Processing a received voicemail message

1. In a digital voice communication environment operative to transmit a voicemail message to a client associated with a callee, a method of providing the callee with access to a summary of the voicemail message, the method comprising:

providing a user interface used to interact with the voicemail message that includes controls used in modifying audio attributes of the voicemail message;

displaying on the user interface a bass control for adjusting a bass of the voicemail message, a treble control for adjusting a treble of the voicemail message and a volume control for adjusting a volume of the voicemail message;

displaying on the user interface an overlay button that when selected is used to determine an electronic audio file to multiplex with the voicemail message;

displaying on the user interface a from field that identifies an author of the voicemail message, a to field that identifies recipients of the voicemail message, and a carbon copy field that identifies any further recipients and a subject field and a summary textbox;

determining a type of client device that is accessing the voicemail message; wherein the voicemail message comprises contextual data packets and conversational data packets;

indexing the conversational data packets of the voicemail message used for navigation within the voicemail;

determining when the summary will be created and when the summary will not be created for the voicemail message, comprising accessing a first set of preferences when the type of the client device is a limited-feature device to determine whether or not to create the summary and accessing a second set of preferences when the type of the client device is a feature-rich device to determine whether or not to create the summary;

when the summary is to be created, performing actions, comprising:

identifying when the voicemail includes a specified term;

identifying a set of data that will be included in the summary; wherein the type of client device that is accessing the voicemail message is used in identifying the set of data to be included in the summary;

extracting the set of data that will be included in the summary from the voicemail message; and

making the summary available on the client.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein identifying a set of data that will be included in the summary includes creating a configurable voicemail account that defines preferences of the callee.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein identifying a set of data that will be included in the summary includes indexing packets in the body of the voicemail message.

4. The method as recited in claim 3 , further comprising:

receiving input to modify the audio attributes of the voicemail message; and

using the index to identify the conversational data packets that will be modified.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein extracting the set of data that will be included in the summary from the voicemail message includes using a voice-recognition engine to convert audio to text.

6. The method as recited in claim 5 , further comprising inserting the summary into the body of an email message.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein extracting the set of data that will be included in the summary from the received voicemail message includes using targeted filtering techniques to identify voicemail messages that reference a specified term.

8. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein making the summary available on the client includes inserting metadata that references the summary into the voicemail message.

9. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein making the summary available on the client includes:

determining the capabilities of the client device being used to access a voicemail system; and

converting the summary into a format that may be accessed from the client based on the determined capabilities.

10. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein making the summary available on the client includes providing a user interface where a callee may generate an event to modify audio attributes of the voicemail message.

11. A computer-readable storage medium, excluding a signal, containing computer-readable instructions which, when executed in a client performs a method of allowing a callee to modify audio attributes of a voicemail message, the method comprising:

providing a user interface used to interact with the voicemail message that includes controls used in modifying audio attributes of the voicemail message;

displaying on the user interface a bass control for adjusting a bass of the voicemail message, a treble control for adjusting a treble of the voicemail message and a volume control for adjusting a volume of the voicemail message;

displaying on the user interface an overlay button that when selected is used to determine an electronic audio file to multiplex with the voicemail message;

displaying on the user interface a from field that identifies an author of the voicemail message, a to field that identifies recipients of the voicemail message, and a carbon copy field that identifies any further recipients and a subject field and a summary textbox;

determining a type of client device that is accessing the voicemail message; wherein the voicemail message comprises contextual data packets and conversational data packets;

indexing the conversational data packets of the voicemail message used for navigation within the voicemail;

determining when the summary will be created and when the summary will not be created for the voicemail message, comprising accessing a first set of preferences when the type of the client device is a limited-feature device to determine whether or not to create the summary and accessing a second set of preferences when the type of the client device is a feature-rich device to determine whether or not to create the summary;

when the summary is to be created, performing actions, comprising:

identifying when the voicemail includes a specified term;

identifying a set of data that will be included in the summary; wherein the type of client device that is accessing the voicemail message is used in identifying the set of data to be included in the summary;

extracting the set of data that will be included in the summary from the voicemail message; and

making the summary available on the client.

12. The computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 11 , wherein identifying a set of data that will be included in the summary includes creating a configurable voicemail account that defines preferences of the callee.

13. The computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 11 , further comprising using the index to identify the conversational data packets that will be modified.

14. The computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 11 , wherein:

the user interface is further configured with controls for navigating to any location in the body of the voicemail message;

in response to receiving input to navigate to a specified data packet in the voicemail message;

receiving a set of event data that describes the input generated by the callee; and

using an index to identify a location where playback of the voicemail message will continue.

15. The computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 14 , wherein a control for navigating to a location in the body of the voicemail message allows the callee to forward playback of the voicemail message to a data packet that is subsequent to the current data packet.

16. The computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 14 , wherein a control for navigating to a location in the body of the voicemail message allows the callee to rewind playback of the voicemail message to a previous data packet.

17. The computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 11 , wherein the event data that describes the input generated by the callee includes the identity of a control selected by the callee and the index positions of the data packets where the callee initiated and ended movement of the control.

18. A system, comprising:

a processor and a computer-readable storage medium, excluding a signal;

a user interface used to interact with the voicemail message that includes controls used in modifying audio attributes of the voicemail message;

displaying on the user interface a bass control for adjusting a bass of the voicemail message, a treble control for adjusting a treble of the voicemail message and a volume control for adjusting a volume of the voicemail message;

displaying on the user interface an overlay button that when selected is used to determine an electronic audio file to multiplex with the voicemail message;

displaying on the user interface a from field that identifies an author of the voicemail message, a to field that identifies recipients of the voicemail message, and a carbon copy field that identifies any further recipients and a subject field and a summary textbox;

determining a type of client device that is accessing the voicemail message; wherein the voicemail message comprises contextual data packets and conversational data packets;

indexing the conversational data packets of the voicemail message used for navigation within the voicemail;

determining when the summary will be created and when the summary will not be created for the voicemail message, comprising accessing a first set of preferences when the type of the client device is a limited-feature device to determine whether or not to create the summary and accessing a second set of preferences when the type of the client device is a feature-rich device to determine whether or not to create the summary;

when the summary is to be created, performing actions, comprising:

identifying when the voicemail includes a specified term;

identifying a set of data that will be included in the summary; wherein the type of client device that is accessing the voicemail message is used in identifying the set of data to be included in the summary;

extracting the set of data that will be included in the summary from the voicemail message; and

making the summary available on the client.

19. The system as recited in claim 18 , wherein identifying a set of data that will be included in the summary includes creating a configurable voicemail account that defines preferences of the callee.

20. The system as recited in claim 18 , further comprising inserting the summary into the body of an email message.