BuzzTrack: topic detection and tracking in email

ABSTRACT

We present BuzzTrack, an email client extension that helps users deal with email overload. This plugin enhances the interface to present messages grouped by topic, instead of the traditional approach of organizing email in folders. We discuss a clustering algorithm that creates the topic-based grouping, and a heuristic for labeling the resulting clusters to summarize their contents. Lastly, we evaluate the clustering scheme in the context of existing work on topic detection and tracking (TDT) for news articles: Our algorithm exhibits similar performance on emails as current work on news text. We believe BuzzTrack's organization structure, which can be obtained at no cost to the end user, will be helpful for managing the massive amounts of email that land in the inbox every day.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Graphical user interfaces (GUI)

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.3 INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL
      H.3.3 Information Search and Retrieval
          Subjects: Clustering
  H.4 INFORMATION SYSTEMS APPLICATIONS
      H.4.3 Communications Applications
          Subjects: Electronic mail

General Terms:
Algorithms, Design, Measurement

Keywords:
clustering, email, organization, sender behavior, topic detection, topic tracking