Context-Based Email Search System Using Relationship Indexing
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current email search systems are inefficient and time-consuming due to the large volumes of emails, requiring users to sift through numerous results and lack effective methods to retrieve specific communications or related data, such as conversation threads, files, and connections, leading to communication overload.
Innovation Solution
A context-based searching system that indexes email communications and related data based on relationships, allowing users to apply various filters and views to quickly retrieve desired information, with the ability to create and save contexts for future use, and support for collaborative searches within groups, utilizing less memory by indexing only at runtime.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If keyword based search is used to search for emails, then the search covers keywords occurring in email headers or bodies, but the user has to come up with creative keywords and the results are too many requiring further time to retrieve
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary indexing system that pre-processes and organizes email data by relationships (senders, recipients, domains, conversation threads) before search. This intermediary index structure mediates between the raw email data and the user search query, enabling fast retrieval without requiring users to craft complex keywords or sift through excessive results.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary action by pre-building indexes of email relationships, senders, recipients, domains, and conversation threads before the actual search occurs. This pre-processing organizes the data in advance, so when a user searches, the results are immediately available from the pre-computed indexes rather than requiring real-time analysis of all emails.
2Ease of operation
If folder based search is used to organize emails by topic, then the user moves emails to containers called folders, but the folder concept is obsolete and tagging cannot be done for all mails
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the email organization system into multiple independent index dimensions: senders, recipients, domains, conversation threads, and attachments. Instead of using a single hierarchical folder structure, each dimension is segmented into its own index, allowing flexible querying across any combination of dimensions without the limitations of traditional folder hierarchies.
Solution Approach 2:
The indexing system provides universal access to all emails through multiple relationship dimensions simultaneously. A single index structure supports searching by sender, recipient, domain, conversation thread, or attachment, making the system multi-functional and replacing the need for separate folder structures for different organization needs.
3Productivity
If current email search engines are used, then emails are returned as results, but the user is interested in people involved in email communications and needs to open each email to find people
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts people information (senders, recipients, domains) from the email content and stores it separately in dedicated index structures. Instead of returning only email results and requiring users to open each email to find people, the system extracts and indexes people data in advance, enabling direct searching for people across all their email communications without opening individual emails.
4Quantity of substance
If users sift through large volumes of emails to find specific communications, then all emails are available for searching, but the process is time consuming and inefficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical process of manually sifting through emails with an automated computational indexing system. Instead of users manually reviewing emails sequentially, the system uses pre-computed indexes of email relationships to instantly retrieve relevant communications, substituting manual mechanical searching with automated data structure queries.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and system for performing email search, the said method comprising of enabling the user to find relations between emails and build network relations and to further retrieve groups based on the relations (and intersections of relations) as per the user's choice; the system comprising of giving and having the user select predetermined options for a search with a further ability to “drill-down” the results with the aid of filters to view further mails/results, and being also able to search on search results and also provide for storing user searches.