Apparatus, system and method of performing mail message thread searches

摘要

A system, apparatus and method that allow a user to perform a search for a thread (i.e., related messages) in a mailbox are provided. To do so, the message for which a search for related messages is to be performed is identified. Since each message has a header that includes a unique message identification number and since each message that is a reply to a previous message has a reference of the previous message in its header, a search may be performed by identifying each message in the mailbox that has a reference to the message identification number of the identified message. In many instances, the search may be performed recursively to obtain all messages that are upstream and downstream of the identified message. Upstream messages are messages that are chronologically before the identified message while downstream messages are chronologically after the identified message.