CN1998202A - Identifying and using identities deemed to be known to a user - Google Patents

Abstract

The people a user is presumed to know or be associated with may be determined using a number of techniques. This information about people that the user knows is used in relation to the user's communications. Furthermore, online presence information for the user is communicated only to potential receivers that are known to the user.

Description

Identify and use an identity believed to be known to the user

priority claim

Pursuant to 35 USC § 119(e), this application claims U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/457,320, filed March 26, 2003, and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/488,376, filed July 21, 2003, both of which Both applications are hereby incorporated by reference.

technical field

This note deals with network communications.

Background technique

With the advent of the Internet and the drop in the price of computers, many people communicate with each other through computers interconnected using a network. Many different communication media have been developed to facilitate such communication between computer users.

Contents of the invention

In one aspect, a list of people associated with the user is maintained. An association of a person with a user is inferred based at least in part on inclusion of the person in a contact list of a second person, where the second person is not the user. The inferred people are added to a list of people associated with the user, and the list is used to control various aspects of communications between the user and other people based on whether the other person is included in the list.

In another aspect, a list of people associated with the user is maintained. An association of a person with the user is inferred based at least in part on the membership of the first person in a contact list associated with another person, where the contact list is not configured to be directly accessed by the user. The inferred person is added to a list of people associated with the user, and the list is used to control various aspects of communications between the user and other people based on whether the other person is included in the list.

In another aspect, a list of people associated with the user is maintained. An association of a person with the user is inferred based at least in part on characteristics of one or more contact lists associated with the other user, wherein the contact list associated with the other user includes a communication identifier selected by the other user. The inferred person is added to a list of people associated with the user, and the list is used to control various aspects of communications between the user and other people based on whether the other person is included in the list.

Implementations may include one or more of the following. For example, the person may be included in the user's contact list, and the user's contact list may be a buddy list.

Communications may include email communications, and an association of a person with a user is inferred based at least in part on positive user actions associated with email communications from a person. Positive actions may include sending an e-mail to a person; replying, forwarding, saving, or printing an e-mail received from said person; moving an e-mail from a first folder to a second folder; The message remains open for a predetermined period of time. Where the positive action includes moving emails from a first folder to a second folder, the first folder may be the Inbox folder and the second folder may be in addition to the Delete or Junk folders folder.

An association of a person with a user is inferred based at least in part on detecting communications between the user and the person. Communications may be instant messaging communications.

Inferring a person's association with a user includes detecting user actions that weaken factors that would otherwise be used to infer a person's association with a user. User actions may include steps taken by the user to report communications from a person as spam; steps taken by the user to add a person to a blacklist; or steps taken by the user to move communications from a person to a spam folder or a delete folder at least one of the steps.

The people associated with the user may be people that the user does not suspect. The people associated with the user may be people known to the user.

Using the list may include using the list as a whitelist to exempt communications received from persons on the list from spam filtering. Using the list may include using the list to limit received communications to those from persons on the list. Communication can be email or instant messaging.

Using the list may include using the list to filter the display of emails such that emails from persons on the list are displayed on the display and emails from persons not on the list are not displayed on the display. Using the list may include using the list to filter the email display such that emails from persons not on the list are displayed on the display and emails from persons on the list are not displayed on the display. Using the list may include using the list to limit instant messaging interfaces showing the user's online presence to those instant messaging interfaces associated with persons on the list.

Using the list may include using the list as a whitelist that operates in conjunction with parental controls to filter communications from persons not on the list when the communication includes a flag indicating that the content of the communication is inappropriate for the teen account user. Filtering communications may include blocking communications from persons not on the list when the communications include a flag indicating that content of the communications is inappropriate for the teen account user. Filtering communications may include placing communications from persons not on the list into a spam folder when the communications include a flag indicating that content of the communications is inappropriate for the teen account user. The spam folder can be locked for teenage accounts.

Inferring that a person is associated with the user may be based at least in part on the person's inclusion in a contact list of a person listed in the user's contact list. Inferring that a person is associated with the user may be based at least in part on the person's inclusion in a contact list of a person listed in the user's buddy list. Inferring that a person is associated with the user may be based at least in part on the person's inclusion in a contact list of a person that the user has added to the user's buddy list.

Implementations of the techniques described above may include hardware, a method or process, or software on a computer-accessible medium.

One or more details of these implementations are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.

Description of drawings

1 is a block diagram of an exemplary networked computing environment.

Figure 2 is a flowchart illustrating a process for maintaining and using a list of known persons.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an interface for manually specifying whitelists and blacklists.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an interface for an address book.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an interface of an instant messaging client.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an interface for reading email messages.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an interface for writing an email message.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a process for inferring contacts of other known users.

9, 10 and 11 are diagrams showing interfaces for managing email messages.

Figure 12 is a diagram showing an interface for setting and modifying mail and spam controls.

13-15 are diagrams illustrating environments in which online presence information may be restricted using a list of known persons.

16 is a flow diagram illustrating a process for filtering communications sent to juvenile or child accounts.

Detailed ways

Various techniques may be used to determine people who are supposedly known to or associated with the user. A user can manually specify people he knows, for example by manually altering an address book, buddy list or white list. Alternatively, or additionally, people known to the user may be inferred by monitoring the user's actions. For example, people to whom a user sends an email can be considered to be people known to the user. Similarly, saving a message from someone can show that the user knows that person.

This information about people known to the user is used in the user's communications. For example, email display may only show the user emails from people on a known people list. The names of people on the list can also be added to a white list, so that a list of known people can be used to limit accepted emails to only those people known to the user, or otherwise. This list can also be used to limit instant message or chat requests to only those people known to the user. Additionally, the list can also be used to restrict access to the user's presence so that access to the presence can only be provided to those persons known to the user.

Referring to FIG. 1, an exemplary networked computing environment 100 supports communication between computer users. Computer users are geographically distributed and communicate using client systems 102 . Network 104 interconnects client systems 102 . Through various communication media, such as a modem connected to a telephone line (for example, using Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP) or Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP)) or a direct interconnection network connection (for example, using protocol (TCP/IP)), the client system 102 is connected to the network 104.

For example, a general-purpose computer capable of responding to or executing instructions in a defined manner, a personal computer capable of responding to or executing instructions, a dedicated computer, a workstation, a server, a device, a component, other equipment, or some combination thereof may be used. Each client system 102 is implemented in some combination. Client system 102 may receive instructions from, for example, software applications, programs, pieces of code, devices, computers, computer systems, or combinations thereof, operating independently or collectively as described herein. These instructions may take the form of one or more communication programs to facilitate communication between users of client system 102 . Such communication programs may include, for example, email programs, instant messaging (IM) programs, file transfer protocol (FTP) programs, and voice over IP (VoIP) programs. These instructions may be embodied permanently or temporarily in any type of machine, component, equipment, storage medium, or propagated signal capable of being communicated to client system 102 .

Client system 102 includes a communications interface (not shown) that is used by communications programs to send communications across network 104 . Communications may include electronic mail, audio data, video data, general binary data, or text data (eg, encoded in American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) format). A client system also includes one or more input devices, such as a keyboard, mouse, stylus, or microphone, and one or more output devices, such as a monitor, touch screen, speakers, or printer.

Network 104 includes a series of portals interconnected by a consistent system. Examples of network 104 include the Internet, a wide area network (WAN), a local area network, analog or digital wired and wireless telephone networks (e.g., public switched telephone network (PSTN)), integrated services digital network (ISDN), or digital subscriber line (xDSL), Or any other wired or wireless network. Network 104 may include multiple networks or subnets, each of which may include wired or wireless data paths, for example.

Host server 106 may also be connected to network 104 and may be used to facilitate some direct or indirect communications between client systems 102 . As with client system 102, for example, a general purpose computer capable of responding to or executing instructions in a defined manner, a personal computer capable of responding to or executing instructions, a special purpose computer, a workstation, a server, device, component, other equipment or some combination thereof to implement the host server 106. Host server 106 may receive instructions from, for example, software applications, programs, pieces of code, devices, computers, computer systems, or combinations thereof, operating independently or collectively as described herein. These instructions may take the form of one or more communication programs. For example, such communication programs may include email programs, IM programs, FTP programs, and VoIP programs, among others. These instructions may be embodied permanently or temporarily in any type of machine, component, equipment, storage medium or propagated signal capable of being communicated to host server 106 .

Additionally, host server 106 includes a communication interface (not shown) that is used by communication programs to send communications across network 104 . Communications may include electronic mail, audio data, video data, general binary data, or text data (eg, encoded in American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) format).

Each client system 102 has one or more administrative users, and a user of a client system 102 may desire to have aspects of his or her communications with other users controlled based on whether the other users are known. To aid in this control, a list is maintained. The list contains people who are assumed to be known to the user. The list may be maintained on client system 102 , host server 106 , or other network device connected to network 104 .

The term "person" refers throughout to an entity with which communication occurs. However, an entity with which communication may occur may not be a human individual. Communications can occur with companies, organizations, or systems that are not humans themselves. For example, an email may be sent to a technical support group within a computer software company. The term "person" is used throughout to refer more generally to an entity with which communication may occur, including entities that are not natural persons. Additionally, when "persons" are described as known, it means that at least one of the various communication identifiers associated with them is known, regardless of whether the person/entity itself is actually known.

The communication identifier is an identifier of a "person" used to communicate with a "person". For example, a communication identifier can be an address, such as an email address, a screen name, or an Internet Protocol (IP) address, or can be a number, such as a telephone number or a VoIP number. In one implementation, these communication identifiers are stored in a list of known persons. Storing these identifiers in a list helps to easily identify communications from known persons, thereby helping to control aspects of communications based on whether the sender is known or not. Accordingly, the terms "person" or "person" should be understood to include any identifier of a person or organization.

Referring to FIG. 2, a process 200 is used to maintain and use a list of persons known to a user. A list of people known to the user is stored (202). Communication identifiers are stored in a list to indicate known persons.

A user may manually add (210) to the known persons list. For this case, the user is enabled to explicitly designate the communication identifier as known (212). For example, a Graphical User Interface (GUI) may be provided that allows a user to enter a communication identifier. There may also be a voice-based interface that allows users to add communication identifiers to a list of known users by speaking them. These interfaces may allow the user to indirectly expand the list of known persons by allowing the user to add to a contact list such as a client sender list, address book or buddy list.

However, a user may wish to manually add a person to the Contacts list, rather than to the Known People list. An interface may optionally be presented enabling the user to confirm whether the manually entered communication identifier should be added to the known persons list (214). Such a GUI can be utilized to enable this confirmation. The GUI allows the user to select the entered communication identifiers that the user actually wants to be included in the list of known persons. This confirmation can be made after a subscription number of communication identifiers have been entered, or when looking for confirmation from any person entered during a previous online session at login or logoff. Those identifiers confirmed by the user are then added to the list (216). When this confirmation interface is not presented, all entered communication identifiers are added to the list of known persons. Alternatively, there may be an interface that allows the user to enter the identifier directly into the list of known persons.

Alternatively, the communication identifier may be inferred to be known based on the user's actions (220). First, a communication identifier known to the user is deduced (222). For example, a communication identifier may be inferred to be known if an email message is sent to that communication identifier. When using instant messengers, communication identifiers of people with whom a user communicates may be designated as known to the user.

Known communication identifiers may also be inferred based on the user's interaction with the received message. For example, a communication identifier may be inferred to be known if a message from that communication identifier is read, replied to, forwarded, saved, or printed. Similarly, the communication identifier that sent the e-mail message can be designated as known if the message is moved from the "Inbox" to a directory that is not marked for deletion or spam, or if the message is open for a scheduled time.

Known communication identifiers may also be inferred based on markers rather than user actions. As an example, persons designated as known to the user may be designated as "known" to the user. For example, if a person B is designated as known to some user A, then a person designated as known to person B may also be designated as "known" to user A. One way to achieve this inference is to designate people in person B's address book and/or buddy list as known to user A, for example.

When inferring known persons, certain actions may be considered to de-infer someone as known (224). For example, if an email received from a person is forwarded to an email address that has been designated for reporting spam, the inference that the person is known to the user can be negated. As another example, if a person is included in an explicit blacklist created by a user or network administrator, that person with whom communications should not occur, the presumption that the person is known may be negated.

After the known communication identifier is deduced, an interface may optionally be presented to enable the user to confirm that the deduced communication identifier is in fact known (226). Such a GUI can be utilized to enable this confirmation. The GUI allows the user to select inferred communication identifiers that the user does know or need to be included in the list of known persons. Such confirmation may be made after the communication identifier of the inferred subscription number is known, or upon logging in or out to seek confirmation from any persons identified during a previous online session. Those identifiers confirmed by the user are then added to the list (228). When the confirmation interface is not presented, the inferred identifier is added to the list.

The list of inferred communication identifiers may be stored as part of the user's address book or contact list. That is, a user's address book or other contact list may be passively personalized based on the inferred communication identifier. For example, the inferred communication identifier may be added to a transparent group (ie, on a group that cannot be seen by the user) in the user's address book or other contact list. Alternatively, the inferred communication identifier may be added to the group displayed to the user.

Branches 210 and 220 can occur simultaneously or sequentially. After at least one of these two branches has occurred, the user can optionally browse the list of known persons, and he or she can delete those users who are no longer known or no longer needed (230). Additionally, the communication identifiers in the known persons list can optionally be used to find other communication identifiers for that person (232). For example, a person's email address may be obtained from a profile associated with their display name. Similarly, the display name can be obtained if the email address is known. A display name, email or other established communication identifier may be used to identify other means by which a known person may communicate with the user, or the user may communicate with the known person.

In this regard, the list may be used to control aspects of electronic communications between the user and other users based on whether the other user's communication identifiers are known or unknown (234). For example, in an email system that performs spam filtering, email addresses of known persons may be added to a whitelist specifying email addresses that should not be filtered, or otherwise Treat as spam. As another example, when a user's address book and other contact lists have been passively personalized, the list of inferred communication identifiers that have been added to the address book and other contact lists may be associated with the user's explicit input to the contact list. The communication identifiers in the list are used together as a whitelist for spam filtering.

The e-mail addresses of known persons may also be used to filter or sort the display of e-mails so that e-mails from persons on the list are displayed more prominently than e-mails not from persons on the list. For example, a user can instruct that only emails from known people be displayed. In this case, in the display of emails, only emails from persons on the known persons list are displayed. Alternatively, or in addition, emails from known persons are bolded, but emails from persons not on the list are not bolded. Another way to highlight known people includes grouping emails from known people into one place displayed, for example, at the beginning or end of an email list.

Email addresses of known persons can be used to limit acceptance of emails to only those persons known to the user. Similarly, IM display names of known people can be used to limit instant message or chat requests to only those people known to the user.

Additionally, a list of known persons may be used to limit the presence information display to only those persons on the list. For example, the IM display names of known people can be used to restrict that only those people known to the user can view the user's presence information. That is, other users are restricted from viewing whether the user is online unless the other user is a person known to the user. Additionally, some services, such as ICQ (which is an instant messaging service) and America Online, display online presence information through channels rather than IM buddy lists. The display of these online presence information may also be limited, as described further below.

Additionally, by determining the plurality of communication identifiers described above, various aspects of user communications over a variety of different messaging media can be controlled. For example, known people lists can be used to control aspects of user communication using, for example, email and instant messaging to transfer customers.

Figures 3-5 illustrate exemplary ways in which known persons can be explicitly designated by placing them in a contact list. The contact list may be, for example, a white list, an address book, or an instant messaging buddy list. The persons added to the one or more contact lists are then added to the known persons list.

Referring to FIG. 3 , the client sender list interface 300 allows communication identifiers to be added to the known persons list through whitelist and blacklist specifications. The whitelist specifies email addresses that should not be filtered out so that email from those addresses is delivered to the user without undergoing spam filtering, for example. A blacklist, on the other hand, specifies email addresses that should be filtered so that email messages from those addresses are treated as spam and not displayed to the user. The client sender list interface 300 enables a user to explicitly designate communication identifiers as known by adding them to a whitelist. The whitelisted identifiers are then added to the list of known persons.

Selecting radio button 302 signals a blacklist specification, while selecting radio button 304 signals a whitelist specification. Only one of the radio buttons 302 and 304 can be selected at a time. A communication identifier may be entered into text field 306 . Depending on whether the radio button 302 or the content radio button 304 is selected, the communication identifier entered in the text field 306 can be added to the blacklist or whitelist by clicking the "Add" button 308 . This action will add the entered communication identifier to text box 310 along with all other previously entered communication identifiers.

A communication identifier may be selected from the list contained in text box 310 by clicking on the communication identifier. Subsequently, selection of the "Remove" button 312 will delete the communication identifier from the list. By clicking the "Save" button 314, any changes made to the blacklist or whitelist can be saved, and using the "Cancel" button 316, the changes can be undone and discarded.

Referring to FIG. 4, the address book interface 400 allows manual addition of persons to the known persons list by adding entries to the address book. Each entry in the address book contains information about a particular person, including that person's communication identifier. Address book interface 400 enables a user to explicitly designate communication identifiers as known by adding them to entries in the address book. These identifiers are then added to the list of known persons. Address book interface 400 may provide the user with an option to prevent a communication identifier from being added to a known persons list when the identifier is added to the address book. This option prevents the addition of identifiers that are currently being added, or when selected, prevents all entered identifiers from being added to the known persons list.

Address book interface 400 includes a contact list 406 in which contacts in the address book are listed. In the contact list 406, all entries for the selected category and/or matching the current search criteria are listed. The contact list 406 shown contains three entries, a "Kevin Greene" entry 408a, a "quoteomatic" entry 408b, and a "zolaonaol" entry 408c.

The address book interface 400 also includes a personal information list 410 for displaying personal information of entries in the address book. Selecting an entry from those of contact list 406 causes the corresponding person's information to be displayed in personal information list 410 . For example, selecting the "Kevin Greene" entry 408a lists his personal information in the personal information list 410. Personal information includes his contact name 412 (Kevin Greene), email address 414 (kg@somewhere.com) and category 416 (uncategorized, meaning the entry 418a is not classified into a category). Other pieces of information including other communication identifiers may also be included in the personal information list 410 .

Address book interface 400 also includes buttons 418-422 for adding, deleting and modifying entries in the address book. Entries can be added to the address book by clicking on the "Add" button 418 . This invokes a dialog where the information necessary for a new entry in the address book can be entered. Existing entries may also be modified by selecting an entry from those listed in text box 406 and then clicking on the "Edit" button 420 . This will invoke a dialog populated with information from existing entries. Such information can be changed and information can be added to it. Finally, an existing entry can be deleted by selecting an entry from those listed in text box 406 and then clicking on the "Delete" button 422 . Any communication identifiers added to the address book by using the address book interface 400 are considered known, so they are added to the known persons list.

Entries in the address book can be grouped into different categories. The address book interface enables the user to browse all entries in a particular category; also enables the user to browse all entries in the address book, regardless of category. Such available categories are listed in drop-down category selection box 402 . Selecting a category name from category selection box 402 will filter the set of entries in the address book to include only those belonging to the selected category. Selecting "All" from the category selection box 402 will include all entries in the address book. The search text box 404 can be used to search the set of entries in the address book. The set of entries is filtered to include only those entries that satisfy the search criteria entered in search text box 404 . The entries shown are all entries that may be in the address book due to the option "All" being selected from the category selection box 402 and no search criteria entered into the search text box 404 . Therefore, the address book only contains the 3 entries listed in contact list 406 .

Referring to FIG. 5, the buddy list interface 500 allows manual addition of people to the known people list by adding a display name to the buddy list. In instant messaging systems, a display name is an individual's communication identifier. The message is addressed to the user of the instant messaging system by using the user's display name. A user's buddy list of an instant messaging system is a list of display names of people with whom the user communicates. The buddy list interface 500 enables a user to explicitly designate a communication identifier as known by adding the communication identifier to his or her buddy list. These identifiers are then added to the list of known persons.

The buddy list interface 500 includes a text box 502 containing a buddy list with a display name of "InternetAnn." The buddy list includes multiple display names. The buddy list in buddy list interface 500 includes display name 504a "randomcontact2," display name 504b "Boss," display name 504c "Mom," display name 504d "Dad," and display name 504e "Brother."

The buddy list may be divided into one or more buddy groups, and each buddy may belong to one of these buddy groups. The display name of a buddy on the buddy list is displayed when the IM client of the person on the buddy list is available to receive communications (i.e., a state commonly referred to as "present"), either from currently unavailable to receive communications or due to Other reasons are visually distinguishable from other friends who do not have equivalent status. In the illustrated interface, online buddies have their display names displayed below the buddy group headings of the buddy groups they belong to. The buddy group header also contains the number of display names from the buddy group currently logged into the instant messaging system, and the total number of people in the buddy group. For example, buddy group header 560a shows that one of 10 members of the buddy group named "Buddies" is logged into the system. That one member is the user with the display name 504a because that display name 504a is listed under the Buddy Group heading 506a. Similarly, buddy group title 506b shows that one of the 3 members of the "Co-Workers" buddy group is logged in and that member is the user with display name 504b. Similarly, users with display names 504c, 504d, and 504e are logged into the system and are all members of a buddy group named "Family," of which only one member is currently not logged in according to buddy group title 506c. The buddy list interface 500 includes a "Create" button 508 which, when selected, enables the user to add a display name to the displayed buddy list. Display names added to a user's buddy list using the buddy list interface 500 are considered known to the user and are added to the known people list. Address book interface 400 may provide the user with an option to prevent the addition of the communication identifier to the known persons list when the identifier is added to the address book. This option prevents the addition of identifiers that are currently being added, or when selected, prevents all entered identifiers from being added to the known persons list.

Exemplary techniques for inferring known persons from user actions are described below in conjunction with FIGS. 6-9 . A user's actions when reading, sending, and managing e-mail can lead those who send and receive the e-mail to infer that the user is known. Additionally, contacts of those persons known to the user may be inferred to be directly known to the user. Inferred persons are added to the known persons list after optional user confirmation.

Referring to FIG. 6 , using an email reading interface 600 an inference can be drawn about what a person knows about a user. When using the email reading interface 600, the user can perform certain actions while reading the message to indicate that the user knows the person who sent the message. Instead, the user can perform certain actions to indicate that the user does not know the person who sent the message. If it is inferred based on these actions that the sender of the email is known to the user, the person who sent the email is added to a list of known persons.

Email reading interface 600 has two main display areas 602 and 604 that show details of the message currently being read. The display area 602 lists the header information of the message currently being read. The header information includes sender address 606, recipient address 608, message subject 610, and time 612 when the message was received. The displayed message was sent by kg@somewhere.com to InternetAnn@aol.com on September 4, 2003 at 11:24 AM with the subject "Hi". Display area 604 contains the body of the message, in this case "So, How are you?".

Below and to the right of the content of the displayed message is a series of buttons 614-630 that enable actions based on the displayed message. For example, the "Reply" button 614 invokes an interface for composing a reply to the sender of the displayed message. Similarly, the "Forward" button 616 invokes an interface for forwarding the displayed message. The "Reply All" button 618 has the same function as the "Reply" button 614, except that the reply message is addressed to all recipients of the displayed message.

An "Add Address" button 620 adds an entry for the sender of the displayed message to the address book. The entry includes the address 606 of the sender. "Report Spam" button 622 sends a message to the service responsible for blocking spam email messages. "Print" button 624 sends the message to the printer. The "Save" button 626 expands to two options, one for saving the message on the host server and one for saving the message locally. The "keep as new" button 628 marks the displayed message as never read, while the "delete" button 630 can delete the message immediately, or it can move the message to a temporary holding location where deleted messages are saved.

A user's actions when interacting with the email reading interface 600 may lead to inferences that the user knows or does not know the sender of the message he is reading. In cases where the user is believed to know the sender of the message, the sender's email address is added to a list of known persons. For example, replying to a message by clicking the "Reply" button 614 may support an inference that the sender is known. Additionally, pressing the "Forward" button 616 to forward the message may support the inference that the sender and all persons to whom the message was sent are known. Similarly, pressing the "Reply All" button 618 may result in an inference that the sender and all other recipients are known.

Pressing the "Add Address" button 620 to create an entry for the email sender in the user's address book may result in an inference that the sender is known. On the other hand, clicking the "Report Spam" button 622 may negate the sender's inference that the user is known. Clicking the "Print" button 624, using the "Save" button 626, or using the "Keep as New" button 628 to mark the displayed message as unread may also support the inference that the sender is known.

Leaving interface 600 open for a predetermined period of time (eg, 30 seconds) is another action that may support inferences known to the user.

A variety of techniques can be used to determine when a sender is inferred to be known based on the actions described above. For example, the sender may be inferred to be known based solely on the user performing one of a plurality of actions that support the inference that the sender is known. Alternatively or additionally, a combination of actions may result in an inference that the sender is known. For example, adding a sender to a known persons list may require more than one action. Additionally, certain fixed combinations of actions can result in the sender being added to the list of known persons. That is, certain combinations may be designated as indicating that the communication identifier is known, and when those combinations occur, the identifier is added to the list of known persons. For example, replying to a message and saving the message may result in the sender being added to the known people list, but keeping the message as new and printing the message do not.

As another example, each of the different possible actions may have an associated score indicating to what extent the action indicates that the identifier is known, and some aggregate score (threshold score) may be required to The sender is added to the list of known persons. That is, the action can be detected, an aggregate score can be determined from the associated scores, and can be compared to a threshold score to deduce whether the person is known to the user, and thus added to the list of known persons. Implementations of this technique may assign positive scores to actions that support inference, negative scores to actions that negate the inference, and require some specific positive aggregation score before an identifier can be inferred as known. Other methods of inferring combinations of user actions known to the user by the sender may also be used.

When replying to a message using the "Reply All" button 618, all recipients of the message may not be known, especially if the original message was copied to a large number of people. Even if the message was sent to those persons, other actions may be required to show that the persons to whom the message was copied are known, which may often lead to an inference that those persons are known. The number of people to whom the original message was copied may affect the combination and number of actions still required to add the recipient of the copy to the list of known people.

Referring to FIG. 7, use of email composition interface 700 may result in a person being added to a known people list. When using the email composition interface 700, a user can perform certain actions while composing a message that will indicate people the user knows that the message will be sent to. If the recipients of the email are inferred to be known to the user, they are added to a list of known persons.

Email composition interface 700 includes a number of text fields 702-708 that can be used to specify various parts of the message to be sent. For example, the user may specify the recipients of the message using the text field 702 labeled "Send To" and the text field 704 labeled "Copy To." The user may also specify the subject of the message in the "Subject" text field 706 . Finally, the user may enter a message body for the message in message body text field 708 .

A series of buttons 710 to 716 to the right of text fields 702-708 control how the messages specified with text fields 702-708 are handled. Clicking the "Send Now" button 710 immediately processes and sends the message to the designated recipient. Clicking on the "send later" button 712 processes the message for delivery to its intended recipient at a later time. The "Address Book" button 714 will invoke the Address Book interface 400 . Address book interface 400 may be used to specify recipients of messages. Email addresses from entries in the address book can be used to populate text fields 702 and 704 containing the recipients of the message. Clicking the "Print" button 716 sends the message to the printer.

User actions while using the email composition interface may result in inferences that the intended recipient of the message being composed is known to the user. The people entered in these text boxes 702 and 704 will be added to the list of known people if it is inferred that the user knows the people to whom the message will be sent. For example, sending a message being composed using a "send now" button or a "send later" button will result in an inference that the message recipients listed in text fields 720 and 704 are known. Similarly, printing the message with the "Print" button 716 results in the inference that the intended recipient is known. Additionally, the address book interface 400 invoked by the "Address Book" button 714 can be used to manually add entries to the address book, which will result in being added to the known persons list, as described above.

If the recipient is inferred to be known, they are added to a list of known persons. Individual actions by the user while using the email composition interface 700 that lead to an inference that the recipient is known cause the recipient to be added to the known people list, or a combination of these actions may indicate that the recipient should be added to the known people list, as described above stated.

Email reading interface 600 and email composing interface 700 may also contain a button that enables a user to manually add a person with whom the user is communicating if the person has not been automatically added to the list of known persons in the manner described above to the list of known persons. For example, clicking on this button in email reading interface 600 will cause the sender of the message to be added to a list of known persons. Similarly, clicking on this button in the email composition interface 700 will cause the recipient of the email to be added to the list of known persons.

Referring to FIG. 8, a process 800 may be used to infer that a user is known from persons within a certain number of degrees of separation from the user. The degree of separation between two entities describes the relationship between these entities. In general, characteristics of a user's contact list (eg, address book, buddy list, and/or whitelist) are evaluated to determine the degree of separation (or hop) required to link or associate two users.

For example, recipient A may list user B in recipient A's address book, user B may list user C in user B's address book, and user C may list user D in user C's address book. Here, sender D is linked to recipient A by two degrees of separation (with user B as the first degree, and user C as the second degree). Recipient A is associated to User C with one degree of separation (User B), and User B is separated from User D by one degree of separation (User C). Receiver A and user B, user B and C, and user C and sender D are separated by a degree of separation of 0, respectively.

A contact list is maintained for the user (802). The contact list can be a list or lists maintained by an individual, such as an address book, a buddy list for instant messaging, and/or a white list. The remainder of process 800 will be described using an address book as an example of a list of contacts. Contacts in the user's address book are added to the user's known people list (804).

Next, contacts linked to the user (ie, up to the desired degree of separation) are identified and added to the user's known people list. To accomplish this, the address book for each contact in the user's address book is accessed (806). These address books are usually not configured to be accessed directly by users. That is, users generally do not have access rights to other users' address books, such as the address books of contacts in the user's address book (the user's address book is configured to be directly accessed by the user). Address books of other users typically include communication identifiers selected by other users.

Contacts in the address book of the user's contacts (ie, contacts that are one degree apart) are then added to the known people list (808). If another degree of separation is desired (810), the degree of separation is incremented (812), so that the address books of contacts who are one degree separated from the user are accessed (806), and the contacts in those address books are added to the known Person List (808). When a contact is added to the known people list, the contact's degree of separation from the user is also added. Contacts are added continuously until the desired degree of separation is achieved (810). Once the desired degree of separation has been achieved, all contacts that are within that desired degree of separation from the user have been inferred to be known to the user (814).

The desired degree of separation may be a system parameter, or in some implementations the user may be provided with the ability to set the desired degree of separation. For example, an interface may be provided to the user that allows the user to decide whether to use separation, and if so how much separation should be used. Alternatively, the desired degree of separation can be both a system parameter and can be set by the user. For example, the system may include a default degree of separation, and the default degree of separation may be adjusted if desired by the user.

Process 800 may result in the list of known people not being updated when any users related to the intended user update their contact lists. That is, if a user related to the prospective user adds a contact to the user's contact list, the new contact is not reflected in the prospective user's known people list. This situation may not be too harmful, especially in implementations where the list of known people is used as a whitelist to exempt certain emails from being filtered as spam. However, repeating process 800 periodically or aperiodically can alleviate this situation. Another way to mitigate this situation is to use an update system where changes to the contact list are tracked and the list of known people is updated incrementally either by triggering the update or reinitiating the process 800 as the update occurs.

Referring to FIG. 9, use of the email management interface 900 may result in being added to a known persons list. A user's actions when interacting with email management interface 900 may lead to inferences that certain persons are known to the user. Instead, a user can perform certain actions to indicate that the user is ignorant of certain persons. If it is inferred from these actions that a person is known to the user, that person is added to the list of known persons.

The two main components of email management interface 900 are folder list 902 and message list 904 . Folder list 902 contains different folders into which messages can be filed. When a folder is selected from the folder list 902 , its contents are listed in the message list 904 . In this case, a folder called “New” has been selected from the folder list 902 and its contents are listed in the message list 904 . A drop-down selection box 906 allows the messages displayed in the message list 904 to be filtered based on their sender. In this case, “Everyone” was selected in the drop-down selection box 906, so all messages in the “New” folder are displayed in the message list 904. These messages include message 908 from kg@somewhere.com and message 910 from noone@fr.com, both of which were sent on September 4, 2003. Click with the mouse and drag the message from the message list 904 into the folder list 902 to file the message to the folder whose folder name is under the current position of the mouse, thereby removing the message from the file selected in the folder list 902 Clip removed.

A series of buttons below the message list 904 allow the user to act on the messages in the message list 904 . For example, a “read” button 912 will create the email reading interface 600 for the message selected in the message list 904 . Clicking on the "Save" button 914 will save the selected message in the message list 904 to the hard disk on the local machine or to a remote server. The "keep as new" button 916 will mark the selected message as never read. Clicking on the "Report Spam" button 918 will send a message to the access responsible for blocking spam on the message selected in the message list 904 . The "Delete" button 920 either deletes the selected message immediately, or temporarily moves the selected message to a location where the deleted message is saved.

Simultaneous user actions using folders, messages, and buttons presented in email management interface 900 may result in adding a person to the known people list. Moving a message directly to a different folder in the folder list 902 may lead to inferring that the sender or recipient of the message is known. For example, dragging a message 908 from a "new" folder to another folder, other than a spam folder or a delete folder, may result in an inference that the sender of the message is known to the user. Opening a message with the "read" button 912 can support the inference that the sender of the message is known. Pressing the "save" button 914 or the "keep as new" button 916 may also result in an inference that the sender of the message is known to the user. On the other hand, use of the "Report Spam" button 918 and the "Delete" button 920 may negate the sender's or recipient's inference that the user is known. Similar to that described above with reference to FIG. 6 , a single action or combination of actions while using email management interface 900 may result in an inference that a person is known to the user. Those persons inferred to be known to the user are added to the list of known persons after optional confirmation by the user.

10-12 exemplarily illustrate the use of known persons lists in user communication control. Known user lists can be used to control various aspects of user communication using e-mail or instant messaging clients, for example.

Referring to FIG. 10 , a list of known users can be used to control the email messages displayed in the email management interface 900 . The email management interface contains a list 902 of folders into which messages can be filed. When a folder is selected from the folder list 902 , its contents are listed in the message list 904 . In this case, a folder called “New” has been selected from the folder list 902 and its contents are listed in the message list 904 .

A drop-down selection box 906 allows the messages displayed in the message list 904 to be filtered based on their sender. In this case, the "People I Know" option is selected from the drop-down selection box 906 . This allows the list of people known to the user to filter the displayed messages. Messages from persons on the known persons list are displayed in message list 904 , while messages from persons not on the known persons list are not displayed in message list 904 .

For example, message list 904 of Figure 9, which also displays messages in the "new" folder, has two messages: message 908 from kg@somewhere.com and message 910 from noone@fr.com. The email address kg@somewhere.com is on the user's known people list, but noone@fr.com is not. When “People I Know” is selected from selection box 906 , message 910 is filtered from the group of messages displayed to the user in message list 904 . The only message displayed is message 908 from kg@somewhere.com. Thus, the known senders list is used to limit the e-mail messages displayed to the user to only those from persons on the list.

Referring to FIG. 11 , the email list may be used to control email messages displayed in the email management interface 900 in a manner opposite to that shown in FIG. 10 . The email management interface includes a folder list 902 whose contents are listed in a message list 904 . In this case, a folder called “New” has been selected from the folder list 902 and the contents of this folder are listed in the message list 904 .

A drop-down selection box 906 allows the messages displayed in the message list 904 to be filtered based on their sender. In this case, the "Unknown Sender" option has been selected from the drop-down selection box 906 . This causes the displayed messages to be filtered using the user's known people list in a manner inverse to the filtering with reference to FIG. 10 . In other words, messages from persons not on the known persons list are displayed in message list 904 , while messages from persons on the known persons list do not appear in message list 904 .

For example, in the message list 904 of FIG. 9, two messages in the "new" folder are also displayed: a message 908 from kg@somewhere.com and a message 910 from noone@fr.com. The email address kg@somewhere.com is on the user's known people list, but noone@fr.com is not. When "Unknown Sender" is selected from selection box 906, message 908 is filtered from the group of messages displayed to the user in message list 904. The only message displayed is message 910 from noone@fr.com. Thus, the known senders list is used to limit the e-mail messages displayed to the user to only those from persons not on the list.

Referring to FIG. 12, an email control interface 1200 enables additional control over a user's email messages based on a list of known people. The email control interface includes a user selection box 1202 . Utilize the user selection box 1202 to select the user to which the control specified in the email control interface 1200 applies. A series of options 1204-1224 provide different ways of filtering incoming emails.

Options 1204-1212 allow the user to define the senders of emails that the selected user will receive, option 1204 enables the user to receive emails from all senders. Selecting option 1204 will cause the selected user to receive email from anyone, regardless of whether they appear on the known people list. Option 1206 enables the user to receive e-mail only from America Online (AOL) members. Selecting option 1206 will cause the selected user to only receive e-mail messages from customers of the AOL Internet Service Provider, while all other messages are blocked. Option 1208 enables the user to only receive emails from known persons. Selecting option 1208 causes the selected user's emails to be filtered with a list of known persons. Accepts messages from those who appear on the table, blocks all others.

Option 1210 enables the user to block email from all senders. Selecting option 1210 will cause all email messages addressed to the selected user to be blocked. Option 1212 enables the user to use a custom sender list to determine which mail to receive. Custom sender lists include whitelists and blacklists. Messages from those who appear on the white list are displayed to the user, while messages from those on the black list are blocked from being displayed to the user. Options 1204-1212 may be mutually exclusive.

Option 1214 enables blocking of any email message containing pictures or files. Selecting option 1214 causes all messages containing pictures or files to be blocked. Options 1216 and 1218 allow the user to define the handling of blocked messages. Option 1216 enables permanent deletion of blocked messages. Selection of option 1216 causes all blocked messages to be deleted immediately, leaving no opportunity for the user to read them again. Option 1218 enables sending blocked messages to a folder designated for spam. Selecting option 1218 causes the blocked message to be placed in the folder designated for spam. Users can also read these messages after they are placed in spam folder. A third option (not shown) may have blocked messages maintained in a temporary holding folder. Messages stored in the temporary holding folder may be deleted after a certain amount of time selectable by the user has elapsed. Options 1216, 1218 and the third option are mutually exclusive.

Options 1220-1224 control what mail the user selected in selection box 1202 receives. Option 1220 enables filtering of incoming email messages with a spam filter. Selecting option 1220 will cause the user's email messages to be filtered based on whether they are spam messages. A spam filter can use a list of known people when determining whether a message is spam. For example, a spam filter could use a list of known people as a whitelist when determining which messages to save. Messages from people on the whitelist can be accepted and messages from people not on the list can be rejected. Alternatively, a whitelist can be used to exempt communications from people on the whitelist from spam filtering, while communications from people not on the whitelist are subject to spam filtering. As another example, a spam filter may use a list of known persons to assign a spam score to incoming messages. Messages from people who are not on the known people list may get a higher score than messages from those who are on the list. Those messages determined to be spam are sent to the user's spam mailbox, and those messages that are not spam are sent to the user's primary mailbox.

Option 1222 enables filtering of incoming email messages based on whether they contain one or more clickable hyperlinks or uniform resource locators (URLs). If option 1222 is selected, messages with clickable URLs are sent to the user's spam folder, while those without clickable URLs are sent to the user's primary mailbox. A second option (not shown) for handling messages with clickable URLs enables messages with URLs leading to inappropriate or parentally controlled content to be sent to the user's spam folder, while all other messages are sent to the user's home folder. Option 1224 enables the user's incoming email messages to be filtered based on whether these messages contain any words contained in the custom word list. If option 1224 is selected, messages that contain words from the custom word list are sent to the user's spam folder, while those that do not are sent to the user's home folder.

The known people list can be used in conjunction with the filtering performed by options 1222 and 1224 to exempt messages from the known people list from these controls. In other words, when options 1222 and 1224 are selected, messages meeting the criteria indicated by these options may be sent to the spam folder unless the sender of the message is on the known persons list. For example, a message with a URL can be received. Typically, when option 1222 is selected, the message with the URL is placed into the spam folder. However, when a message with a URL is from a known person, the message is not sent to the junk folder, but sent as normal mail.

A save button 1226 and a cancel button 1228 also appear on the email control interface 1200 . Save button 1226 saves any changes made to the user's options 1204-1224 selected in selection box 1202, while Cancel button 1228 discards any changes that have been made and restores the options to their previous settings.

In addition to the use of known people lists discussed in connection with FIGS. 10-12, there are other uses involving user communications utilizing instant messaging clients. For example, the IM display names of known persons can be used to limit initiating instant messaging or chat requests to only those persons known to the user. Known people's IM display names can also be used to limit who can view the user's presence information to those people known to the user. That is, other users may be restricted from viewing whether the user is online (ie, logged into the IM system), unless other users are known to the user. Referring again to FIG. 5, the presence information of "randomcontact2" is displayed because "InternetAnn" is on the known persons list of "randomcontact2". Other persons who do not have "InternetAnn" on the known persons list do not appear on the buddy list interface 500 because "InternetAnn" is prohibited from viewing their presence information.

Known people lists can also be used to limit the display of online presence information more generally. Figures 13, 14 and 15 illustrate other environments in which known people lists are used to limit online presence information.

Referring to Figure 13, certain services such as America Online allow users to search for other members. The list of members matching the user's search criteria includes an indication of whether the member is online. As shown, interface 1300 includes a window 1310 that displays search results for people search criteria (eg, those members that have John Doe in the member's profile). Search results include a list of members matching the search criteria. The results include the display name, member name, and location of each member that matches the criteria. Icon 1314 provides online presence information. Icons 1314 are displayed in window 1310 next to members who are currently online.

Referring to Figure 14, some services, such as America Online, display online presence information in the user's member profile. A user's member profile may be displayed as a result of selecting members from search results (such as those shown in FIG. 13 ), or the user may invoke the user's display name when using a communication service such as a chat or message board, for example. Member profile. Depending on the service, member profiles may be invoked in other ways.

Interface 1400 is provided when a user invokes another user's member profile. The interface includes the display name 1402 of the user whose profile is being displayed. Interface 1400 also includes a number of buttons 1404 that allow the calling user to interact with the user whose profile is being displayed. Interface 1400 also has an area 1406 that provides online presence information. In the example profile illustrated, the member is a member who is currently online in the chat room "louisianam4m". When a member is not online area 1406 indicates that the member is not online.

Referring to Figure 15, some instant messaging and other online services provide web pages that display online presence information. As shown, web browser 1500 displays a search page 1502 for ICQ where a person can search for profiles of ICQ users. Profiles 1510 and 1520 are displayed as results using the standard "John Doe" search anywhere in the profiles. Icons 1512 and 1522, which are part of profiles 1510 and 1520, respectively, provide online presence information. Icons 1512 and 1522 are displayed in one color when the user is online and in another color when the user is not online.

In any of these environments, online presence information can be restricted based on a list of known persons. Online presence information may be so restricted that some or all persons known to the user may view the user's online presence information. For example, the icon 1314 may not appear when the person viewing the search results is not a person known to the user whose display name is "Hotxjock28." Similarly, area 1406 may not provide any online presence information when the profile is viewed by a person who is not known to the user with the display name "Hotxjock28." Finally, when the person viewing profile 1510 or 1520 is not known to the user whose profile information is being displayed, icon 1512 or 1522 may indicate that the user is not online, or that presence information is not available.

Additionally, presence information may be limited or not provided to a potential recipient when the presence information is requested by the potential recipient through an application such as an instant messaging application, or by relying on displaying a web page, member profile, or member search results. potential recipients of the information. In some environments where online presence information is provided, the information may be provided in response to a request to receive the online presence information. In such an environment, when a request is received, a determination as to whether presence information may be transmitted is based on whether the potential recipient is included in a list of known persons. When a potential recipient is not included in the list, the presence information may be limited or not provided to the potential recipient.

In other implementations, provision of online presence information to potential recipients of the online presence information may be limited or not provided without requesting the online presence information. In some environments, presence information may be generally broadcast to users. Certain users may be excluded from the presence information broadcast when those users are not on a user's known people list.

Other uses of known persons lists may include filtering out communications sent to a teen with questionable content when such communications are from someone the teen does not know. Many times, inappropriate communications such as e-mails, such as pornography, are sent to teens. There may be certain flags when communications are inappropriate or may lead to inappropriate content. One such marker is, for example, the presence of a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) in the body of an email. Other marks can include certain words or phrases included in communications, such as vulgar or indecent words. This flag can be a strong indicator that when the email is from someone unknown to the teen, the communication is inappropriate.

Certain Internet Service Providers (ISPs), such as America Online (AOL), allow the master account owner to designate linked accounts as teen accounts. Flags of inappropriate communications and known persons lists can be used together to filter potentially inappropriate content sent to teens.

The flowchart of FIG. 16 illustrates a process 1600 for filtering communications sent to teens. A list of known people known to the user of the teen account is maintained (1605), for example using the techniques described above. When a communication addressed to a teen is received (1610), the sender of the communication is determined (1605). Communications may include, for example, email or instant messaging.

It is also determined whether the communication contains a flag indicating that the communication is inappropriate for the user of the teen account (1620). As noted above, such tags may include URLs located in the body of communication and/or certain words included in the body of communication.

When a communication contains such tags and the sender is not on the known persons list, the communication is filtered (1625). Filtering may include blocking or deleting the communication. Alternatively or additionally, filtering may include placing the communication in a secure location that is accessible to the master account owner but not to the teen. For example, communications may be placed into a secure spam folder. The folder can be secured by, for example, preventing teen account users from viewing the spam folder, or by password protecting the folder.

In this way, for example, emails containing URLs or certain words or phrases and sent to the teen's account by someone unknown to the teen (ie, someone not on the known people list) can be automatically deleted or blocked. Alternatively, such mail can be sent to the spam folder. When a spam folder is designated to be locked down for teens (for example, by preventing them from viewing the folder or requiring a password to access it), this potentially prevents them from being exposed to inappropriate content.

The techniques described above are not limited to any hardware or software configuration. Rather, they may be implemented using hardware, software, or a combination of both. The methods and processes can be implemented as a computer program that can be executed on a programmable computer including at least one processor and at least one data storage system. The program can be implemented in a high-level programming language, or in assembly or other lower-level language if desired.

Any such program will typically be stored on a computer usable storage medium or device (eg, CD-ROM, RAM or magnetic disk). When read into the computer's memory and executed, the program's instructions are used to cause the programmable computer to implement the various operations described above.

Although many implementations have been described. However, it should be understood that various modifications may be made. Accordingly, implementations other than those specifically described are within the scope of the following claims.

Claims (359)

1. A method comprising: maintain a list of persons associated with the user; inferring that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on inclusion of the person in a contact list of a second person, where the second person is not the user; adding the inferred person to said list of people associated with said user; and The list is used to control aspects of communications between the user and other persons based on whether the other persons are included in the list. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the person is included in the user's contact list. 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the user's contact list is a buddy list. 4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the communication comprises an email communication, the method further comprising inferring that the person is related to the email communication based at least in part on positive user actions associated with the email communication from the person. user association. 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the positive action comprises sending an email to the person. 6. The method of claim 4, wherein the positive action comprises replying, forwarding, saving or printing an email received from the person. 7. The method of claim 4, wherein the positive action comprises moving the email from the first folder to the second folder. 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the first folder is an inbox folder, and the second folder is a folder other than a delete folder or a spam folder. 9. The method of claim 4, wherein the positive action includes keeping an email from the person open for a predetermined period of time. 10. The method of claim 1, further comprising inferring that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on detecting communications between the user and a person. 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the communication is an instant messaging communication. 12. The method of claim 1, wherein inferring an association of a person with the user comprises detecting user actions that weaken factors otherwise used to infer an association of a person with the user. 13. The method of claim 12, wherein the user action comprises the user taking the step of reporting communications from the person as spam. 14. The method of claim 12, wherein the user action includes steps taken by the user to add a person to a blacklist. 15. The method of claim 12, wherein the user action comprises the user taking the step of at least one of moving communications from the person to a spam folder or a delete folder. 16. The method of claim 1, wherein a person associated with the user is a person not suspected by the user. 17. The method of claim 16, wherein using the list includes using the list as a whitelist to exempt communications received from persons on the list from spam filtering. 18. The method of claim 1, wherein using the list includes using the list to limit received communications to those from persons on the list. 19. The method of claim 18, wherein the communication is email. 20. The method of claim 18, wherein the communication is an instant message. 21. The method of claim 1, wherein persons associated with the user are persons known to the user. 22. The method of claim 21 , wherein using the list includes using the list to filter the email display so that emails from people on the list are displayed on the display screen and emails from people not on the list are displayed on the display screen. The emails of persons on the list are not displayed on the display screen. 23. The method of claim 21 , wherein using the list includes using the list to filter the email display such that emails from persons not on the list are displayed on the display screen while emails from persons on the list are displayed on the display screen. The emails of persons on the list are not displayed on the display screen. 24. The method of claim 1 , wherein using the list comprises using the list to limit instant messaging interfaces displaying the user's online presence to those instant messaging associated with persons on the list interface. 25. The method of claim 1 , wherein using the list includes using the list as a whitelist that operates in conjunction with parental controls to indicate that the content of the communication is of interest to a teen account when a communication includes When inappropriately tagged by a user, said communications from persons not on said list are filtered. 26. The method of claim 25, wherein filtering communications comprises blocking communications from persons not on the list when the communications include a flag indicating that content of the communications is inappropriate for a teen account user . 27. The method of claim 25, wherein filtering communications comprises filtering communications from persons not on the list to Put it in the spam folder. 28. The method of claim 27, wherein the spam folder is locked for teenage accounts. 29. The method of claim 25, wherein the communication is email. 30. The method of claim 1 , wherein inferring that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on the person's inclusion in a contact list of persons other than the user comprises based at least in part on a person's Inclusion in a contact list of a person listed in the user's contact list infers that the person is associated with the user. 31. The method of claim 1 , wherein inferring that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on the person's inclusion in a contact list of a person other than the user comprises based at least in part on a person's Inclusion in a contact list of a person listed in the user's buddy list infers that the person is associated with the user. 32. The method of claim 1 , wherein inferring that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on a person's inclusion in a contact list of a person other than the user comprises based at least in part on a person's inclusion in The user has added the person to the contact list of the person in the user's buddy list to infer that the person is associated with the user. 33. A method comprising: maintain a list of persons associated with the user; inferring that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on membership of a first person in a contact list associated with the other person, wherein the contact list is not configured for direct access by the user; adding the inferred person to said list of people associated with said user; and The list is used to control aspects of communications between the user and other persons based on whether the other person is included in the list. 34. The method of claim 33, wherein the person is included in the user's contact list. 35. The method of claim 34, wherein the user's contact list is a buddy list. 36. The method of claim 33, wherein the communication comprises an email communication, the method further comprising inferring that a person is related to the email communication based at least in part on positive user actions associated with the email communication from the person. user association. 37. The method of claim 36, wherein the positive action includes sending an email to the person. 38. The method of claim 36, wherein the positive action includes replying to, forwarding, saving or printing an email received from the person. 39. The method of claim 36, wherein the positive action comprises moving emails from a first folder to a second folder. 40. The method of claim 39, wherein the first folder is an inbox folder and the second folder is a folder other than a delete folder or a junk mail folder. 41. The method of claim 36, wherein the positive action includes leaving an email from the person open for a predetermined period of time. 42. The method of claim 33, further comprising inferring that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on detecting communications between the user and a person. 43. The method of claim 42, wherein the communication is an instant messaging communication. 44. The method of claim 33, wherein inferring an association of a person with the user comprises detecting user actions that weaken factors otherwise used to infer an association of a person with the user. 45. The method of claim 44, wherein the user action comprises the user taking the step of reporting communications from the person as spam. 46. The method of claim 44, wherein the user action includes the user taking the step of adding a person to a blacklist. 47. The method of claim 44, wherein the user action comprises the user taking the step of at least one of moving communications from the person to a spam folder or a delete folder. 48. The method of claim 33, wherein a person associated with the user is a person not suspected by the user. 49. The method of claim 48, wherein using the list includes using the list as a whitelist to exempt communications received from persons on the list from spam filtering. 50. The method of claim 33, wherein using the list includes using the list to limit received communications to those from persons on the list. 51. The method of claim 50, wherein the communication is email. 52. The method of claim 50, wherein the communication is instant messaging. 53. The method of claim 33, wherein persons associated with the user are persons known to the user. 54. The method of claim 53, wherein using the list includes using the list to filter the email display so that emails from people on the list are displayed on the display screen and emails from people not on the list are displayed on the display screen. The emails of persons on the list are not displayed on the display screen. 55. The method of claim 53, wherein using the list includes using the list to filter the email display so that emails from persons not on the list are displayed on the display screen while emails from persons on the list are displayed on the display screen. The emails of persons on the list are not displayed on the display screen. 56. The method of claim 33 , wherein using the list comprises using the list to limit an instant messaging interface displaying the user's online presence to those instant messages associated with persons on the list transfer interface. 57. The method of claim 33 , wherein using the list includes using the list as a whitelist that operates in conjunction with parental controls to indicate that the content of the communication is of interest to a teen account when a communication includes When inappropriately tagged by a user, said communications from persons not on said list are filtered. 58. The method of claim 57, wherein filtering communications comprises blocking communications from persons not on the list when the communications include a flag indicating that content of the communications is inappropriate for a teen account user. 59. The method of claim 57 , wherein filtering communications includes placing communications from persons not on the list when the communications include a flag indicating that the content of the communications is inappropriate for a teen account user. to the spam folder. 60. The method of claim 59, wherein the spam folder is locked for teenage accounts. 61. The method of claim 57, wherein the communication is email. 62. The method of claim 33 , wherein inferring that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on a person's inclusion in a contact list of a person other than the user comprises based at least in part on a person's inclusion in a contact list of a person other than the user. The person is inferred to be associated with the user by being listed in the contact list of the person in the contact list of the user. 63. The method of claim 33 , wherein inferring that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on a person's inclusion in a contact list of a person other than the user comprises based at least in part on a person's inclusion in A person listed in the user's friend list is inferred to be associated with the user in the contact list of the person. 64. The method of claim 33 , wherein inferring that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on the person's inclusion in a contact list of a person other than the user comprises based at least in part on a person's inclusion in The user has added the person to the contact list of the person in the user's buddy list to infer that the person is associated with the user. 65. A method comprising: maintain a list of persons associated with the user; inferring that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on characteristics of one or more contact lists associated with the other user, wherein the contact list associated with the other user includes a communication identifier selected by the other user; adding the inferred person to said list of people associated with said user; and The list is used to control aspects of communications between the user and other persons based on whether the other person is included in the list. 66. The method of claim 65, wherein the person is included in the user's contact list. 67. The method of claim 66, wherein the user's contact list is a buddy list. 68. The method of claim 65, wherein the communication comprises an email communication, the method further comprising inferring that a person is related to the email communication based at least in part on positive user actions associated with the email communication from the person. user association. 69. The method of claim 68, wherein the positive action comprises sending an email to the person. 70. The method of claim 68, wherein the positive action comprises replying, forwarding, saving or printing an email received from the person. 71. The method of claim 68, wherein the positive action comprises moving emails from a first folder to a second folder. 72. The method of claim 71, wherein the first folder is an inbox folder and the second folder is a folder other than a delete folder or a junk mail folder. 73. The method of claim 68, wherein the positive action includes keeping an email from the person open for a predetermined period of time. 74. The method of claim 65, further comprising inferring that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on detecting communications between the user and a person. 75. The method of claim 74, wherein the communication is an instant messaging communication. 76. The method of claim 65, wherein inferring an association of a person with the user comprises detecting user actions that weaken factors otherwise used to infer an association of a person with the user. 77. The method of claim 76, wherein the user action comprises the user taking the step of reporting communications from the person as spam. 78. The method of claim 76, wherein the user action includes the user taking the step of adding a person to a blacklist. 79. The method of claim 76, wherein the user action comprises the user taking the step of at least one of moving communications from the person to a spam folder or a delete folder. 80. The method of claim 65, wherein a person associated with the user is a person not suspected by the user. 81. The method of claim 80, wherein using the list includes using the list as a whitelist to exempt communications received from persons on the list from spam filtering. 82. The method of claim 65, wherein using the list includes using the list to limit received communications to those from persons on the list. 83. The method of claim 82, wherein the communication is email. 84. The method of claim 82, wherein the communication is instant messaging. 85. The method of claim 65, wherein persons associated with the user are persons known to the user. 86. The method of claim 85, wherein using the list includes using the list to filter the email display so that emails from people on the list are displayed on the display screen and emails from people not on the list are displayed on the display screen. The emails of persons on the list are not displayed on the display screen. 87. The method of claim 85, wherein using the list includes using the list to filter the email display such that emails from persons not on the list are displayed on the display screen while emails from persons on the list are displayed on the display screen. The emails of persons on the list are not displayed on the display screen. 88. The method of claim 65, wherein using the list comprises using the list to limit an instant messaging interface displaying the user's online presence to those instant messaging associated with persons on the list interface. 89. The method of claim 65, wherein using the list includes using the list as a whitelist, the whitelist operating in conjunction with parental controls to indicate that the content of the communication is of interest to adolescents when a communication includes When inappropriately tagged by an account user, the communications from persons not on the list are filtered. 90. The method of claim 89, wherein filtering communications comprises blocking communications from persons not on the list when the communications include a flag indicating that content of the communications is inappropriate for a teen account user. 91. The method of claim 89 , wherein filtering communications includes placing communications from persons not on the list when the communications include a flag indicating that content of the communications is inappropriate for a teen account user. to the spam folder. 92. The method of claim 91, wherein the spam folder is locked for teenage accounts. 93. The method of claim 89, wherein the communication is email. 94. The method of claim 65 , wherein inferring that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on a person's inclusion in a contact list of a person other than the user comprises based at least in part on a person's inclusion in The association of the person with the user is inferred from the contact list of the person listed in the contact list of the user. 95. The method of claim 65 , wherein inferring that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on a person's inclusion in a contact list of a person other than the user comprises at least in part based on a person's inclusion in a contact list of a person other than the user. A person listed in the user's friend list is inferred to be associated with the user in the contact list of the person. 96. The method of claim 65 , wherein inferring that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on a person's inclusion in a contact list of a person other than the user comprises based at least in part on a person's inclusion in The user has added the person to the contact list of the person in the user's buddy list to infer that the person is associated with the user. 97. A computer usable medium having embodied thereon a computer program, wherein the computer program comprises instructions for causing a computer to: maintain a list of persons associated with the user; inferring that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on inclusion of the person in a contact list of a second person, where the second person is not the user; adding the inferred person to said list of people associated with said user; and The list is used to control aspects of communications between the user and other persons based on whether the other person is included in the list. 98. The medium of claim 97, wherein the person is included in the user's contact list. 99. The medium of claim 98, wherein the user's contact list is a buddy list. 100. The medium of claim 97, wherein the communication comprises an electronic mail communication, the computer program further comprising instructions for causing a computer to communicate based, at least in part, on an electronic mail communication from a person positive user actions to infer that the person is associated with the user. 101. The medium of claim 100, wherein the positive action comprises sending an email to the person. 102. The medium of claim 100, wherein the positive action comprises replying to, forwarding, saving or printing an email received from the person. 103. The medium of claim 100, wherein the positive action comprises moving email from a first folder to a second folder. 104. The medium of claim 103, wherein the first folder is an inbox folder and the second folder is a folder other than a delete folder or a junk mail folder. 105. The medium of claim 100, wherein the positive action comprises keeping an email from the person open for a predetermined period of time. 106. The medium of claim 97, wherein the computer program further comprises instructions for inferring that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on detecting communications between the user and a person. 107. The medium of claim 106, wherein the communication is an instant messaging communication. 108. The medium of claim 97, wherein, for inferring that a person is associated with the user, the computer program further includes instructions for causing a computer to detect an impairment otherwise used to infer a person is associated with the user. The user action for the factor associated with the user. 109. The medium of claim 108, wherein the user action comprises the user taking the step of reporting a communication from the person as spam. 110. The medium of claim 108, wherein the user action comprises the user taking the step of adding a person to a blacklist. 111. The medium of claim 108, wherein the user action comprises the user taking the step of at least one of moving communications from the person to a spam folder or a delete folder. 112. The medium of claim 97, wherein a person associated with the user is a person that the user does not suspect. 113. The medium of claim 112, wherein, to use the list, the computer program further includes instructions for causing a computer to use the list as a whitelist to allow Communications received by people on the list are protected from spam filtering. 114. The medium of claim 97, wherein, to use the list, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing a computer to use the list to limit received communications to those from the communications with persons on the above list. 115. The medium of claim 114, wherein the communication is email. 116. The medium of claim 114, wherein the communication is an instant message. 117. The medium of claim 1, wherein persons associated with the user are persons known to the user. 118. The medium of claim 117, wherein, to use the list, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing a computer to use the list to filter the display of emails from Emails from people on the list are displayed on the display screen, while emails from people not on the list are not displayed on the display screen. 119. The medium of claim 117, wherein, to use the list, the computer program further includes instructions for causing a computer to use the list to filter the display of emails from Emails of persons on the list are displayed on the display screen, while emails from persons on the list are not displayed on the display screen. 120. The medium of claim 97, wherein, to use the list, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing a computer to use the list to display instant messages of the user's online presence. Messaging interfaces are limited to those instant messaging interfaces associated with persons on the list. 121. The medium of claim 97, wherein, to use the list, the computer program further includes instructions for causing a computer to use the list as a whitelist, the whitelist combining The parental controls operate to filter communications from persons not on the list when the communications include a flag indicating that the content of the communications is inappropriate for the teen account user. 122. The medium of claim 121 , wherein, to filter communications, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing the computer to indicate that the content of the communications is not intended for a teen account user when the communications include When flagged appropriately, said communications from persons not on said list are blocked. 123. The medium of claim 121 , wherein, to filter communications, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing the computer to indicate that the content of the communications is not intended for a teen account user when the communications include When properly flagged, said communications from persons not on said list are placed in the spam folder. 124. The medium of claim 123, wherein the spam folder is locked to a teen account. 125. The medium of claim 121, wherein the communication is email. 126. The medium of claim 97, wherein, to infer that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on the person's inclusion in a contact list of a person other than the user, the computer program further comprises Instructions for causing a computer to infer that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on the person's inclusion in a contact list of persons listed in the user's contact list. 127. The medium of claim 97, wherein, to infer that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on the person's inclusion in a contact list of a person other than the user, the computer program further comprises Instructions for causing a computer to infer that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on the person's inclusion in a contact list of persons listed in the user's buddy list. 128. The medium of claim 97, wherein, to infer that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on the person's inclusion in a contact list of a person other than the user, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing a computer to infer that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on the person's inclusion in a contacts list of persons that the user has added to the user's buddy list . 129. A computer usable medium having embodied thereon a computer program, wherein the computer program comprises instructions for causing a computer to: maintain a list of persons associated with the user; inferring that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on membership of a first person in a contact list associated with the other person, wherein the contact list is not configured for direct access by the user; adding the inferred person to said list of people associated with said user; and The list is used to control aspects of communications between the user and other persons based on whether the other person is included in the list. 130. The medium of claim 129, wherein the person is included in the user's contact list. 131. The medium of claim 130, wherein the user's contact list is a buddy list. 132. The medium of claim 129, wherein the communication comprises email communication, the computer program further comprising instructions for causing a computer to communicate based at least in part on an email communication from a person positive user actions to infer that the person is associated with the user. 133. The medium of claim 132, wherein the positive action comprises sending an email to the person. 134. The medium of claim 132, wherein the positive action comprises replying to, forwarding, saving or printing an email received from the person. 135. The medium of claim 132, wherein the positive action comprises moving an email from a first folder to a second folder. 136. The medium of claim 135, wherein the first folder is an inbox folder and the second folder is a folder other than a delete folder or a junk mail folder. 137. The medium of claim 132, wherein the positive action comprises keeping an email from the person open for a predetermined period of time. 138. The medium of claim 130, wherein the computer program further comprises inferring that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on detecting communications between the user and a person. 139. The medium of claim 138, wherein the communication is an instant messaging communication. 140. The medium of claim 129, wherein, for inferring that a person is associated with the user, the computer program further includes instructions for causing a computer to detect an impairment otherwise used to infer a person is associated with the user. The user action for the factor associated with the user. 141. The medium of claim 140, wherein the user action comprises the user taking the step of reporting a communication from the person as spam. 142. The medium of claim 140, wherein the user action comprises the user taking the step of adding a person to a blacklist. 143. The medium of claim 140, wherein the user action comprises the user taking the step of at least one of moving communications from the person to a spam folder or a delete folder. 144. The medium of claim 129, wherein a person associated with the user is a person that the user does not suspect. 145. The medium of claim 144, wherein, to use the list, the computer program further includes instructions for causing a computer to use the list as a whitelist so that slaves in the Communications received by persons on the above list are exempt from spam filtering. 146. The medium of claim 129, wherein, to use the list, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing a computer to use the list to limit received communications to those from the communications with persons on the above list. 147. The medium of claim 146, wherein the communication is email. 148. The medium of claim 146, wherein the communication is an instant message. 149. The medium of claim 129, wherein persons associated with the user are persons known to the user. 150. The medium of claim 149, wherein, to use the list, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing a computer to use the list to filter email displays such that messages from Emails from people on the list are displayed on the display screen, while emails from people not on the list are not displayed on the display screen. 151. The medium of claim 149, wherein, to use the list, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing a computer to use the list to filter the display of emails from Emails of persons on the list are displayed on the display screen, while emails from persons on the list are not displayed on the display screen. 152. The medium of claim 129, wherein, to use the list, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing a computer to use the list to display instant messages of the user's online presence. Messaging interfaces are limited to those instant messaging interfaces associated with persons on the list. 153. The medium of claim 129, wherein, to use the list, the computer program further includes instructions for causing a computer to use the list as a whitelist, the whitelist combining The parental controls operate to filter communications from persons not on the list when the communications include a flag indicating that the content of the communications is inappropriate for the teen account user. 154. The medium of claim 153, wherein, to filter communications, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing the computer to indicate that the content of the communications is not intended for a teen account user when the communications include Appropriate flagging blocks said communications from persons not on said list. 155. The medium of claim 153, wherein, to filter communications, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing the computer to indicate that the content of the communications is not intended for a teen account user when the communications include Said communications from persons not on said list are placed into the spam folder when properly flagged. 156. The medium of claim 155, wherein the spam folder is locked for teen accounts. 157. The medium of claim 153, wherein the communication is email. 158. The medium of claim 129, wherein, to infer that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on the person's inclusion in a contact list of a person other than the user, the computer program further comprises Instructions for causing a computer to infer that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on the person's inclusion in a contact list of persons listed in the user's contact list. 159. The medium of claim 129, wherein, to infer that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on the person's inclusion in a contact list of a person other than the user, the computer program further comprises Instructions for causing a computer to infer that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on the person's inclusion in a contact list of persons listed in the user's buddy list. 160. The medium of claim 129, wherein to infer that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on the person's inclusion in a contact list of a person other than the user, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing a computer to infer that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on the person's inclusion in a contact list of persons that the user has added to the user's buddy list . 161. A computer usable medium having embodied thereon a computer program, wherein the computer program comprises instructions for causing a computer to: maintain a list of persons associated with the user; inferring that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on characteristics of one or more contact lists associated with the other user, wherein the contact list associated with the other user includes a communication identifier selected by the other user; adding the inferred person to said list of people associated with said user; and The list is used to control aspects of communications between the user and other persons based on whether the other person is included in the list. 162. The medium of claim 161, wherein the person is included in the user's contact list. 163. The medium of claim 162, wherein the user's contact list is a buddy list. 164. The medium of claim 161 , wherein the communication comprises email communication, the computer program further comprising instructions for causing a computer to communicate based at least in part on an email communication from a person. positive user actions to infer that the person is associated with the user. 165. The medium of claim 164, wherein the positive action comprises sending an email to the person. 166. The medium of claim 164, wherein the positive action comprises replying to, forwarding, saving or printing an email received from the person. 167. The medium of claim 164, wherein the positive action comprises moving an email from a first folder to a second folder. 168. The medium of claim 167, wherein the first folder is an inbox folder and the second folder is a folder other than a delete folder or a junk mail folder. 169. The medium of claim 164, wherein the positive action comprises keeping an email from the person open for a predetermined period of time. 170. The medium of claim 161, wherein the computer program further comprises inferring that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on detecting communications between the user and a person. 171. The medium of claim 170, wherein the communication is an instant messaging communication. 172. The medium of claim 161 , wherein, to infer that a person is associated with the user, the computer program further includes instructions for causing a computer to detect an impairment otherwise used to infer a person is associated with the user. The user action for the factor associated with the user. 173. The medium of claim 172, wherein the user action comprises the user taking the step of reporting a communication from the person as spam. 174. The medium of claim 172, wherein the user action comprises the user taking the step of adding a person to a blacklist. 175. The medium of claim 172, wherein the user action comprises the user taking the step of at least one of moving communications from the person to a spam folder or a delete folder. 176. The medium of claim 161, wherein a person associated with the user is a person that the user does not suspect. 177. The medium of claim 176, wherein, to use the list, the computer program further includes instructions for causing a computer to use the list as a whitelist to allow Communications received by people on the list are protected from spam filtering. 178. The medium of claim 161 , wherein, to use the list, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing a computer to use the list to limit received communications to those from the communications with persons on the above list. 179. The medium of claim 178, wherein the communication is email. 180. The medium of claim 178, wherein the communication is an instant message. 181. The medium of claim 161, wherein persons associated with the user are persons known to the user. 182. The medium of claim 181 , wherein, to use the list, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing a computer to use the list to filter the display of emails from Emails from people on the list are displayed on the display screen, while emails from people not on the list are not displayed on the display screen. 183. The medium of claim 181 , wherein, to use the list, the computer program further includes instructions for causing a computer to use the list to filter the display of emails from Emails of persons on the list are displayed on the display screen, while emails from persons on the list are not displayed on the display screen. 184. The medium of claim 161 , wherein to use the list, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing a computer to use the list to display instant messages of the user's online presence. Messaging interfaces are limited to those instant messaging interfaces associated with persons on the list. 185. The medium of claim 161 , wherein to use the list, the computer program further includes instructions for causing a computer to use the list as a whitelist, the whitelist combining The parental controls operate to filter communications from persons not on the list when the communications include a flag indicating that the content of the communications is inappropriate for the teen account user. 186. The medium of claim 185, wherein, to filter communications, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing the computer to indicate that the content of the communications is not intended for a teen account user when the communications include Appropriate flagging blocks said communications from persons not on said list. 187. The medium of claim 185, wherein, to filter communications, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing the computer to indicate that the content of the communications is not intended for a teen account user when the communications include Said communications from persons not on said list are placed into the spam folder when properly flagged. 188. The medium of claim 187, wherein the spam folder is locked for teen accounts. 189. The medium of claim 185, wherein the communication is email. 190. The medium of claim 161 , wherein to infer that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on the person's inclusion in a contact list of a person other than the user, the computer program further comprises Instructions for causing a computer to infer that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on the person's inclusion in a contact list of persons listed in the user's contact list. 191. The medium of claim 161 , wherein, to infer that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on the person's inclusion in a contact list of a person other than the user, the computer program further comprises Instructions for causing a computer to infer that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on the person's inclusion in a contact list of persons listed in the user's buddy list. 192. The medium of claim 161 , wherein to infer that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on the person's inclusion in a contact list of a person other than the user, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing a computer to infer that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on the person's inclusion in a contact list of persons that the user has added to the user's buddy list . 193. A method comprising: maintain a list of persons associated with the user; inferring that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on a combination of two or more user actions, wherein each of the user actions independently supports an inference that the person is associated with the user; add the inferred person to said list; and The list is used to control aspects of communications between the user and other persons based on whether the other person is included in the list. 194. The method of claim 193, wherein said inferring includes detecting, as at least one of said two or more actions, a positive user action related to an email communication from said person. 195. The method of claim 194, wherein the positive action comprises sending an email to the person. 196. The method of claim 194, wherein the positive action comprises replying, forwarding, saving or printing an email received from the person. 197. The method of claim 194, wherein the positive action comprises moving emails from a first folder to a second folder. 198. The method of claim 197, wherein the first folder is an inbox folder and the second folder is a folder other than a delete folder or a junk mail folder. 199. The method of claim 194, wherein the positive action includes keeping an email from the person open for a predetermined period of time. 200. The method of claim 193, wherein the inferring includes detecting a communication between the user and the person as at least one of the two or more actions. 201. The method of claim 200, wherein the communication is an instant messaging communication. 202. The method of claim 193, further comprising inferring that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on indicia other than actions performed by the user, wherein based on indicia other than actions performed by the user Inferences include: accessing the user's contact list to determine a first contact on the user's contact list; and A contact list of the first contact is accessed to determine a second contact on the contact list of the first contact. 203. The method of claim 193, wherein said inferring includes detecting user actions that weaken factors otherwise used to infer a person's association with the user. 204. The method of claim 203, wherein the user action comprises the user taking the step of reporting communications from the person as spam. 205. The method of claim 203, wherein the user action comprises the user taking the step of adding a person to a blacklist. 206. The method of claim 203, wherein the user action comprises the user taking the step of at least one of moving communications from the person to a spam folder or a delete folder. 207. The method of claim 193, wherein a person associated with the user is a person that the user does not suspect. 208. The method of claim 207, wherein using the list includes using the list as a whitelist to exempt communications received from persons on the list from spam filtering. 209. The method of claim 193, wherein using the list includes using the list to limit received communications to those from persons on the list. 210. The method of claim 209, wherein the communication is email. 211. The method of claim 209, wherein the communication is an instant message. 212. The method of claim 193, wherein persons associated with the user are persons known to the user. 213. The method of claim 212, wherein using the list includes using the list to filter an email display such that emails from persons on the list are displayed on the display screen and emails from persons not on the list are displayed on the display screen. The emails of persons on the list are not displayed on the display screen. 214. The method of claim 212, wherein using the list includes using the list to filter an email display such that emails from persons not on the list are displayed on the display screen while emails from persons on The emails of persons on the list are not displayed on the display screen. 215. The method of claim 193, wherein using the list comprises using the list to limit instant messaging interfaces displaying the user's online presence to those instant messaging associated with persons on the list interface. 216. The method of claim 193 , wherein using the list includes using the list as a whitelist that operates in conjunction with parental controls to indicate that the content of the communication is of interest to a teen account when a communication includes When inappropriately tagged by a user, said communications from persons not on said list are filtered. 217. The method of claim 216, wherein filtering communications comprises blocking the communications from persons not on the list when the communications include a flag indicating that content of the communications is inappropriate for a teen account user. 218. The method of claim 216 , wherein filtering communications comprises placing communications from persons not on the list when the communications include a flag indicating that content of the communications is inappropriate for a teen account user. to the spam folder. 219. The method of claim 218, wherein the spam folder is locked for teenage accounts. 220. The method of claim 216, wherein the communication is email. 221. The method of claim 193, wherein each of the two or more actions has an associated score, and wherein the inferring comprises: detecting the two or more actions; determining an aggregated score from the scores associated with the two or more actions; and The aggregation score is compared to a threshold score to infer whether the person is known to the user. 222. The method of claim 221 , wherein the score associated with the two or more actions includes a positive action score that supports the person's inference that the user is known and a negative action score that denies the person's inference that the user is known. Inferred negative action scores known to the user. 223. The method of claim 193, wherein the inferring comprises: detecting the two or more actions; A determination is made as to whether the two or more actions are designated as indicating a combination of actions known to the user by the person. 224. A computer usable medium having embodied thereon a computer program, wherein the computer program comprises instructions for causing a computer to: maintain a list of persons associated with the user; inferring that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on a combination of two or more user actions, wherein each of the user actions independently supports an inference that the person is associated with the user; add the inferred person to said list; and The list is used to control aspects of communications between the user and other persons based on whether the other person is included in the list. 225. The medium of claim 224, wherein, for inference, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing a computer to detect a positive user action associated with an email communication from the person as the at least one of the above two or more actions. 226. The medium of claim 225, wherein the positive action comprises sending an email to the person. 227. The medium of claim 225, wherein the positive action comprises replying to, forwarding, saving or printing an email received from the person. 228. The medium of claim 225, wherein the positive action comprises moving an email from a first folder to a second folder. 229. The medium of claim 228, wherein the first folder is an inbox folder and the second folder is a folder other than a delete folder or a junk mail folder. 230. The medium of claim 225, wherein the positive action comprises leaving an email from the person open for a predetermined period of time. 231. The medium of claim 224, wherein, for inference, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing a computer to detect communications between the user and the person as the two or at least one of more actions. 232. The medium of claim 231, wherein the communication is an instant messaging communication. 233. The medium of claim 224, wherein the computer program further comprises instructions for causing the computer to infer that a person is related to the The user association, wherein inferences based on markers other than actions performed by the user include: accessing the user's contact list to determine a first contact on the user's contact list; and A contact list of the first contact is accessed to determine a second contact on the contact list of the first contact. 234. The medium of claim 224, wherein, for inference, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing a computer to detect factors that weaken factors that would otherwise infer that a person is associated with the user user action. 235. The medium of claim 234, wherein the user action comprises the user taking the step of reporting communications from the person as spam. 236. The medium of claim 234, wherein the user action comprises the user taking the step of adding a person to a blacklist. 237. The medium of claim 234, wherein the user action comprises the user taking the step of at least one of moving communications from the person to a spam folder or a delete folder. 238. The medium of claim 224, wherein a person associated with the user is a person that the user does not suspect. 239. The medium of claim 238, wherein, to use the list, the computer program further includes instructions for causing a computer to use the list as a whitelist such that slaves in the Communications received by persons on the above list are exempt from spam filtering. 240. The medium of claim 224, wherein, to use the list, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing a computer to use the list to limit received communications to those from the communications with persons on the above list. 241. The medium of claim 240, wherein the communication is email. 242. The medium of claim 240, wherein the communication is an instant message. 243. The medium of claim 224, wherein persons associated with the user are persons known to the user. 244. The medium of claim 243, wherein, to use the list, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing a computer to use the list to filter the display of emails from Emails from people on the list are displayed on the display screen, while emails from people not on the list are not displayed on the display screen. 245. The medium of claim 243, wherein, to use the list, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing a computer to use the list to filter the display of emails from Emails of persons on the list are displayed on the display screen, while emails from persons on the list are not displayed on the display screen. 246. The medium of claim 224, wherein, to use the list, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing a computer to use the list to display instant messages of the user's online presence. Messaging interfaces are limited to those instant messaging interfaces associated with persons on the list. 247. The medium of claim 224, wherein, to use the list, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing a computer to use the list as a whitelist, the whitelist combining The parental controls operate to filter communications from persons not on the list when the communications include a flag indicating that the content of the communications is inappropriate for the teen account user. 248. The medium of claim 247, wherein, to filter communications, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing the computer to indicate that the content of the communications is not intended for a teen account user when the communications include When flagged appropriately, said communications from persons not on said list are blocked. 249. The medium of claim 247, wherein, to filter communications, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing the computer to indicate that the content of the communications is not intended for a teen account user when the communications include When properly flagged, said communications from persons not on said list are placed in the spam folder. 250. The medium of claim 249, wherein the spam folder is locked for teen accounts. 251. The medium of claim 247, wherein the communication is email. 252. The medium of claim 224, wherein each of the two or more actions has an associated score, and wherein, for inference, the computer program further comprises means for causing a computer to perform the following Operating instructions: detecting the two or more actions; determining an aggregate score from the scores associated with the two or more actions; and The aggregation score is compared to a threshold score to infer whether the person is known to the user. 253. The medium of claim 252, wherein the score associated with the two or more actions includes a positive action score that supports the person's inference that the user is known and a negative action score that the person Inferred negative action scores known to the user. 254. The medium of claim 224, wherein, for inference, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing a computer to: detecting the two or more actions; A determination is made as to whether the two or more actions are designated as indicating a combination of actions known to the user by the person. 255. A device comprising: means for maintaining a list of persons associated with the user; means for inferring an association of a person to the user based at least in part on a combination of two or more user actions, wherein each of the user actions independently supports an inference that the person is associated with the user; means for adding the inferred person to said list; and Means for controlling aspects of communications between the user and other persons using the list based on whether the other person is included in the list. 256. A method comprising: maintain a list of persons associated with the user; inferring that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on interactions between the user and the received messages; add the inferred person to said list; and The list is used to control aspects of communications between the user and other persons based on whether the other person is included in the list. 257. The method of claim 256, wherein the received message is an email message received from the person. 258. The method of claim 257, wherein the interaction comprises replying to, forwarding, saving or printing an email received from the person. 259. The method of claim 257, wherein the interacting includes moving an email from a first folder to a second folder. 260. The method of claim 259, wherein the first folder is an inbox folder and the second folder is a folder other than a delete folder or a junk mail folder. 261. The method of claim 257, wherein the interacting includes leaving an email from the person open for a predetermined period of time. 262. The method of claim 256, further comprising inferring that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on the user sending a message to the person. 263. The method of claim 256, wherein the received message is an instant messaging communication. 264. The method of claim 256, further comprising inferring that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on indicia other than actions performed by the user, wherein based on indicia other than actions performed by the user Inferences include: accessing the user's contact list to determine a first contact on the user's contact list; and A contact list of the first contact is accessed to determine a second contact on the contact list of the first contact. 265. The method of claim 256, further comprising inferring that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on detecting a user action that removes factors that would otherwise be used to infer that a person is associated with the user. 266. The method of claim 265, wherein the user action comprises the user taking the step of reporting communications from the person as spam. 267. The method of claim 265, wherein the user action comprises the user taking the step of adding a person to a blacklist. 268. The method of claim 265, wherein the user action comprises the user taking the step of at least one of moving communications from the person to a spam folder or a delete folder. 269. The method of claim 256, wherein a person associated with the user is a person that the user does not suspect. 270. The method of claim 269, wherein using the list includes using the list as a whitelist to exempt communications received from persons on the list from spam filtering. 271. The method of claim 256, wherein using the list comprises using the list to limit received communications to those from persons on the list. 272. The method of claim 271, wherein the communication is email. 273. The method of claim 271, wherein the communication is an instant message. 274. The method of claim 256, wherein persons associated with the user are persons known to the user. 275. The method of claim 274, wherein using the list includes using the list to filter an email display such that emails from persons on the list are displayed on the display screen and emails from persons not on the list are displayed on the display screen. The emails of persons on the list are not displayed on the display screen. 276. The method of claim 274, wherein using the list includes using the list to filter an email display such that emails from persons not on the list are displayed on the display screen while emails from persons on The emails of persons on the list are not displayed on the display screen. 277. The method of claim 256, wherein using the list comprises using the list to limit an instant messaging interface displaying the user's online presence to those instant messaging associated with persons on the list interface. 278. The method of claim 256, wherein using the list includes using the list as a whitelist that operates in conjunction with parental controls to indicate that the content of the communication is of interest to a teen account when a communication includes When inappropriately tagged by a user, said communications from persons not on said list are filtered. 279. The method of claim 278, wherein filtering communications comprises blocking communications from persons not on the list when the communications include a flag indicating that content of the communications is inappropriate for a teen account user. 280. The method of claim 278 , wherein filtering communications comprises placing communications from persons not on the list into place when the communications include a flag indicating that content of the communications is inappropriate for a teen account user. to the spam folder. 281. The method of claim 280, wherein the spam folder is locked for teen accounts. 282. The method of claim 278, wherein the communication is email. 283. A computer usable medium having embodied thereon a computer program, wherein the computer program comprises instructions for causing a computer to: maintain a list of people known to the user; inferring that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on interactions between the user and the received messages; add the inferred person to said list; and The list is used to control aspects of communications between the user and other persons based on whether the other person is included in the list. 284. The medium of claim 283, wherein the received message is an email message received from the person. 285. The medium of claim 284, wherein the interaction comprises replying to, forwarding, saving or printing an email received from the person. 286. The medium of claim 284, wherein the interaction comprises moving an email from a first folder to a second folder. 287. The medium of claim 286, wherein the first folder is an inbox folder and the second folder is a folder other than a delete folder or a junk mail folder. 288. The medium of claim 286, wherein the interaction comprises leaving an email from the person open for a predetermined period of time. 289. The medium of claim 283, wherein the computer program further comprises instructions for causing the computer to infer a relationship between a person and the user based at least in part on the user sending a message to the person. associated. 290. The medium of claim 283, wherein the received message is an instant messaging communication. 291. The medium of claim 283, wherein the computer program further comprises instructions for causing the computer to infer that a person is related to the said user association, wherein for inference based on markers other than actions performed by said user, said computer program further comprising instructions for: accessing the user's contact list to determine a first contact on the user's contact list; and A contact list of the first contact is accessed to determine a second contact on the contact list of the first contact. 292. The medium of claim 283, wherein the computer program further comprises instructions for causing the computer to attenuate factors otherwise used to infer an association of a person with the user based at least in part on detecting User actions to infer that the person is associated with the user. 293. The medium of claim 292, wherein the user action comprises the user taking the step of reporting a communication from the person as spam. 294. The medium of claim 292, wherein the user action comprises the user taking the step of adding a person to a blacklist. 295. The medium of claim 292, wherein the user action comprises the user taking the step of at least one of moving communications from the person to a spam folder or a delete folder. 296. The medium of claim 283, wherein a person associated with the user is a person that the user does not suspect. 297. The medium of claim 296, wherein, to use the list, the computer program further includes instructions for causing a computer to use the list as a whitelist to allow Communications received by people on the list are protected from spam filtering. 298. The medium of claim 283, wherein, to use the list, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing a computer to use the list to limit received communications to those from the communications with persons on the above list. 299. The medium of claim 298, wherein the communication is email. 300. The medium of claim 298, wherein the communication is an instant message. 301. The medium of claim 283, wherein persons associated with the user are persons known to the user. 302. The medium of claim 301 , wherein, to use the list, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing a computer to use the list to filter email displays such that messages from Emails from people on the list are displayed on the display screen, while emails from people not on the list are not displayed on the display screen. 303. The medium of claim 302, wherein, to use the list, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing a computer to use the list to filter the display of emails from Emails of persons on the list are displayed on the display screen, while emails from persons on the list are not displayed on the display screen. 304. The medium of claim 283, wherein, to use the list, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing a computer to use the list to display instant messages of the user's online presence. Messaging interfaces are limited to those instant messaging interfaces associated with persons on the list. 305. The medium of claim 283, wherein, to use the list, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing a computer to include using the list as a whitelist, the whitelist Operates in conjunction with parental controls to filter communications from persons not on the list when the communications include a flag indicating that content of the communications is inappropriate for a teen account user. 306. The medium of claim 305, wherein, to filter communications, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing the computer to indicate that content of the communications is not intended for a youth account user when the communications include Appropriate flagging blocks said communications from persons not on said list. 307. The medium of claim 305, wherein to filter communications, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing the computer to indicate that the content of the communication is inappropriate for a teen account user when the communication includes Place said communications from persons not on said list into the spam folder when flagged by . 308. The medium of claim 307, wherein the spam folder is locked to a teen account. 309. The medium of claim 305, wherein the communication is email. 310. A device comprising: means for maintaining a list of persons known to the user; means for inferring an association of a person with the user based at least in part on interactions between the user and received messages; means for adding the inferred person to said list; and Means for controlling aspects of communications between the user and other persons using the list based on whether the other person is included in the list. 311. A method of providing online presence information: access a list of persons inferred to be known to the user; access the online presence information of said user; identifying potential recipients of said online presence information; comparing the potential recipient to the visited list to determine whether the potential recipient is included in the list; and Whether to transmit the online presence information to the potential recipient is determined based on whether the potential recipient is included in the list. 312. The method of claim 311 , wherein determining whether to transmit the presence information to the potential recipient comprises determining not to transmit the presence information to the potential recipient when the potential recipient is not included in the list. Presence information is transmitted to the potential recipient. 313. The method of claim 311 , wherein the step of determining whether to transmit the online presence information to the potential recipient comprises determining whether to transmit the online presence information to the potential recipient's instant messaging application. 314. The method of claim 311, wherein determining whether to transmit the online presence information to the potential recipient comprises determining whether to display the online presence information on a web page. 315. The method of claim 311, wherein determining whether to transmit the online presence information to the potential recipient comprises determining whether to display the online presence information in member search results. 316. The method of claim 311, wherein determining whether to transmit the online presence information to the potential recipient comprises determining whether to display the online presence information in a member profile. 317. The method of claim 311 , wherein the step of determining whether to transmit the online presence information to the potential recipient comprises determining whether to transmit The online presence information is transmitted to the potential recipient. 318. The method of claim 311 , wherein the step of determining whether to transmit the presence information to the potential recipient comprises determining whether to transmit the presence information when a request for presence information is not received from the potential recipient The online presence information is transmitted to the potential recipient. 319. The method of claim 311, further comprising: inferring that a person is known to the user based on positive user actions associated with email communications from that person; adding the inferred person to said list; 320. The method of claim 320, wherein the positive action comprises sending an email to the person. 321. The method of claim 320, wherein the positive action comprises replying, forwarding, saving or printing an email received from the person. 322. The method of claim 320, wherein the positive action comprises moving an email from a first folder to a second folder. 323. The method of claim 322, wherein the first folder is an inbox folder and the second folder is a folder other than a delete folder or a junk mail folder. 324. The method of claim 320, wherein the positive action includes leaving an email from the person open for a predetermined period of time. 325. The method of claim 311, further comprising: inferring that a person is known to the user based at least in part on detecting communications between the user and a person; The inferred person is added to the list. 326. The method of claim 325, wherein the communication is an instant messaging communication. 327. The method of claim 311, further comprising inferring that a person is known to the user, wherein the inferring comprises: accessing the user's contact list to determine a first contact on the user's contact list; and A contact list of the first contact is accessed to determine a second contact on the contact list of the first contact. 328. The method of claim 311, further comprising inferring that a person is known to the user based at least in part on detecting user actions that impair factors that would otherwise be used to infer that a person is associated with the user. 329. The method of claim 328, wherein the user action comprises the user taking the step of reporting communications from the person as spam. 330. The method of claim 328, wherein the user action comprises the user taking the step of adding a person to a blacklist. 331. The method of claim 328, wherein the user action comprises the user taking the step of at least one of moving a communication from the person to a spam folder or a delete folder. 332. The method of claim 311, further comprising: enable the user to specifically designate a person as a person known to the user; and Add the specified person to the list. 333. The method of claim 311, further comprising: infer that a person is known to the user; and The inferred person is added to the list. 334. The method of claim 333, further comprising: determining that an individual is known to the user by accessing the user's contact list; and The identified persons are added to the list. 335. A computer usable medium having embodied thereon a computer program for providing online presence information, the computer program comprising instructions for causing a computer to: access a list of persons inferred to be known to the user; access the online presence information of said user; identifying potential recipients of said online presence information; comparing the potential recipient to the visited list to determine whether the potential recipient is included in the list; and Whether to transmit the online presence information to the potential recipient is determined based on whether the potential recipient is included in the list. 336. The medium of claim 335, wherein, to determine whether to transmit the presence information to the potential recipient, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing the computer to Determining not to transmit the online presence information to the potential recipient when the potential recipient is not included in the list. 337. The medium of claim 335, wherein, to determine whether to transmit the presence information to the potential recipient, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing the computer to determine Whether to transmit the presence information to the potential recipient's instant messaging application. 338. The medium of claim 335, wherein, to determine whether to transmit the presence information to the potential recipient, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing the computer to determine Whether to display said online presence information on the web page. 339. The medium of claim 335, wherein, to determine whether to transmit the presence information to the potential recipient, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing the computer to determine Whether to show said presence in member search results. 340. The medium of claim 335, wherein, to determine whether to transmit the presence information to the potential recipient, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing the computer to determine Whether to display the online presence information in the member profile. 341. The medium of claim 335, wherein, to determine whether to transmit the presence information to the potential recipient, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing the computer to determine Whether to transmit the presence information to the potential recipient when a request for presence information is received from the potential recipient. 342. The medium of claim 335, wherein, to determine whether to transmit the presence information to the potential recipient, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing the computer to determine Whether to transmit the presence information to the potential recipient when a request for presence information is not received from the potential recipient. 343. The medium of claim 335, wherein the computer program further comprises instructions for causing the computer to: inferring that a person is known to the user based on positive user actions associated with emails from the person; adding the inferred person to said list; 344. The medium of claim 343, wherein the positive action comprises sending an email to the person. 345. The medium of claim 343, wherein the positive action comprises replying to, forwarding, saving or printing an email received from the person. 346. The medium of claim 343, wherein the positive action comprises moving an email from a first folder to a second folder. 347. The medium of claim 346, wherein the first folder is an inbox folder and the second folder is a folder other than a delete folder or a junk mail folder. 348. The medium of claim 343, wherein the positive action comprises keeping an email from the person open for a predetermined period of time. 349. The medium of claim 335, wherein the computer program further comprises instructions for causing the computer to: inferring that a person is known to the user based at least in part on detecting communications between the user and a person; The inferred person is added to the list. 350. The medium of claim 349, wherein the communication is an instant messaging communication. 351. The medium of claim 335, wherein the computer program further comprises instructions for causing the computer to infer that a person is known to the user, and wherein to infer that a person is known to the user, The computer program also includes instructions for: accessing the user's contact list to determine a first contact on the user's contact list; and A contact list of the first contact is accessed to determine a second contact on the contact list of the first contact. 352. The medium of claim 335, wherein the computer program further comprises instructions for causing the computer to infer that a person is associated with the user based at least in part on detecting an impairment otherwise used to infer a person is associated with the user. factor the user's actions to infer that the person is known to the user. 353. The medium of claim 352, wherein the user action comprises the user taking the step of reporting a communication from the person as spam. 354. The medium of claim 352, wherein the user action comprises the user taking the step of adding a person to a blacklist. 355. The medium of claim 352, wherein the user action comprises the user taking the step of at least one of moving communications from the person to a spam folder or a delete folder. 356. The medium of claim 335, wherein the computer program further comprises instructions for causing the computer to: enable the user to explicitly designate a person known to the user; and Add the specified person to the list. 357. The medium of claim 335, wherein the computer program further comprises instructions for causing the computer to: infer that a person is known to the user; and The inferred person is added to the list. 358. The medium of claim 357, wherein the computer program further comprises instructions for causing the computer to: determining that an individual is known to the user by accessing the user's contact list; and The identified persons are added to the list. 359. A means for providing online presence information comprising: means for accessing a list of persons presumed to be known to the user; means for accessing said user's online presence information; means for determining potential recipients of said online presence information; means for comparing the potential recipient to the accessed list to determine whether the potential recipient is included in the list; and means for determining whether to transmit the online presence information to the potential recipient based on whether the potential recipient is included in the list.

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