System and method for integrating electronic mail accounts

Abstract

In accordance with the teachings described herein, systems and methods are provided for integrating a plurality of electronic mail (email) accounts. A plurality of email services may be used to send and receive electronic messages over a wide area network, one of the email services being a preferred email service and another of the email services being a secondary email service. An email integration service may be used that is coupled to the wide area network and that is independent of the plurality of email services. The email integration service may be operable to receive account information regarding the preferred email service and the secondary email service and use the account information to configure a means for forwarding electronic messages from the preferred email service to the secondary email service.

1 . A system for integrating email accounts, comprising:
 a preferred email service configured to send and receive email messages for a primary email account;   a secondary email service configured to send and receive email messages for a secondary email account; and   a polling agent configured to periodically retrieve email messages, that have been addressed to the secondary email account, from the secondary email service and to forward the retrieved messages to the primary account.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the preferred and secondary email services are configured to send and receive the email messages over a wide area network. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2  wherein the wide area network is the Internet. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 3  wherein the secondary email service is an Internet service provider (ISP) email service. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 3  wherein the secondary email service is a webmail service. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1  further comprising an email integration service configured to receive and store account information regarding the secondary email account, to be used by the polling agent to retrieve the email messages from the secondary email service. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 6  wherein the email integration service configures the secondary email service to transmit a new-mail notification to the polling agent, and the polling agent retrieves an email message from the secondary account in response to receiving the new-mail notification. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the polling agent is configured to periodically retrieve the email messages from the secondary email service at regular intervals. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the polling agent is implemented on a single multi-purpose computer. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the system enables a user to select a sent-from email address to be included as a sender address in email messages that are transmitted from the preferred email service. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10  wherein the sent-from email address for an email to be sent by the preferred email service in reply to one of the retrieved email messages is set to correspond to the secondary email account from which the retrieved email was retrieved. 
     
     
         12 . A system for integrating email accounts, comprising:
 a preferred email service configured to send and receive email messages for a primary email account;   a secondary email service configured to send and receive email messages for a secondary email account; and   a forwarding rule maintained by the secondary email service to cause the secondary email service to automatically redirect electronic messages sent to the secondary account to the primary account.   
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 12  wherein the secondary email service is an Internet service provider (ISP) email service. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 12  wherein the secondary email service is a webmail service. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 12  wherein the system enables a user to select a sent-from email address to be included as a sender address in email messages that are transmitted from the preferred email service in response to email messages that were retrieved by the polling agent. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 15  wherein the sent-from email address for an email to be sent by the preferred email service in response to one of the retrieved email messages is set to correspond to the secondary email account from which the retrieved email was retrieved. 
     
     
         17 . A method for use with a preferred email service and a secondary email service that are configured to send and receive email messages for respective primary email and secondary email accounts, the method comprising:
 retrieving email messages, that have been addressed to the secondary email account, from the secondary email service; and   forwarding the retrieved messages to the primary account;   said retrieving and forwarding being performed automatically and periodically.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17  wherein said retrieving and forwarding are performed in response to receiving new-mail notifications from the secondary email service, indicating the secondary email service has received a new email message. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 17  further comprising enabling a user to select a sent-from email address to be included as a sender address in email messages that are transmitted from the preferred email service in response to email messages that were retrieved by the polling agent. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19  wherein the sent-from email address, for an email to be sent by the preferred email service in response to one of the retrieved email messages, is set to correspond to the secondary email account from which the retrieved email was retrieved.