Meta-content analysis and annotation of email and other electronic documents

A method for processing an electronic document adapted for delivery to one or more recipients, the electronic document including a header and a body, the method comprising:

• processing the electronic document using a program to automatically identify semantic foci;
• creating a meta-content index corresponding to said semantic foci;
• and combining said meta-content index with the header and the body to provide an enhanced document;
• wherein said semantic foci includes at least one date within the body, and further including identifying a document date within the header;
• and
• associating a presentation attribute to said at least one date in said meta-content index, the presentation attribute based upon a temporal relationship between the document date and the at least one date.

A method for processing an electronic document adapted for delivery to one or more recipients, the electronic document including a header and a body, the method comprising:

• performing meta-content extraction of semantic foci within said electronic document using a program, the semantic foci comprising a plurality of types of information including one or more of email addresses, URLs, dates, currency values, organization names, names of people, names of places, names of products, names of drugs, names of sports teams, names of diseases, and phone numbers;
• creating a meta-content index of the electronic document based upon said extracted semantic foci;
• arranging the meta-index according to said plurality of types;
• combining said meta-content index with said header and said body to provide an enhanced document;
• and
• sending said enhanced document to said one or more recipients via a communication network;
• wherein said semantic foci includes at least one date within the body, further including identifying a document date within the header;
• and associating a presentation attribute to said at least one date in said index, the presentation attribute based upon a temporal relationship between the document date and the at least one date.

A method for processing an electronic document adapted for delivery to one or more recipients, the electronic document comprising an electronic mail document including a header and a body, the method comprising:

• performing meta-content extraction of semantic foci within said electronic document using a program, the semantic foci comprising a plurality of types of information including one or more of email addresses, URLs, dates, currency values, organization names, names of people, names of places, names of products, names of drugs, names of sports teams, names of diseases, and phone numbers;
• creating a meta-content index of the electronic document based upon said extracted semantic foci comprising one or more objects expressed in said markup language adapted for presentation with body in said enhanced document;
• arranging the meta-index according to said plurality of types;
• combining said meta-content index with said header and said body to provide an enhanced document;
• and
• sending said enhanced document to said one or more recipients via a communication network.

An article of manufacture comprising:

• a computer readable medium having computer readable program code which upon execution provides a data processing method including:
• automatically processing an electronic document which comprising an electronic mail document includes a header and a body using the program code to identify semantic foci;
• creating a meta-content index corresponding to said semantic foci comprising one or more objects expressed in a markup language adapted for presentation with the body of the electronic document;
• and
• combining said meta-content index with the header and the body to provide an enhanced document.

An article of manufacture comprising:

• a computer readable medium having computer readable program code which upon execution provides a data processing method including:
• automatically processing an electronic document which includes a header and a body using the program code to identify semantic foci;
• creating a meta-content index corresponding to said semantic foci;
• and
• combining said meta-content index with the header and the body to provide an enhanced document;
• wherein said semantic foci includes at least one date within the body, and wherein said method further includes identifying a document date within the header;
• and
• associating a presentation attribute to said at least one date in said meta-content index, the presentation attribute based upon a relationship between the document date and the at least one date.

A system for enhancing an electronic document comprising an electronic mail document including a header and a body in a computer including:

• a computer, including an electronic mail client having programmatic resources for composing an electronic document having a header and a body, and for sending electronic documents to one or more recipients;
• and
• programmatic resources coupled with the electronic mail client in the computer which process said electronic document to identify semantic foci within the document;
• create a meta-content index corresponding to said semantic foci comprising one or more objects expressed in a markup language adapted for presentation with the body of the electronic document;
• and
• combine said meta-content index with the header and the body to provide an enhanced document.

A system for enhancing an electronic document including a header and a body in a computer including:

• a computer, including an electronic mail client having programmatic resources for composing an electronic document having a header and a body, and for sending electronic documents to one or more recipients;
• and
• programmatic resources coupled with the electronic mail client in the computer which process said electronic document to identify semantic foci within the document;
• create a meta-content index corresponding to said semantic foci;
• and
• combine said meta-content index with the header and the body to provide an enhanced document;
• wherein said semantic foci includes at least one date within the body, and wherein said resources identify a document date within the header;
• and
• associate a presentation attribute to said at least one date in said meta-content index, the presentation attribute based upon a relationship between the document date and the at least one date.

An enhanced electronic document produced according to a method for processing an electronic document adapted for delivery to one or more recipients, the electronic document comprising an electronic mail document including a header and a body, the method comprising:

• processing the electronic document using a program to identify semantic foci within the electronic document;
• creating a meta-content index corresponding to said semantic foci comprising one or more objects expressed in a markup language adapted for presentation with the body of the electronic document;
• and
• combining said meta-content index with the header and the body to provide said enhanced document.

An enhanced electronic document produced according to a method for processing an electronic document adapted for delivery to one or more recipients, the electronic document including a header and a body, the method comprising:

• processing the electronic document using a program to identify semantic foci within the electronic document;
• creating a meta-content index corresponding to said semantic foci;
• and
• combining said meta-content index with the header and the body to provide said enhanced document;
• wherein said semantic foci includes at least one date within the body, and the method further includes identifying a document date within the header;
• and
• associating a presentation attribute to said at least one date in said meta-content index, the presentation attribute based upon a temporal relationship between the document date and the at least one date.