search criteria entered in the search text box 404 . The list shown is all lists in the address book because the option "All" was selected from the selection box, and no search condition was entered in the search text box 404 . So the address book contains only three lists listed in the contact list 406 .

Referring to FIG. 5 , the friend list interface 500 considers the passive addition of a person to the known person list through the addition of a screen name to the friend list. A screen name is a communication identifier for a person in an instant messaging system. Messages are linked to users of the instant messaging system using their screen names. A friend list for a user of an instant messaging system is a list of screen names of persons with whom the user communicates. The friend list interface 500 allows the user to explicitly point to communication identifiers as known by adding them to his or her friend list. These identifiers are then added to the list of people you know.

The friend list interface 500 includes a text box 502 containing a list of friends with the screen name "InternetAmm". The friends list includes a number of screen names. The list of friends in the friend list interface 500 includes the screen name "radomcontact2" 504a, the screen name "Boss" 504b, the screen name "Mom" 504c, the screen name "Dad" 504d, and the screen name " Brother" (504e).

The friend list may be divided into one or more friend groups, and each friend may belong to one of the friend groups. When the IM client program for a person appearing in the friends list is able to receive communications (ie, a state commonly referred to as "currently"), the screen name of the friends in the friends list is displayed or is currently unavailable or otherwise unavailable. Otherwise, it is visually distinguished from other peers who do not have the same status. In the interface shown, the current friends have their screen names displayed under the Friend Groups heading to which they belong. The buddy group heading also includes the number of screen names from the buddy group currently logged into the instant messaging system and the total number of people in the buddy group. For example, the buddy group heading 506a states that only one out of ten members of the buddy group named "Buddies" is logged into the system. That one member is a user with screen name 504a because screen name 504a is listed under the Friends Groups heading 506a. On the other hand, the friend group heading 506b indicates that only one of the three members of the "Co-Workers" friend group is logged in, and that member is the user with the screen name 504b. Similarly, users with screen names 504c, 504d, and 504e are members of a friend group named "Family" that are logged into the system and only one member is currently not logged in. The friend list interface 500 includes a "set up" button 508 that, when selected, allows the screen name to be added to the displayed friend list. Screen names added to the user's friends list using the friend list interface 500 are considered known to the user and added to the known people list. The address book interface 400 may provide the user with an option to prohibit the user from adding the communication identifier to a list of known people when the identifier is added to the address book. The option will either prohibit the addition of currently added identifiers or, when the option is selected, prevent all entered identifiers from being added to the list of known people.

Exemplary techniques for estimating an acquaintance from a user's behavior will be described with reference to FIGS. 6 to 9 . A user's actions while reading, sending, and managing email can provide clues as to whether the person sending and receiving the email is someone the user knows. Also, the connections of these persons known to the user can be directly estimated by the user. The estimated people are added to the known people list after optional user confirmation.

Referring to FIG. 6 , use of the email reading interface 600 may bring a user a clue of a known person. In use of the email reading interface 600 , the user may perform a specific action while reading the message indicating that the user knows who the message was sent to. In contrast, the user can perform certain actions that indicate that the user does not know who sent the message. If the sender of the e-mail is estimated to be a person known to the user based on these actions, the person who sent the e-mail is added to the list of known persons.

Email reading interface 600 includes two main parts 602 and 604 showing details of the message currently being read. Part 602 lists header information of the message currently being read. The header information includes the sender address 606 , the recipient address 608 , the subject of the message 610 , and the time 612 at which the message was received. The message shown was sent by kg@somewhere.com at 10:24 AM on 9/4/2003 to InternetAnn@aol.com with the subject "Hi". Part 604 contains the body of the message, in this case "So, how are you?".

At the bottom right of the displayed message is a series of buttons 614-630 that enable actions based on the displayed message. For example, "Reply" button 614 invokes an interface for writing a reply to the sender of the displayed message. Similarly, the "deliver" button 616 invokes an interface for forwarding the displayed message. The "Reply All" button 618 has the same function as the "Reply to" button 614, except that it links the reply message to all recipients of the displayed message.

The "Add Address" button 620 adds a list to the address book for the sender of the displayed message. The list includes a sender address (606). The "Report Spam" button 622 sends the message to a service that functions to block spam email messages. "Print" button 624 sends a message to the printer. The "save" button 626 expands with two options: to save the message to the host server and to save the message locally. "Keep As New" button 628 marks the displayed message as never read, and "Delete" button 630 deletes the message immediately, or moves the message to a temporary storage location. can

The user's actions while interacting with the e-mail reading interface 600 give rise to the assumption that the user knows or does not know the sender of the message he is reading. If the user is deemed to know the sender of the message, the sender's email address is added to the list of known people. For example, replying to a message by clicking on the "Reply" button 614 may support the assumption that the sender is an acquaintance. Also, pressing the "deliver" button 616 to forward the message may support the assumption that the sender knows the message as well as all people to whom the message has been delivered. Similarly, the "Reply All" button 618 may support the assumption that the sender and all other recipients are known people.

Leaving interface 600 open for a period of time (eg, 30 seconds) is another action that supports the assumption that the sender is an acquaintance.

A number of techniques may be used to determine whether a sender is presumed to be an acquaintance based on the actions described above. For example, the sender may be presumed to be an acquaintance simply based on the user performing a single action that supports the assumption that the sender is an acquaintance. Alternatively or additionally, the combination of actions may result in the presumption that the sender is an acquaintance. For example, one or several actions may be required to add to a list of people who know the sender. It is also possible to cause any given combination of actions to add the sender to the list of people who know it. That is, any combination may indicate that the communication identifier knows, and when such a combination occurs, the communication identifier is added to the acquaintance list. For example, replying to and saving a message may allow the sender to be added to a list of people who know the sender, but keeping the message new and printing it does not.

As another example, each of the other possible actions may have an associated score indicator of how strongly the action supports what the identifier knows, and a random total score (threshold score) is required to add to the list of people who know the sender. can be That is, actions can be deleted, a total score can be determined from the associated score, and comparison with a threshold score allows to infer whether the person is a person known to the user, and consequently added to the known person list. Implementations of this technique assign a positive score to actions that support the presumption, and a negative score to actions that deny the presumption, requiring a certain plus total score before considering the identifier as a known person. Other methods of user behavior combinations are possible to infer that the sender is known to the user.

When replying to a message using the "Reply All" button 618, all recipients of the message may be unknown, especially when there are a large number of people from whom the original message is copied. Although the message was sent to them to give rise to the general presumption that the characters are acquaintances, additional actions are required to indicate that the people from whom the message was copied are acquaintances. The number of persons from whom the original message was copied may influence the number or combination of additional actions required to add the copied recipients to the list of known persons.

Referring to FIG. 7 , use of the email writing interface 700 may allow people to be added to a list of known people. In use of the email writing interface 700 , the user may perform any action while writing a message indicating that the user knows who the message will be sent to. If the recipients of the email are presumed to be known to the user, they may be added to the list of known people.

Email writing interface 700 includes a number of text fields 702-708 that can be used to specify different parts of a message to be sent. For example, a user may use a text field 702 marked "To" and a text field 704 marked "Together" to specify recipients of a message. The user may also specify the subject of the message in the "Subject" text field 706 . Finally, the user can write the body of the message in the body text field 708 .

A series of buttons 710-716 to the right of text fields 702-708 control how the message specified by text fields 702-708 should be handled. Clicking the "Send Now" button 710 immediately processes the message and forwards it to the specified recipients. Clicking the "Send Later" button 712 processes the message for later sending to the intended recipients. "Address Book" button 714 calls up address book interface 400 . The address book interface 400 may be used to specify the recipient of the message. An email address from a list in the address book can be used to place people in text fields 702 and 704 that contain the recipients of the message. Clicking the "Print" button 716 sends a message to the printer.

A user's actions while using the email writing interface can lead to the assumption that the intended recipients of the message being written are known to the user. If the user is presumed to know the people to whom the message will be sent, the people entered in these text boxes 702 and 704 will be added to the known people list. For example, use of a "Send Now" button or a "Send Later" button to send a message that is being written results in the presumption that the recipients of the message listed in text fields 702 and 704 are known. Likewise, printing the message with the "print" button 716 may raise the assumption that the intended recipients are known. Also, the address book interface 400 invoked by the "address book" button 714 can be used to manually add a list to the address book, which will result in being added to the acquaintance list as described above. .

If the recipients are presumed to be known, then they are added to the list of known persons. An individual action of the user while using the email writing interface 700 that gives rise to the presumption that the recipients are known causes the recipient to be added to the list of known recipients, or a combination of actions, as described above, is added to the known recipient list. can indicate that it should be.

Email reading interface 600 and email writing interface 700 may also include optional buttons that allow a user to manually add people with whom they are communicating to a list of known people unless people are automatically added in the manner described above. have. For example, clicking a button in the email reading interface 600 would cause the sender of the message to be added to a list of known people. Likewise, clicking a button in the email writing interface 700 will add the recipient of the email to a list of known people.

Referring to FIG. 8 , process 800 may be used to estimate a person having a certain number of splits from the user as a person known to the user. A split diagram between two lists describes the relationship between these lists. Typically, characteristics of a user's contact list (eg, address book, friend list, and/or white list) are evaluated to determine the frequency required for a connection or relationship between two users.

For example, recipient A may list user B in recipient A's address book, user B may list user C in user B's address book, and user C may list sender D in user C's address book. can be listed. Here, the sender D is connected to the recipient A by the separation diagram 2 (user B and 1 and user C and 2). Recipient A is related to user C by degree 1 (user B), and user B is separated from sender D by degree 1 (user C). Recipient A and User B, User B and C, User C and Sender D are each separated by a degree of separation of 0.

A contact list is maintained for the user 802 . The contact list may be, for example, a personally maintained list or lists such as an address book, an instant message friend list, and/or a white list. The remainder of process 800 will be described using an address book, which is an example of a contact list. The users of the user's address book are added to the user's acquaintance list (804).

Next, the users connected to the user (ie, reaching a certain degree of separation) are identified and added to the user's known list. To this end, the address book of each contact in the user address book is accessed (806). This address book is generally not configured for direct access by users. That is, the user generally does not access another person's address book, such as the accessor's address book in the user's address book (the user's address book is configured to be accessed directly by the user).

A contact in the user's accessor's address book (ie, a contact separated by the separation diagram 1) is added to the next known person list 808 . If another degree of separation is desired ( 810 ), the degree of separation is increased to allow access ( 806 ) of the accessor's address book separated from the user with the degree of separation 1 and to be added to the list of people known by the accessor in this address book. When an accessor is added to the known people list, the accessor's separation from the user is also added. The addition of accessors continues (810) until a predetermined degree of separation is reached. Once a predetermined degree of separation is reached, all contacts within that predetermined degree of separation from the user are assumed to be known to the user (814).

The predetermined degree of separation may be a system variable, or, in some implementations, allow the user to set the predetermined degree of separation. For example, the user may be presented with an interface that enables the user to determine whether to use a degree of separation and, if so, how much separation should be used. Optionally, the predetermined degree of separation may be a system variable and may be settable by a user. For example, the system may include a default degree of separation adjustable by the user if he wishes.

Process 800 may prevent the acquaintance list from being updated if any user associated with the intended user updates their contact list. The above means that if a user related to the intended user adds a contact to the user's contact list, the new contact cannot be reflected in the intended user's known list. This situation may not be an excessive loss, and the known people list is used as a kind of white list that excludes specific emails from spam filtering. However, periodic or aperiodic repetition of process 800 may alleviate this situation. Another way to alleviate this situation is to use an update system, which tracks changes in the contact list and updates the list of acquaintances in an incremental fashion or for updates. The process 800 is updated upon re-execution upon triggering or, if an update occurs.

By using the e-mail management interface 900 shown in FIG. 9, the known person list may be added. The user's manipulation of the email management interface 900 may result in a particular person being known to the user. Conversely, the user may perform a specific operation indicating that the user does not know a specific person. When people become known to the user through these manipulations, the people are added to the known people list.

The two main components of the email management interface 900 are the folder list 902 and the message list 904 . The folder list 902 includes the different folders in which messages are stored. If a folder is selected from the folder list 902 , the contents included in the selected folder are displayed on the message list 904 . In this case, a folder called "New Folder" is selected from the folder list 902 and its contents are displayed in the message list 904 . The drop-down selection box 906 may filter the messages displayed in the message list 904 according to the sender of the message. If all persons are selected in the selection box 906 , all messages in the new folder may be displayed in the message list 904 . In this case, the messages displayed in the message list 904 are the kg@somewhere.com message 908 and the noone@fr.com message 910 delivered on September 4, 2003. Clicking on a message from the message list 904 with a mouse and dragging it into the folder list 902 saves the message into the folder according to the name of the current location of the mouse, such The operation is to delete the message from the folder selected in the folder list 902 .

The buttons shown in a row at the bottom of the message list 904 allow the user to perform a specific operation on a message in the message list 904 . For example, a "read" button 912 creates an email reading interface 600 for a message selected from the message list 904 . The message selected from the message list 904 can be saved to the hard disk of the local machine or the hard disk of a remote server by clicking the "save" button 914 . The "keep new" button 916 causes the selected message to still be marked as unread. The "report spam" button 91 sends a specific message to the service principal responsible for preventing spam messages in the message selected from the message list 904 . The "Delete" button immediately deletes the selected message or moves the selected message to an area where the deleted message is temporarily stored. The user's operation of using a folder, message, or button included in the e-mail management interface 900 may cause a specific person to be added to the known person list. Moving a message between the different folder lists 902 may indicate a sender or a recipient of the message. For example, dragging message 908 from the "New Folder" folder to a folder other than the Spam or Deleted folder may infer that the user knows the sender of the message. Opening a message through the read button 912 may be assumed to know the sender of the message. Pressing the save button 914 or pressing the "keep new" button 916 may result in assuming that the user knows the sender of the message. On the other hand, the spam report button 918 and the delete button 920 may result in not notifying the user or the recipient to the user. Similar to that shown in FIG. 6 , an individual operation using the email management interface 900 or a combination of several operations may result in informing the user of persons. Persons known to the user may be added to the list of known persons after the user's additional confirmation procedure.

10-12 illustrate the preferred use of the acquaintance list to control aspects of the user's communication. The acquaintance list may be used to control the communication aspect of the user using an email or instant messaging client or the like.

As shown in FIG. 10 , the known person list may be used to control the email displayed on the email management interface 900 . The email management interface 900 includes a list of folders 902 in which messages can be stored. When a folder is selected from the folder list 902 , the contents of the selected folder are displayed in the message list 904 . In this case, the folder selected from the folder list 902 is called a new folder, and the contents of the selected folder are displayed on the message list 904 .

The drop-down selection box 906 may filter the messages displayed in the message list 904 according to who the sender of the message is. A case in which an option of a person I know is selected in the selection box 906 will be described. In this case, messages of users who are not in the list of people known to the user are excluded and displayed. Messages received from people on the acquaintance list are displayed in the message list 904 , whereas messages received from senders not included in the acquaintance list are not displayed in the message list 904 .

According to the example shown in FIG. 9 . Message list 904 may display messages 908 from kg@somewhere.com and messages 910 from noone@fr.com included in the new folder. The email address kg@somewhere.com is included in the acquaintance list, and the email address noone@fr.com is not. When a person I know is selected from the selection box 906 , the message 910 is filtered out of the messages displayed in the message list 904 . In this case, the only message displayed is the message 908 received from kg@somewhere.com. Thus, the acquaintance list may be used as a function of receiving only emails from users listed in the acquaintance list.

According to FIG. 11 , the acquaintance list may be used to control email messages displayed on the email management interface 900 in a manner opposite to that shown in FIG. 10 . The email management interface 900 includes a list of folders 902 in which messages can be stored. When a folder is selected from the folder list 902 , the contents of the selected folder are displayed in the message list 904 . In this case, the folder selected from the folder list 902 is called a new folder, and contents included in the folder are displayed on the message list 904 .

The drop-down selection box 906 may filter the messages displayed in the message list 904 according to the sender of the message. A case in which an option of an unknown sender is selected in the selection box 906 will be described. Contrary to the method performed in FIG. 10 , the selection of this option excludes messages received from users included in the acquaintance list and displays them. In other words, messages received from people included in the acquaintance list are not displayed in the message list 904 , whereas messages received from people not included in the acquaintance list are not displayed in the message list 904 . ) is indicated in

For example, as shown in FIG. 9 . Message list 904 may display messages 908 from kg@somewhere.com and messages 910 from noone@fr.com included in the new folder. The email address kg@somewhere.com is included in the acquaintance list, and the email address noone@fr.com is not. When an unknown sender is selected from the selection box 906 , the message 908 is filtered out of the messages displayed in the message list 904 . In this case, only the message 910 received from noone@fr.com is displayed. Thus, the known person list may be used as a function of receiving only emails from unknown users who are not listed in the known person list.

As shown in FIG. 12 , the email control interface 1200 enables additional control over the user's email message by the known person list. A user performing control through the email control interface 1200 may be selected by a user selection box 1202 . Options 1204 to 1224 of FIG. 12 provide various methods for filtering received e-mail.

Options 1204 - 1212 of Figure 12 allow the user to define the sender of the e-mail that the selected user receives. Option 1204 allows the user to receive e-mails from all senders. By selecting option 1204, the selected user receives e-mails sent from any user, and receives all e-mails regardless of whether they are listed in the acquaintance list. Option 1206 allows the user to only receive emails from America Online (AOL) members. By selecting option 1206, the selected user can only receive emails from AOL's customers, while all other messages are blocked. Option 1208 allows the user to receive emails only from people they know. By selecting option 1208, the selected user filters e-mails received by the acquaintance list. That is, if a message from a user listed in the acquaintance list is permitted, the remaining messages are blocked.

1210 The option allows the user to block all e-mails from the sender. By selecting the 1210 option, all e-mails sent to the selected user are blocked. Option 1212 allows the user to use a custom sender list to determine whether or not to receive e-mail. The customer dispatch list includes a white list and a black list. Messages received from persons displayed on the white list are displayed to the user, and messages received from persons displayed on the black list are blocked by the user. The options 1204 to 1202 may be mutually exclusive.

1214 The option blocks email messages with pictures or files attached. Selecting option 1214 blocks all messages containing pictures or files. Options 1216 and 1218 define actions to be taken by the user on blocked messages. 1216 option permanently deletes blocked messages. Selecting the 1216 option will delete all blocked messages immediately, leaving the user with no chance to view the blocked messages. 1218 option moves blocked spam messages to a special folder designated for spam. Selection of option 1218 causes the blocked message to be placed in the spam folder. The user has the opportunity to view the blocked message even after it has moved to the spam folder. A third option (not shown) allows the blocked messages to be kept in a temporary holding folder. The folder stored in the temporary storage folder may be deleted after a certain amount of time that can be selected by the user has elapsed. The 1216 , 1218 , and the third option may be mutually exclusive.

1220 Options to 1224 control the content included in the mail received by the user selected by the selection box 1202 . Option 1220 enables filtering of incoming emails using spam filters. Selecting this 1220 option makes it possible to filter emails according to whether the message is spam or not. The acquaintance list can be used as the spam filter when determining whether a message is spam or not. For example, the spam filter may use the known list as a white list when determining whether to keep the message. Messages from persons marked on the white list may be accepted, while messages from persons not marked on the list may not be accepted. Alternatively, the white list can be used to spam filtering communications from users marked on the white list, while spam filtering communications from users not marked on the white list. . As another example, the spam filter may use the acquaintance list to assign a spam score of incoming messages. Messages from people not on the acquaintance list may be assigned a higher spam score than messages from people on the list. Messages determined to be spam are delivered to the user's spam mailbox, and non-spam messages are delivered to the user's main mailbox.

1222 An option may determine whether to filter the email based on whether the incoming email message contains one or more clickable hyper links or Uniform resource locator (URL) addresses. If option 1222 is selected, the message containing the clickable URL address delivered to the user is classified as spam, and the spam message is not delivered to the user's main mailbox. A second option (not shown) for handling messages with respect to clickable URL addresses is that messages containing URLs indicating unsuitable or controlled content to be subordinated are forwarded to the user's spam folder, and other messages to the user delivered to your main mailbox. 1224 The option determines whether to filter the incoming email message according to whether it contains any words included in a particular custom word list. If the 1224 option is selected, messages containing words included in the custom word list are delivered to the user's spam folder, and messages not included in the custom word list are delivered to the user's main mailbox.

The known person list may be used together with the filtering performed by the 1222 and 1224 options, so that the operation according to the 1222 and 1224 options may not be performed with respect to the message from the known person. In other words, a message meeting the criteria indicated by options 1222 and 1224 may be sent to the spam folder, except when the message is from an acquaintance. For example, a message including a URL address may also be received. Typically, if option 1222 is selected, messages containing URL addresses are placed in the spam folder. However, when a message including the URL address is received from an acquaintance, the regular message is not delivered to the spam folder but is normally delivered.

Email control interface 1200 provides the save button 1226 and cancel button 1228 . The save button 1226 saves any changes made to the 1204-1224 options for the user selected in the selection box 1202, while the cancel button 1228 discards changes to the options. and restore the previous settings.

In addition to the uses for the acquaintance lists discussed above in FIGS. 10-12, there are other uses for users' communication via instant messaging clients. For example, an IM screen name of an acquaintance can be used to limit instant messages or to request chatting with people the user knows. In addition, the IM screen name can be used to restrict anyone who knows the user from viewing information regarding whether the user is connected or not. This function is to restrict people other than the person the user knows from ascertaining whether the user is online (ie whether the user has access to the IM system). Referring to FIG. 5 , since InternetAnn exists in the list of people known to randomcontact2, information on whether or not randomcontact2 is being accessed is disclosed. Other people who have not listed InternetAnn in their acquaintance list are not displayed on the friend list interface 500 , because information on the existence of InternetAnn is restricted from being disclosed to other people.

The acquaintance list may be more generally used to limit the display of online presence information. 13 to 15 show additional environments in which information on whether or not online presence can be restricted using the list of known people.

13 is a diagram illustrating that any service such as, for example, America Online (AOL) allows a user to search for another user. The search area to search for the user indicates whether a particular member is online or not. As shown, interface 1300 includes a window 1310 that displays search results according to specific search criteria (eg, a member whose name is John Doe in his or her profile). The search result provides a list of members meeting the search criteria. The search result provides information about the screen name, member name, and location of each member according to the search criteria. The 1314 icon provides information about online presence. A 1314 icon is displayed in window 1310 next to members currently online.

According to FIG. 14 , services such as America Online (AOL) display information on whether or not there is an online presence in a member profile of a user. Information on the member profile of the user may be displayed by selecting the search result shown in FIG. 13 , and as another example, any screen that the user may encounter while using a communication service such as chatting or message board. You can request information about the member profile by name. The information about the member profile may be requested in various ways according to the service.

When a user requests another user's member profile, an interface 1400 as shown in FIG. 14 is provided. The interface 1400 includes the screen name for the user of the provided profile. The interface 1400 also provides a specific number of buttons 1404 that allow the user requesting the profile to perform a specific action for the user of the provided profile. The interface 1400 provides an area 1406 that displays online presence information. The profile shown represents an example indicating that the member is currently online and is currently in a chat room called louisianam4m. The area 1406 indicates that the member is not online if not online.

15 shows an example of providing an instant message and a web page for displaying information on whether a specific online service provider is online or not. As shown, the web browser 1500 may provide a search page 1502 for ICQ where any user searches the ICQ user's profile. Profiles 1510 and 1520 indicate search results for a profile in which the word John Doe is included in an arbitrary part of the profile. Icons 1512 and 1522 are a part of each of the profiles 1510 and 1520 and provide information on whether a specific user is online or not. The icons 1512 and 1522 may have a specific color when the user is online, and may have a different color when the user is not online.

In the above-described communication environment, the information on whether the online presence exists may be limited according to the known person list. The online presence information may be limited to all or some of the persons known to the user who can view the online presence information of the user. For example, the icon 1314 may be excluded when displaying the search results to a person unknown to the user whose screen name is Hotxjock28. Similarly, a person unknown to the user whose screen name is Hotxjock28 may not provide any information as to whether the area 1406 is online or not. As a result, the icons 1512 and 1522 indicate that another person unknown to the user appearing through the profile is not online, or information on whether the user of the profile is online cannot be provided. inform

In addition, if the potential recipient requests information regarding the online presence through an instant message application or web page, member profile, member search result, etc., the online presence information is limited or may not be provided. In an environment in which the online presence information is provided, the online presence information may be provided as a response to a request for receiving the online presence information. In the above environment, when the request is received, it may be determined whether or not to provide information on whether the potential recipient is online according to whether the potential recipient is included in the acquaintance list. The information on the online presence may be limitedly provided or not provided when the potential recipient is not included in the known person list.

As another embodiment, the online presence information may be limited or not provided to potential recipients who do not have the online presence information. In a specific environment, the online presence information may be generally broadcast to users. Even in this case, information on whether the user is online may not be broadcast to a user who is not listed in the specific user's acquaintance list.

Another use of the acquaintance list is to block suspicious content provided to teenagers or children when specific communications are provided to teenagers or children from unknown persons. In many cases, inappropriate communications, such as pornography, are provided to teens or children, such as via email. There are many indications that the communication is inappropriate or may be associated with inappropriate content. For example, these indications could be a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) address included in an email, or the like. Another indication is whether the communication contains vulgar or obscene words or phrases, etc. For e-mails provided to teenagers or children from unknown persons, these signs are strong evidence that the e-mail is inappropriate.

For example, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) such as AOL provide a master account owner who can allocate accounts of teenagers or children. Signs of inappropriate communication with people listed on the acquaintance list can be used to limit inappropriate content and the like being sent to teen or child accounts.

16 is a flow chart illustrating a procedure for filtering communications sent to teens or children. The accounts of teenagers or children may be provided by the method described above, and a list of users known as teenagers or children is maintained ( 1605 ). If a communication is received from teenagers or children (1610), a sender of the communication is determined (1615). The communication may be, for example, an email or an instant message.

A determination is made 1620 to determine whether the communication includes indications that the communication is inappropriate for a teenage or child user. As described above, a URL address may be included in the content of the communication or a specific word may be included in the content of the communication.

If the communication is identified for such indications and is not included in the list of people known to the sender of the communication, the communication is filtered (1625). The filtering may be blocking communication or deleting communication. As an additional or additional method, the filtering may be such that the communication moves to a secure area that is inaccessible to teenagers or children and only accessible by the master account owner. The spam folder may also be restricted, for example the teens or children may not be able to see it, or it may be restricted via a password.

Thus, if an email sent from an unknown person (e.g., someone not on the list of known people) to a teenager or child contains a URL address, or contains a specific word or context, the email is automatically deleted. or may be blocked. If the spam folder is designed to be blocked by teenagers or children (for example, when a password is required to view the folder), inappropriate content can be prevented from being exposed to teenagers or children. have.

The present invention described above is not limited to specific hardware or software settings. Also, the present invention may be implemented using hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software. The method or steps described above may be performed by a computer program executed by a programmable computer having at least one processor and at least one data storage system. The above program depends on the person who wants to perform the program. It may be implemented by a high level programming language or may be performed by a low level programming language such as assembly language.

The above-described programs will generally be stored in a computer usable storage device or storage medium (eg, CD-rom, RAM, magnetic disk) or the like. When the processing apparatus of the computer reads and executes the program by the apparatus, the instructions of the program will cause the computer to perform the various operations described above.

Although an example of implementation according to the present invention has been described above, it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that various implementation methods exist in addition to the above-described example. Accordingly, an example of another implementation of the present invention can be described within the scope of the claims of the present invention.

Included within the above detailed description