Generation and use of an email frequent word list

Abstract

Technologies are described herein for generating a mailbox specific frequent word list associated with a mailbox. In one method, an index scan is performed on catalogs to retrieve search data mapping words to emails containing the words. The search data is provided across multiple mailboxes. A universal frequent word list is generated based on the search data. The mailbox specific frequent word list is generated based on the universal frequent word list.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for generating a mailbox specific frequent word list associated with a mailbox, comprising:
 performing an index scan on catalogs to retrieve search data mapping words to emails containing the words, the search data provided across multiple mailboxes;   generating a universal frequent word list based on the search data; and   generating the mailbox specific frequent word list based on the universal frequent word list.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein performing an index scan on catalogs to retrieve search data mapping words to emails containing the words comprises:
 receiving a request for the mailbox specific frequent word list;   upon receiving the request, determining whether the universal frequent word list has been created; and   upon determining that the universal frequent word list has not been created, performing the index scan on catalogs to retrieve search data mapping words to emails containing the words.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein performing an index scan on catalogs to retrieve search data mapping words to emails containing the words further comprises:
 upon determining that the universal frequent word list has been created, determining whether the universal frequent word list is current;   upon determining that the universal frequent word list is not current, performing the index scan on catalogs to retrieve search data mapping words to emails containing the words; and   upon determining that the universal frequent word list is current, proceeding to generating the mailbox specific frequent word list based on the universal frequent word list.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the search data maps each of the words to one or more email identifiers, each of which corresponds to one of the emails. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein generating a universal frequent word list based on the search data comprises:
 determining a word frequency in the search data by counting a number of emails that contain each of the words; and   generating the universal frequent word list by mapping each of the words to the associated word frequency.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the word frequency comprises a ratio between the number of emails in the mailbox that contain each of the words and a total number of emails in the mailbox. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein frequent word list for the mailbox is stored as a compressed folder associated item (“FAI”). 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the catalogs comprise a global catalog created and maintained by an email server across multiple domains. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising generating tailored advertising based on the mailbox specific frequent word list. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising adding at least a portion of the words in the mailbox specific frequent word list to a transcription dictionary, the transcription dictionary adapted to provide a vocabulary enabling a voice transcription application to phonetically map audio sequences to words in the transcription dictionary. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising generating email tags based on the mailbox specific frequent word list, the email tags adapted to associate searchable categories to the emails. 
     
     
         12 . A method for generating a mailbox specific frequent word list associated with a mailbox, comprising:
 receiving a request for the mailbox specific frequent word list;   determining whether a universal frequent word list has been created, the universal frequent word list comprising a mapping of words to corresponding word frequencies across multiple mailboxes;   upon determining that the universal frequent word list has not been created, performing an index scan on a global catalog to retrieve an inverted index mapping words to email identifiers corresponding to emails containing the words;   generating the universal frequent word list based on the inverted index; and   generating the mailbox specific frequent word list based on the universal frequent word list by filtering the words and the corresponding word frequencies associated with the mailbox.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , further comprising:
 upon determining that the universal frequent word list has been created, determining whether the universal frequent word list is current;   upon determining that the universal frequent word list is not current, performing the index scan on the global catalog to retrieve the inverted index mapping words to email identifiers corresponding to emails containing the words; and   upon determining that the universal frequent word list is current, proceeding directly to generating the mailbox specific frequent word list based on the universal frequent word list by filtering the words and the corresponding word frequencies associated with the mailbox.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein receiving a request for the mailbox specific frequent word list comprises receiving the request for the mailbox specific frequent word list through an application programming interface. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the request specifies a minimum value or a maximum value of the word frequencies associated with the words included in the mailbox specific frequent word list. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the request specifies a number of words included in the mailbox specific frequent word list. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the mailbox specific frequent word list is sorted according to the word frequencies. 
     
     
         18 . A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon an application programming interface for generating a mailbox specific frequent word list associated with a mailbox, the API comprising:
 a first object adapted to receive, from a caller application, a request for the mailbox specific frequent word list;   a second object adapted to perform an index scan on a global catalog to retrieve an inverted index mapping words to email identifiers corresponding to emails containing the words;   a third object adapted to generate a universal frequent word list based on the inverted index, the universal frequent word list comprising a mapping of the words to corresponding word frequencies, each of the word frequencies specifying a number of emails that contain one of the words;   a fourth object adapted to generate the mailbox specific frequent word list based on the universal frequent word list by filtering the words and the corresponding word frequencies associated with the mailbox; and   a fifth object adapted to transmit the mailbox specific frequent word list to the caller application in response to the first object receiving the request.   
     
     
         19 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 18 , wherein the caller application is associated with an advertising application adapted to generated tailored advertising based on the mailbox specific frequent word list. 
     
     
         20 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 18 , wherein the caller application is associated with a voice transcription application adapted to add at least a portion of the words in the mailbox specific frequent word list to a transcription dictionary, the transcription dictionary adapted to provide a vocabulary enabling the voice transcription application to phonetically map audio sequences to words in the transcription dictionary.