Systems and methods for monitoring events associated with transmitted electronic mail messages

• US 7,139,801 B2
• Filed: 06/14/2002
• Issued: 11/21/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Mindshare Design, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Mindshare Design, Inc.
• Inventors: Smith, Steve, Rayner, Douglas P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Dharia, Rupal
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bayard, Djenane M.
• Application Number:
  US10/171,720
• Publication Number:
  US 20030233412A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,621 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/206, 709/246, 709/247, 707/3
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/234 for tracking messages

Abstract

Various systems and methods provide users with the ability to track, detect, record analyze and report various events associated with the life of an electronic mail message delivered to any recipient. Some of the events that may be tracked by the systems and methods of the preferred exemplary embodiment include identification of when a recipient views a message and clicks on any web page links contained within the message. In accordance with another aspect of the preferred exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the systems and methods provide a simple mechanism for storing, monitoring and accessing information relating to various events that have transpired with respect to a large volume of electronic mail messages. Electronic mail message list may also be automatically generated with the data acquired by the systems and methods of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method of monitoring events associated with the transmission of an electronic mail message comprising the steps of:

transmitting electronic mail messages to a plurality of recipients,

wherein each of the mail messages has an identifier code contained within the mail message;

directing a recipient of a mail message to an intermediate response server and thereafter creating a link between the recipient and a destination site;

temporarily storing a received identifier code in a buffer;

storing in a bitmap after a predetermined period of time information which provides a correlation between the identifier code and the act of creating the link, including generating the logical “

or”

of the identifier code and a location in the bitmap; and

dynamically sizing the bitmap to be sufficiently large to accommodate the storage of a largest received identifier code.