Web based email control center

Abstract

Accessing web sites on which the user has an account and providing notification of changes at the site, and improved electronic mail management is provided, allowing all email to be collected and forwarded from a central site to other email addresses or allowing for the user to view the email at the central site. The user may assign individual email addresses to any number of uses, for example, an individual email address for use in communicating with a particular commercial web site.

1 . A method, comprising: 
 generating a unique email address when registering with each of multiple web sites;    receiving emails from the multiple web sites at an email control center;    identifying and sorting the emails according to the web sites from which the emails were received; and    forwarding one or more of the emails to a user's email account in accordance with instructions provided by the user to the email control center.    
   
   
       2 . A method, comprising: 
 generating an email address to correspond with a user and a network site; and    supplying the email address to the network site as a contact email address of the user.    
   
   
       3 . The method as recited in  claim 2 , wherein at least one of the generating and supplying is conducted automatically in response to a request from the network site for the contact email address of the user.  
   
   
       4 . The method as recited in  claim 2 , wherein the generating and supplying are conducted automatically in response to a request from the network site for the contact email address of the user.  
   
   
       5 . The method as recited in  claim 2 , wherein the generating comprises adding one or more alphanumeric characters with a predetermined email address portion.  
   
   
       6 . The method as recited in  claim 5 , wherein the predetermined email address portion is a high level domain name to which the alphanumeric characters form a string concatenated as a prefix to the predetermined email address portion.  
   
   
       7 . The method as recited in  claim 6 , wherein the high level domain name identifies a central network site.  
   
   
       8 . The method as recited in  claim 6 , wherein the string associates the network site and the user.  
   
   
       9 . The method as recited in  claim 2 , further comprising: 
 receiving at a central site an email from the network site; and    processing the email according to the supplied contact email address of the user.    
   
   
       10 . The method as recited in  claim 9 , wherein the processing includes processing the email according to one or more user preferences.  
   
   
       11 . The method as recited in  claim 9 , wherein the processing comprises sorting the email with other user information or automatically forwarding the email to a further email address of the user.  
   
   
       12 . The method as recited in  claim 11 , wherein the other user information comprises at least one of a second user email, a change notification associated with the user or a status notification associated with the user.  
   
   
       13 . The method as recited in  claim 2 , wherein the generating and supplying is performed by a browser.  
   
   
       14 . The method as recited in  claim 2 , wherein the network and the central site are connected via the Internet.  
   
   
       15 . The method as recited in  claim 2 , wherein the user can suspend use of the supplied contact email address.  
   
   
       16 . The method as recited in  claim 2 , further comprising supplying the unique email address of the user to a further network site as a contact email address.  
   
   
       17 . A system, comprising: 
 generating means for generating an email address to correspond with a user and a network site; and    supplying means coupled to the generating means for supplying the email address to the network site as a contact email address of the user.    
   
   
       18 . The system as recited in  claim 17 , further comprising: 
 receiving means coupled to the supplying means for receiving at a central site an email from the network site; and    processing coupled to the supplying means for processing the email according to the supplied contact email address of the user.    
   
   
       19 . The system as recited in  claim 17 , wherein the user can suspend use of the supplied contact email address.  
   
   
       20 . A computer readable storage medium storing program code for causing a computer to perform the steps of: 
 generating an email address to correspond with a user and a network site; and    supplying the email address to the network site as a contact email address of the user.