Method, computer program, and device for processing e-mail addressed to multiple destination addresses

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising:

• computer readable program code configured to edit an email, said email comprising at least three destination addresses wherein each of the at least three destination addresses is a recipient address corresponding to a different recipient, a plurality of different contents wherein each of the contents corresponds respectively to one of the at least three destination addresses or recipients, and a plurality of display attributes of the contents;
• computer readable program code configured to acquire a degree of association between each pair of destination addresses among the at least three destination addresses, said degree of association (1) reflecting personal relationships between users corresponding to the each pair of destination addresses, and (2) comparing associations between a first pair of destination addresses and a second pair of destination addresses;
• and
• computer readable program code configured to modify the display attributes for the contents in accordance with the degree of association, including providing separate content boxes for each of the contents corresponding respectively to one of the at least three destination addresses, wherein when the modified email is sent to each different recipient the display attributes enable the email contents to be displayed to differentiate between each of the different recipients in accordance with the degree of association between the each pair of destination addresses among the at least three destination addresses;
• wherein for each of the different recipients, the content box corresponding to the recipient is displayed as most important, and the content boxes corresponding to the other recipients are displayed in the order of importance according to the degree of association between each of the other recipients and the recipient.

A system for processing e-mail, the system comprising:

• a mail editing unit for editing the email in accordance with an input from an user, said email comprising at least three destination addresses wherein each of the at least three destination addresses is a recipient address corresponding to a different recipient, a plurality of different contents wherein each of the contents corresponds respectively to one of the at least three destination addresses, and a plurality of display attributes of the contents;
• a degree of association database for storing a degree of association between each pair of destination addresses among the at least three destination addresses included in the email, said degree of association (1) reflecting personal relationships between users corresponding to the each pair of destination addresses, and (2) comparing associations between a first pair of destination addresses and a second pair of destination addresses;
• a mail processing unit receiving the edited email from the mail editing unit, the mail processing unit comprising an address collecting portion and a display attribute modifying portion, the address collecting portion acquiring the degree of association from the degree of association database and, the display attribute modifying portion modifying the display attributes for the contents in accordance with the acquired degree of association including providing separate content boxes for each of the contents corresponding respectively to one of the at least three destination addresses;
• a mail server receiving the email from the mail processing unit and forwarding the email to each of the at least three destination addresses;
• and
• a mail receiving unit receiving the email from the mail server and displaying the email on a separate display device for each different recipient, the display attributes enable the email contents to be displayed to differentiate between each of the different recipients in accordance with the degree of association between the each pair of destination addresses among the at least three destination addresses;
• wherein for each of the different recipients, the content box corresponding to the recipient is displayed as most important, and the content boxes corresponding to the other recipients are displayed in the order of importance according to the degree of association between each of the other recipients and the recipient.