Systems and methods to provide assistance during user input

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9819765-B2
Application number	US-201213411310-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 2, 2012
Priority date	Jul 8, 2009
Publication date	Nov 14, 2017
Grant date	Nov 14, 2017

Abstract

Systems and methods to provide assistance for completion during user input. In one embodiment, a method includes automatically generating profiles for persons identified in messages, such as incoming and outgoing emails. When a user is typing an input, the profiles are used to identify suggestions for the completion of the user input.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
scanning, by a computer, a set of messages of a user sent to or received from a plurality of persons, the messages comprising a first message from a first person;
generating a plurality of profiles for the persons, each profile comprising a name of a respective person from one of the messages, and at least one of a social network profile name or a link to a social network profile for the respective person, the plurality of profiles including a first profile for the first person;
extracting information from the messages to form search queries, the extracted information comprising a domain obtained from an address of the first message, the domain corresponding to a first website, the search queries including a first query, and the first query comprising search criteria including the domain;
communicating, over a network, with a plurality of servers in an automated way to extract data from the servers, the extracting data comprising querying the servers using the search queries, the extracted data comprising first data obtained from the first website;
storing a respective portion of the data extracted from the servers in each profile of the plurality of profiles, the storing comprising storing the first data in the first profile;
in response to an incomplete input in an input field for a new address of a new message being composed by the user, identifying a set of persons in the plurality of profiles that match the incomplete input, the set of persons including the first person;
determining, using the plurality of profiles, a relevancy score for each person of the set of persons based on a type of communication of the new message, wherein an address for a same type of communication as the new address is given more weight than an address for another type of communication, and the relevancy score further based on types of fields in which addresses of senders and recipients of the messages appear, wherein a weight given for an address in a From field is greater than a weight given for an address in a CC or BCC field; and
presenting to the user a plurality of suggestions to complete the incomplete input based on the set of persons, wherein the suggestions are presented in an order based on the respective relevancy score for each person of the set of persons.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the search queries is selected from the group consisting of a name, a social network profile name, a physical address, an email address, and a telephone number.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein each profile further comprises at least one of a business association or a job title of the respective person.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of messages includes messages received at a user terminal for the user and messages sent by the user from the user terminal.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein one of the names of the persons is identified via the computer automatically querying a server over a computer network.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the server is one of: a web server engine, an online directory, a social network server, or a media-sharing website.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more suggestions are a first set of suggestions, and the method further comprises:
obtaining a second set of suggestions from a message compose window; and
presenting the first and second sets of suggestions in a window.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the first and second sets of suggestions are presented as separate lists.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the messages are email messages.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more suggestions are presented for selection on a browser running on a user terminal remote from the computer.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein each profile of the plurality of profiles further comprises information about the respective person that is available online during creation or updating of the profile for the respective person as a result received from a web search engine or an online directory in response to a search query.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein each profile of the plurality of profiles further comprises information about the respective person that is available on a social network site during creation or updating of the profile for the respective person.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the identifying the set of persons comprises matching the incomplete input to at least one field of the plurality of profiles other than a name field.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the information extracted from the messages comprises a phone number for the first person.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first data comprises contact information for the first person.

16. A system, comprising:
a storage device to store a set of messages for a user, the messages comprising a first message from a first person;
a display device;
at least one processor;
memory storing instructions configured to instruct the at least one processor to:
scan the set of messages, and to identify names of persons from the messages to generate a plurality of profiles for the persons, each profile of the plurality of profiles comprising a name of a respective person, and a telephone number for the respective person, the plurality of profiles including a first profile for the first person;
extract information from the first message to form a search query, the extracted information comprising a domain obtained from an address of the first message, the domain corresponding to a first website, and the search query comprising search criteria including the domain;
communicate with a server to extract data from the server, the extracting data comprising querying the server using the search query, the extracted data comprising first data obtained from the first website;
store at least a portion of the data extracted from the server in a first profile of the plurality of profiles, the storing comprising storing the first data in the first profile;
identify, in response to an incomplete input in an input field presented on the display device for a new address of a new message being composed by the user, a set of persons in the plurality of profiles that match the incomplete input, to present a plurality of suggestions to complete the incomplete input based on the set of persons, and to replace the incomplete input with a suggestion selected by the user from the suggestions, wherein the set of persons includes the first person, and wherein the suggestions are presented in an order based on a respective relevancy score for each person of the set of persons; and
determine, using the plurality of profiles, the respective relevancy score for each person of the set of persons based on a type of communication of the new message, wherein an address for a same type of communication as the new address is given more weight than an address for another type of communication, and the relevancy score further based on types of fields in which addresses of senders and recipients of the messages appear, wherein a weight given for an address in a From field is greater than a weight given for an address in a CC or BCC field.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the identifying the set of persons comprises matching the incomplete input to a plurality of fields in the profiles, the incomplete input matched to at least one field of the plurality of fields.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-readable instructions, which when executed, cause a system to:
scan, by at

Assignees

• Thatcher Gregory Garland
• Jacobson Joshua Robert Russell
• Cort Frank J
• Smith Adam Michael
• Yahoo Holdings Inc

Inventors

• Thatcher Gregory Garland
• Jacobson Joshua Robert Russell
• Cort Frank J
• Smith Adam Michael

Classifications

• G06F16/3334

  Selection or weighting of terms from queries, including natural language queries · CPC title

• G06F16/337

  Profile generation, learning or modification · CPC title

• G06F16/3322

  using system suggestions (G06F16/3325 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06F16/9535

  Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation · CPC title

• G06F3/0237

  using prediction or retrieval techniques · CPC title