Practical techniques for reducing unsolicited electronic messages by identifying sender's addresses
View Patent ↗Systems and methods for managing data associated with incoming electronic messages including filtering incoming electronic messages according to the sender's address. In addition, a request/response technique categorizes sender's addresses as authorized, unauthorized, or unconfirmed, which categorizations are stored in associated data structure. The filtering processes and the categorization techniques can be used in connection with any of various methods for populating the data structures that identify sender's addresses associated with authorized and unauthorized senders. In this manner, recipients can effectively cause unsolicited electronic messages to be filtered out. Moreover, the processes generally do not require the recipient to view electronic messages and make decisions regarding whether the senders are to be categorized as unauthorized; rather, the timeliness and accuracy of the senders' responses determine whether specified senders are authorized or unauthorized.
1. In a network system for managing electronic messages for users, the network system having multiple computers that receive incoming electronic messages, a method for managing a data structure that is used to filter incoming electronic messages, comprising the acts of:
at a first client computer, receiving an incoming electronic message that includes a sender's address and is addressed to a first user of the first client computer of the network system;
using an electronic messaging management application having a filtering module and a categorization module, the electronic messaging management application located at the first client computer, categorizing the sender's address as being authorized for sending electronic messages to the first user of the first client computer, unauthorized for sending electronic messages to the first user of the first client computer, or unconfirmed as to whether the sender's address is authorized or unauthorized for sending electronic messages to the first user of the first client computer; and
propagating a categorization of the sender's address specific to the first user of the first client computer to a second client computer of the network system, such that the sender's address is also categorized as being authorized, unauthorized, or unconfirmed with respect to the second client computer, wherein electronic messages directed to a second user of the second client computer are delivered to the second user based on the propagated categorization of the sender's address, wherein propagating the categorization of the sender's address from the first client computer to the second client computer occurs in response to a request from an electronic messaging management application located at the second client computer.
2. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the act of categorizing the sender's address further comprises the acts of:
sending a request to the sender's address, wherein the request is to be answered only by receiving input from a person;
categorizing the sender's address as being authorized if a correct response is received within a predetermined period of time;
categorizing the sender's address as being unauthorized if an incorrect response is received within a predetermined period of time;
categorizing the sender's address as being unconfirmed if no response to the request is received within a predetermined period of time; and
according to the categorization of the sender's address, modifying a data structure in which the categorization of sender's addresses is maintained.
3. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the act of propagating the categorization of the sender's address comprises the act of propagating the categorization of the sender's address from a data structure maintained at the first client computer to data structures that are remote with respect to the first client computer.
4. The method as recited in claim 3 , wherein the data structures that are remote with respect to the first computer are maintained at other client computers of the network system.
5. The method as recited in claim 3 , wherein the data structures that are remote with respect to the first computer are maintained at one or more server computer associated with the other client computers.
6. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the act of propagating the categorization of the sender's address comprises the act of propagating the categorization of the sender's addresses from a data structure that is associated with the first user of the first client computer and is maintained at a server computer to other data structures that are associated with users of other client computers and are also maintained at said server computer.
7. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the act of propagating the categorization of the sender's address comprises the act of propagating the categorization of the sender's address from a data structure that is maintained at a first server computer associated with the first client computer to data structures that are maintained by one or more other server computers that are associated with other client computers.
8. The method as recited in claim 7 , wherein the act of propagating the categorization of the sender's address from the data structure that is maintained at the first server computer comprises the act of peer-to-peer propagation of the categorization of the sender's address from the first server computer to said one or more other server computers.
9. The method as recited in claim 7 , wherein the act of propagating the categorization of the sender's address from the data structure that is maintained at the first server computer comprises the act of hierarchical propagation of the categorization of the sender's address through a hierarchy of servers between the first server and said one or more other server computers.
10. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the act of propagating the categorization of the sender's address comprises the act of propagating the categorization of the sender's address from a data structure that is maintained at a first server computer associated with the first client computer to data structures that are maintained at other client computers of the network system.
11. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising the act of receiving an incoming electronic message addressed to the first user of the first computer and filtering the electronic message based on a categorization of a sender's address included in the incoming electronic message.
12. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the act of propagating the categorization of the sender's address comprises the act of, in response to the sender's address being categorized as being unconfirmed, sending a request to computers that maintain data structures categorizing sender's addresses with respect to other users, so as to request information as to whether the sender's address has been categorized as being authorized or unauthorized with respect to the other users.
13. In a network system for managing electronic messages for users, the network system having multiple client computers that receive incoming electronic messages, a method for managing a data structure that is used to filter incoming electronic messages, comprising, at a first client computer, the acts of:
receiving an incoming electronic message that includes a sender's address and is addressed to a first user of a first client computer;
using an electronic messaging management application having a filtering module and a categorization module, the electronic messaging management application located at the first client computer, categorizing the sender's address as being unconfirmed as to whether the sender's address is authorized or unauthorized for sending electronic messages to an inbox located on the first client computer;
sending a request to a second client computer to determine whether the sender's address has been categorized by the second client computer as authorized, unauthorized or unconfirmed, the second client computer including an electronic messaging management application having a filtering module and a categorization module;
receiving a response from the second client computer containing information regarding a categorization of the sender's address; and
directing the incoming electronic message to the inbox located on the first client computer only if the response from the second client computer indicates that the second client computer categorized the sender's address as authorized.
14. The method as recited in claim 13 , further comprising categorizing the sender's address as being authorized if the response indicates that the second client computer categorized the sender's address as authorized.
15. The method as recited in claim 13 , further comprising categorizing the sender's address as being unauthorized if the response indicates that the second client computer categorized the sender's address as unauthorized.
16. The method as recited in claim 13 , further comprising, upon determining that the response indicates that the second client computer categorized the sender's address as unconfirmed, the acts of:
sending a request to the sender's address, wherein the request is to be answered only by receiving input from a person;
categorizing the sender's address as being authorized if a correct response is received within a predetermined period of time;
categorizing the sender's address as being unauthorized if an incorrect response is received within a predetermined period of time;
categorizing the sender's address as being unconfirmed if no response to the request is received within a predetermined period of time; and
according to a categorization of the sender's address, modifying a data structure in which the categorization of sender's addresses is maintained.
17. In a network system for managing electronic messages for users, the network system having multiple client computers that receive incoming electronic messages through a messaging server, a method for managing a data structure that is used to filter incoming electronic messages at a messaging server, comprising the acts of:
receiving an incoming electronic message that includes a sender's address and is addressed to a first user of a first client computer of the network system;
sending the incoming electronic message to the first client computer of the network system such that the first client computer can use an electronic messaging management application having a filtering module and a categorization module located thereon to determine whether the sender's address is unconfirmed for sending electronic messages to an inbox located on the first client computer;
receiving a request from the first client computer requesting whether the sender's address is categorized as authorized on a second client computer of the network system;
obtaining information regarding whether the sender's address is categorized as authorized by the second client computer on the network system, the second client computer also having an electronic messaging management application having a filtering module and a categorization module; and
sending a response to the first client computer containing information that the sender's address is categorized as authorized by the second client computer on the network system.
18. The method as recited in claim 17 , wherein obtaining information regarding whether the sender's address is categorized as authorized by the second client computer on the network system comprises sending a request to the second client computer of the network system requesting whether the sender's address is categorized as authorized at the second client computer.
19. The method as recited in claim 17 , wherein obtaining information regarding whether the sender's address is categorized as authorized by the second client computer on the network system comprises accessing a database stored at the server containing categorization information for the second client computer.
20. The method as recited in claim 17 , further comprising updating a data structure maintained at the messaging server with a categorization of the sender's address as being authorized specific to the first user of the first client computer.