Real time electronic mail
First Claim
1. A method of providing a dynamic electronic mail message, the method comprising:
- transmitting an electronic message from a mail server computer system, the message comprising;
a hypertext markup language (“
HTML”
) image (“
IMG”
) tag comprising a first uniform resource locator (“
URL”
) that references a first resource at a resource server computer system; and
an HTML anchor (“
A”
) tag comprising a second URL;
receiving, at the resource server computer system, a request for the first resource referenced by the first URL;
executing a first executable script at the resource server computer system, based on the request for the first resource, wherein executing the first executable script comprises;
recording an indication that the recipient opened the electronic message;
identifying a set of characteristics about the circumstances under which the electronic message was loaded for display, the set of characteristics comprising;
an identification of the electronic message, based at least in part on the request for the first resource;
a recipient of the electronic message, based at least in part on the request for the first resource;
an Internet Protocol (“
IP”
) address of the recipient computer system that loaded the electronic message for display, based at least in part on the request for the first resource;
a device type of the recipient computer system that loaded the electronic message for display, based at least in part on the request for the first resource;
a physical location of the recipient computer system that loaded the electronic message for display, based at least in part on the IP address of the recipient computer system; and
a timestamp indicating a time at which the electronic message was loaded for display;
identifying, via the resource server computer system, a set of demographic information about the recipient, based at least in part on one or more characteristics about the circumstances under which the message was loaded for display, the set of demographic information comprising one or more values from the group consisting of;
an address of the recipient;
an age of the recipient;
an education level of the recipient;
a gender of the recipient;
a marital status of the recipient;
a set of one or more interests of the recipient;
an income level of the recipient; and
past online behavior of the recipient;
generating, at the resource server computer system, a first set of content in response to the first request and configured to be displayed within the electronic message, wherein the first set of content is generated based at least in part on one or more of the set of characteristics about the circumstances under which the electronic message was loaded for display and at least a portion of the set of demographic information about the recipient; and
transmitting, via the resource server computer system, the first set of content to be displayed within the electronic message, the first set of content comprising one or more images as the first resource.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Novel tools and techniques for generating and/or transmitting dynamic electronic mail messages, which can include content that is generated at the time the email message is opened. In some cases, an email message will include a reference to a resource on a server, and a standard email client can request that resource with the reference, either automatically or upon prompting by the user. Based on the nature of the request, a number of properties or characteristics of the request (and/or of the circumstances under which the email message is opened or loaded for display) can be derived or identified. Further, demographic information about the recipient can be identified. Based on these characteristics and/or demographic information, customized content can be generated and transmitted for display, e.g., in body of the electronic message.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of providing a dynamic electronic mail message, the method comprising:
-
transmitting an electronic message from a mail server computer system, the message comprising; a hypertext markup language (“
HTML”
) image (“
IMG”
) tag comprising a first uniform resource locator (“
URL”
) that references a first resource at a resource server computer system; andan HTML anchor (“
A”
) tag comprising a second URL;receiving, at the resource server computer system, a request for the first resource referenced by the first URL; executing a first executable script at the resource server computer system, based on the request for the first resource, wherein executing the first executable script comprises; recording an indication that the recipient opened the electronic message; identifying a set of characteristics about the circumstances under which the electronic message was loaded for display, the set of characteristics comprising; an identification of the electronic message, based at least in part on the request for the first resource; a recipient of the electronic message, based at least in part on the request for the first resource; an Internet Protocol (“
IP”
) address of the recipient computer system that loaded the electronic message for display, based at least in part on the request for the first resource;a device type of the recipient computer system that loaded the electronic message for display, based at least in part on the request for the first resource; a physical location of the recipient computer system that loaded the electronic message for display, based at least in part on the IP address of the recipient computer system; and a timestamp indicating a time at which the electronic message was loaded for display; identifying, via the resource server computer system, a set of demographic information about the recipient, based at least in part on one or more characteristics about the circumstances under which the message was loaded for display, the set of demographic information comprising one or more values from the group consisting of; an address of the recipient; an age of the recipient; an education level of the recipient; a gender of the recipient; a marital status of the recipient; a set of one or more interests of the recipient; an income level of the recipient; and past online behavior of the recipient; generating, at the resource server computer system, a first set of content in response to the first request and configured to be displayed within the electronic message, wherein the first set of content is generated based at least in part on one or more of the set of characteristics about the circumstances under which the electronic message was loaded for display and at least a portion of the set of demographic information about the recipient; and transmitting, via the resource server computer system, the first set of content to be displayed within the electronic message, the first set of content comprising one or more images as the first resource. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A system, comprising:
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a mail server comprising a first processor and a first non-transitory computer readable medium having encoded thereon a first set of instructions executable by the first processor to cause the mail server to perform one or more operations, the first set of instructions comprising; instructions for transmitting an electronic message comprising; a hypertext markup language (“
HTML”
) image (“
IMG”
) tag comprising a first uniform resource locator (“
URL”
) that references a first resource at a resource server computer system; andan HTML anchor (“
A”
) tag comprising a second URL;a resource server comprising a second processor and a second non-transitory computer readable medium having encoded thereon a second set of instructions executable by the second processor to cause the resource server to perform one or more operations, the second set of instructions comprising; instructions for receiving, at the resource server, the request for the first resource referenced by the first URL; instructions for executing a first executable script at the resource server, based on the request for the first resource, wherein the first executable script comprises; instructions for recording an indication that the recipient opened the electronic message; instructions for identifying a set of characteristics about the circumstances under which the electronic message was loaded for display, the set of characteristics comprising; an identification of the electronic message, based at least in part on the request for the first resource; a recipient of the electronic message, based at least in part on the request for the first resource; an Internet Protocol (“
IP”
) address of the recipient computer system that loaded the electronic message for display, based at least in part on the request for the first resource;a device type of the recipient computer system that loaded the electronic message for display, based at least in part on the request for the first resource; a physical location of the recipient computer system that loaded the electronic message for display, based at least in part on the IP address of the recipient computer system; and a timestamp indicating a time at which the electronic message was loaded for display; instructions for identifying a set of demographic information about the recipient, based at least in part on one or more characteristics about the circumstances under which the electronic message was loaded for display, the set of demographic information comprising one or more values from the group consisting of; an address of the recipient; an age of the recipient; an education level of the recipient; a gender of the recipient; a marital status of the recipient; a set of one or more interests of the recipient; an income level of the recipient; and past online behavior of the recipient; instructions for obtaining a first set of content to be provided in response to the first request and configured to be displayed within the electronic message, wherein the first set of content is obtained based at least in part on one or more of the set of characteristics about the circumstances under which the electronic message was loaded for display and at least a portion of the set of demographic information about the recipient; instructions for transmitting the first set of content to be displayed within the electronic message, the first set of content comprising a set of one or more images as the first resource. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. An apparatus, comprising:
a non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon a set of instructions executable by one or more computers to perform one or more operations, the set of instructions comprising; instructions for transmitting an electronic message, the message comprising; a markup language tag comprising a first uniform resource locator (“
URL”
), wherein the markup language tag is configured to request a first resource when the electronic message is displayed at a recipient computer system; andinstructions for identifying, upon receipt of a request from the recipient computer system for the first resource referenced by the first URL, a set of characteristics about the circumstances under which the electronic message was displayed at the recipient computer system, wherein the set of characteristics includes at least one of an identification of the electronic message, based at least in part on the request for the first resource, a recipient of the electronic message, based at least in part on the request for the first resource, an Internet Protocol (“
IP”
) address of the recipient computer system that loaded the electronic message for display, based at least in part on the request for the first resource, a device type of the recipient computer system that loaded the electronic message for display, based at least in part on the request for the first resource, a physical location of the recipient computer system that loaded the electronic message for display, based at least in part on the IP address of the recipient computer system; and
a timestamp indicating a time at which the electronic message was loaded for display;instructions for generating a set of content to be provided in response to the first request and configured to be displayed within the electronic message, wherein the set of content is generated based at least in part on one or more of the set of characteristics about the circumstances under which the electronic message was displayed at the recipient computer system; and instructions for transmitting, from the server computer system, the set of content to be displayed within the body of the electronic message at the recipient computer system.
Specification