Message filtering techniques

摘要

Techniques for reducing the amount of junk e-mail received by a user of an e-mail system. A recipient description containing non-address information is added to an e-mail message. The user has an e-mail filter which has access to information which provides a model of the user. The e-mail filter uses the non-address information and the model information to determine whether the e-mail message should be provided to the user. The e-mail filter further has access to information which provides models of the user's correspondents. If the filter does not provide the message to the user, it uses the non-address information and the model information of the user's correspondents to determine who the message might be forwarded to. A sender of e-mail can also use the model information of the sender's correspondents together with the non-address information to determine who the message should be sent to. The techniques are used in a system for locating expertise.