3. The method of claim 1 , further including: obtaining a conversation topic for each conversation in the list of conversations; and producing formatting information associated with the conversation topic of a respective conversation, such that, when displayed, the conversation topic is highlighted when the conversation includes at least one message that has not been viewed or marked as read by the user.
3. The method of claim 1 , further including: obtaining a conversation topic for each conversation in the list of conversations; and producing formatting information associated with the conversation topic of a respective conversation, such that, when displayed, the conversation topic is highlighted when the conversation includes at least one message that has not been viewed or marked as read by the user. 4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the conversation topic for one or more conversations in the list of conversations is determined by heuristically examining the contents of one or more messages in the respective conversation.