Systems and Methods for Assisting Users with Contact, Access, and Distribution Lists

A system for managing contact groups, comprising:

• one or more processors;
• memory;
• and
• one or more programs stored in the memory, the one or more programs comprising instructions for:
• receiving email header information for a plurality of electronic messages that were sent during a designated period of time, wherein the email header information for an electronic message includes a unique identifier of the sender, and a unique identifier for each recipient of the electronic message;
• building a set of de facto groups using the received email header information, wherein each de facto group consists of a set containing the unique identifiers corresponding to the sender and recipients of an electronic message for which email header information was received;
• for each respective de facto group, computing a respective usage value based on the number of distinct electronic messages corresponding to the respective de facto group, wherein an electronic message corresponds to a de facto group when the set of unique identifiers corresponding to the sender and recipients of the electronic message is equal to the de facto group;
• storing each de facto group and corresponding usage value in the memory;
• identifying a set of saved groups, wherein each saved group consists of a set of unique identifiers of people, and wherein each saved group has a usage value, a respective usage value being 0 when the respective saved group does not equal any de facto group, and when the respective saved group equals a corresponding de facto group, the usage value of the saved group equals the usage value of the corresponding de facto group;
• comparing the de facto groups and associated usage values to the saved groups and their associated usage values;
• and
• providing a recommendation to modify the set of saved groups based on the comparisons.

A computer readable storage medium storing one or more programs configured for execution by a computer, the one or more programs comprising instructions for:

• receiving email header information for a plurality of electronic messages that were sent during a designated period of time, wherein the email header information for an electronic message includes a unique identifier of the sender, and a unique identifier for each recipient of the electronic message;
• building a set of de facto groups using the received email header information, wherein each de facto group consists of a set containing the unique identifiers corresponding to the sender and recipients of an electronic message for which email header information was received;
• for each respective de facto group, computing a respective usage value based on the number of distinct electronic messages corresponding to the respective de facto group, wherein an electronic message corresponds to a de facto group when the set of unique identifiers corresponding to the sender and recipients of the electronic message is equal to the de facto group;
• storing each de facto group and corresponding usage value in the memory;
• identifying a set of saved groups, wherein each saved group consists of a set of unique identifiers of people, and wherein each saved group has a usage value, a respective usage value being 0 when the respective saved group does not equal any de facto group, and when the respective saved group equals a corresponding de facto group, the usage value of the saved group equals the usage value of the corresponding de facto group;
• comparing the de facto groups and associated usage values to the saved groups and their associated usage values;
• and
• providing a recommendation to modify the set of saved groups based on the comparisons.