US Patent 7979501 Enhanced message display

Informational items are displayed in a scrollable area of a message display. The informational items may be any number of type of items (e.g., RSS feeds, new items, images, application tips, and so on). A user is provided the ability to scroll forward and backward through the informational items. A user may choose the informational item (e.g., by clicking) and more detailed information about the informational item is presented to the user. Depending on the display view of the message application (e.g., InBox, conversation), different informational item types will have different probabilities of display. A user may customize the types of informational items to be displayed.