Method and apparatus for dynamic prioritization of electronic mail messages

摘要

A method for prioritization of a recipient's electronic mail messages. Messages are displayed in descending order of an associated priority bid. Messages include an initial priority bid and/or a maximum priority bid, e.g., a cash value. An incoming message's initial bid is compared to current bids of previous messages and the bid is increased if it is lower than any previous message's current bid so that it will appear first in descending sorted order, e.g. in the recipient's electronic mail inbox, and thus have priority. Prioritization may continue to permit a previous message to increase its bid until it has the highest priority bid among the messages or until the incoming message has a priority bid higher than the maximum bid of all previous messages or until the incoming mail message reaches its maximum bid. Messages may be displayed in categorized sections and prioritization performed on fewer than all sections.