System and method for analyzing communications

摘要

The invention provides a system and method for analyzing a collection of communication messages. The communication messages may be any one of a collection of electronic mail messages, voicemail messages, instant messaging dialogs and other forms of communications. The collections of communications, such as electronic mail messages, may be selected by a user and then subsequently processed to determine the identity of any of the user's contacts within the communications. The contacts may then be arranged in a relative priority arrangement whereby contacts which have been identified as engaging in prior reciprocal communications with the user are given higher priority. Higher priority may also be given to contacts which engage in more recent communications with the user. Specific contact relationships may be inferred from the communications depending on whether specific contacts are repeatedly mentioned within the communication messages.

主权项

1. A method for analyzing a plurality of communication messages that are directed to a user and that contain communications from a plurality of contacts, the method comprising:
assigning a relative priority ranking to each of the plurality of contacts based on an indication of response rapidity between the user and each of the plurality of contacts.