Converting electronic messages to message posts

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9252973-B1
Application number	US-201213585790-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Aug 14, 2012
Priority date	Aug 14, 2012
Publication date	Feb 2, 2016
Grant date	Feb 2, 2016

Abstract

A system and method is disclosed for converting electronic messages to message posts. An electronic message client may be integrated with a social network. An electronic message composed using the electronic message service may be designated for one or more recipients who are also members of a social network associated with a sender of the electronic message. On determining that the one or more recipients are members of the social network; at least a portion of the electronic message may be provided as a message post to a message stream associated with the one or more recipients.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
receiving, in a first system, an electronic message designated for one or more recipients;
in response to receiving the electronic message, querying an online social network to determine whether the one or more recipients are members of the online social network;
making a determination, based on the querying, that the one or more recipients are members of the online social network;
identifying one or more social groups in the online social network for the one or more recipients;
prompting a sender of the electronic message for a confirmation to post at least a portion of the electronic message; and
based on determining that the one or more recipients are members and receiving an indication of the confirmation, converting the at least a portion of the electronic message to a message post, and
providing, in a second system, the message post to a message stream associated with the one or more social groups, wherein the second system is associated with the online social network.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein identifying one or more social groups comprises:
determining that the one or more recipients are members of a plurality of social groups; and
providing the plurality of social groups to the sender for selection,
wherein the one or more identified social groups are selected b the sender from the plurality of social groups.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein identifying one or more social groups comprises determining that the one or more recipients are in a predefined social group related to the sender, the method further comprising:
providing the message post to the message stream for display to only members of the predefined social group.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein identifying one or more social groups comprises:
determining that the one or more recipients are not in a predefined social group related to the sender; and
prompting the sender to add the one or more recipients to a user-defined social group.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein identifying one or more social groups comprises:
determining that the one or more recipients are not in a predefined social group related to the sender; and
associating the recipients with a default social group if the sender has sent more than a predetermined number of electronic messages to the recipients.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the electronic message is further designated for other recipients, and wherein identifying one or more social groups comprises:
determining that the one or more recipients are not in a predefined social group related to the sender;
determining that the other recipients of the electronic message are in a user-defined social group and that the one or more recipients were included in electronic messages to the other recipients on at least a predetermined number of other occasions; and
associating the one or more recipients with the user-defined social group.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining that the one or more recipients are not communicatively connected with the sender in the online social network; and
sending a request to the one or more recipients to connect with the sender.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein converting the electronic message to the message post comprises:
providing at least a portion of a message body of the electronic message as content of the message post; and
providing at least a portion of a message subject of the electronic message as a heading of the message post.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 , wherein converting the electronic message to the message post comprises:
providing an attachment received with the electronic message as an attachment to the message post.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 , wherein the portion of the message body includes one or more links to one or more resources stored at a remote location, the method further comprising:
formatting the content of the message post to display the one or more links as they are displayed by the message body.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 , wherein the portion of the message body includes a representation of one or more videos or images, the method further comprising:
formatting the content of the message post to display one or more preview icons corresponding to the one or more videos or images.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a reply related to the electronic message from a replying recipient;
receiving an indication from the replying recipient to provide the reply to the message stream; and
providing at least the portion of the reply to the message stream as a reply post to the message post.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12 , further comprising:
in response to receiving the reply, prompting the replying recipient to post the reply to the message stream, wherein the indication is received in response to the prompting.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving an indication that the electronic message was forwarded by a forwarding recipient; and
providing an indication to one or members of the online social network that the forwarding recipient shared the message post.

15. A system, comprising: a processor; and
a memory, the memory including instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
facilitate receiving, from a first system, an electronic message designated for one or more recipients;
in response to the receiving of the electronic message, facilitate querying an online social network associated with a sender of the electronic message to determine whether the one or more recipients are members of the online social network;
facilitate prompting the sender for a confirmation to post at least a portion of the electronic message; and
based on a determination that the one or more recipients are members of the online social network and receiving an indication of the confirmation, facilitate converting the at least a portion of a message body of the electronic message to a message post, and providing for display the message post to the one or more recipients in a second system, wherein the second system is associated with the online social network.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein causing the processor to facilitate making the determination that the one or more recipients are members comprises causing the processor to:
facilitate processing one or more address fields of a message header related to the electronic message to determine one or more electronic addresses corresponding to the one or more recipients; and
facilitate making a determination that the one or more electronic addresses are associated with one or more corresponding members of the online social network.

17. The system of claim 15 , wherein at least a portion of a subject of the electronic message is provided with the message body as a heading of the message post.

18. The system of claim 15 , wherein an attachment received with the electronic message is provided with the message body as an attachment to the message post.

19. The system of claim 15 , wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the processor to:
facilitate making a determination that the one or more recipients are in a predefined social group related to the sen

Assignees

• Lin Jennifer W
• Wu Ping
• Google Inc

Inventors

• Lin Jennifer W
• Wu Ping

Classifications

• H04L12/58 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L51/066 Primary

  Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression · CPC title

• H04L51/52 Primary

  for supporting social networking services · CPC title