Delivery confirmation for e-mail

• US 7,836,132 B2
• Filed: 12/13/2005
• Issued: 11/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sardesai, Vikram S., Hoffman, William R., Little, Charles R. II, Figueroa, Roberto F., Stern, Pablo M., Schackwitz, Michael D., Boyea, Robin L., Shahine, Omar H., Gillum, Eliot C., Qureshi, Imran I., Leung, Thomas A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chan; Wing F
• Assistant Examiner(s): WOO, ANDREW M
• Application Number:
  US11/301,862
• Publication Number:
  US 20070136430A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,799 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 709/206
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/23 Reliability checks, e.g. acknowledgments or fault reporting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/234 for tracking messages

Abstract

A delivery confirmation is provided to the sender of an e-mail message. When the e-mail message is composed, a link, such as a hyperlink, is inserted into the e-mail message, such as in the body or header. The link can include information such as a message identifier and identifiers of the sender and the recipient, which are provided as a query string of the link, while a host field of the link includes the address of an e-mail/web server. When the recipient receives the e-mail message and opens it, the link is displayed along with text that instructs the user to use the link to confirm delivery. The confirmation can include displaying indicia for the e-mail message in a folder view on an interface of the sender, or sending a confirmation e-mail message to the sender, for instance. Voting by e-mail can also be provided.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for confirming delivery of an e-mail message, comprising:

receiving at an e-mail server, a first e-mail message which includes, in a body of the first e-mail message, text which was composed by a sender of the first e-mail message on a user interface of the sender, the first e-mail message is received from a host computer of the sender, and is addressed to a recipient selected by the sender, where the sender and recipient are human users of an e-mail application;

delivering the first e-mail message from the server to an inbox of the recipient once the sender has finished composing the first e-mail message and sends the first e-mail message, the first e-mail message is delivered with the text which was composed by the sender, such that when the first e-mail message is opened by the recipient on a user interface of the recipient, the user interface of the recipient concurrently displays, in the body of the first e-mail message;

(a) the composed text, (b) a link which includes at least one identifier, the link is selectable by the recipient to provide a confirmation e-mail message to an inbox of the sender indicating that the recipient received the first e-mail message, and (c) instructions for instructing the recipient to use the link to provide the confirmation e-mail message, wherein;

at the user interface of the sender, the link and the instructions are inserted into the body of the first e-mail message in response to a command made by the sender when composing the first e-mail message, so that the user interface of the sender concurrently displays, in the body of the first e-mail message;

(d) the composed text, (e) the link, and (f) the instructions, such that the sender can view how the first e-mail message will appear to the recipient; and

the delivering includes forwarding the first e-mail message as received from the sender with the link and the instructions inserted into the body of the first e-mail message;

when the recipient has not yet selected the link, displaying, on the user interface of the sender, an indicia for the first e-mail message in a folder view to indicate that the first e-mail message was previously sent, and that the sender is awaiting confirmation that the recipient has received the first e-mail message;

receiving a re-send command from the sender upon selection of a re-send indicia on the user interface of the sender; and

in response to the re-send command, executing software which generates a new e-mail message by retrieving the first e-mail message from an e-mail store, copying the composed text from the first e-mail message to the new e-mail message, and providing the new e-mail message with identifiers of the sender and the recipient.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

the instructions and the link are provided above the composed text in the body of the first e-mail message, when the first e-mail message is viewed by the recipient.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

the user interface of the sender displays the body of the first e-mail message with the composed text but without the link and the instructions before the sender enters the command; and

the user interface of the sender concurrently displays, in the body of the first e-mail message, the composed text, the link and the instructions, after the sender enters the command.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein:

the link includes default text which is editable by the sender to allow the sender to customize the link, while the user interface of the sender concurrently displays, in the body of the first e-mail message, the composed text, the link and the instructions.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

when the recipient selects the link at the user interface of the recipient, loading a web page in a web browser of the user interface of the recipient to display a message acknowledging that the recipient has provided the confirmation e-mail message to the sender.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

when the recipient has selected the link, displaying an indicia for the first e-mail message in the folder view on the user interface of the sender to indicate that delivery of the first e-mail message has been confirmed by the recipient, wherein the folder view is updated on an ongoing basis for tracking e-mail messages having delivery confirmation requests.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

when the first e-mail message is opened by the recipient on the user interface of the recipient, the user interface of the recipient displays, in the body of the first e-mail message, concurrently with displaying the composed text, the link which includes at least one identifier, and the instructions for instructing the recipient to use the link to provide the confirmation e-mail message;

(c) an additional link which is selectable to allow the recipient to provide a confirmation e-mail message to the inbox of the sender indicating that the recipient has read the first e-mail message, and (d) instructions for instructing the recipient to use the additional link to provide the confirmation e-mail message indicating that the recipient has read the first e-mail message.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

the at least one identifier comprises an e-mail address of the sender.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first e-mail message is addressed to multiple recipients including the recipient and a second recipient, the method further comprising:

providing a copy of the first e-mail message; and

inserting a second link in the copy of the first e-mail message, the second link including the second identifier and being selectable by the second recipient to provide a confirmation e-mail message to the inbox of the sender indicating that the second recipient received the copy of the first e-mail message.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

in the folder view, notifying the sender when the confirmation is overdue, where the folder view is updated on an ongoing basis for tracking e-mail messages having delivery confirmation requests, where the folder view indicates a number of days the confirmation is overdue.

11. A non-transitory computer readable media having computer readable code embodied thereon for programming at least one processor to perform a method for voting or tallying via e-mail, the method comprising:

providing at least one identifier for a first e-mail message at a user interface of a sender, the at least one identifier including an identifier of a recipient of the first e-mail message, where the sender and recipient are human users of an e-mail application;

inserting a plurality of links in a body of the first e-mail message, each link including the at least one identifier and being selectable by the recipient to cast a vote for an associated choice, each link includes associated text which was entered by the sender via the user interface of the sender;

providing instructional text in the body of the first e-mail message to the recipient to cast a vote, the instructional text is typed in by the sender via the user interface of the sender;

wherein the user interface of the sender concurrently displays, in the body of the first e-mail message, each link and the associated text, and the instructional text, such that the sender can view how the first e-mail message will appear to the recipient;

delivering the first e-mail message with the plurality of links in the body to an inbox of the recipient once the sender has finished composing the first e-mail message and sends the first e-mail message by clicking on a send button on the user interface, wherein, the delivering includes forwarding the first e-mail message as received from the sender with each link and the associated text, and the instructional text, inserted into the body of the first e-mail message, to the recipient once the sender has finished composing the first e-mail message and sends the first e-mail message, such that when the first e-mail message is opened by the recipient on a user interface of the recipient, the user interface of the recipient concurrently displays, in the body of the first e-mail message, each link and the associated text, and the instructional text;

when the recipient has not yet selected at least one of the plurality of links, displaying, on the user interface of the sender, an indicia for the first e-mail message in a folder view to indicate that the first e-mail message was previously sent, and that the sender is awaiting confirmation that the recipient has received the first e-mail message;

receiving a re-send command from the sender upon selection of a re-send indicia on the user interface of the sender; and

in response to the re-send command, executing software which generates a new e-mail message by retrieving the first e-mail message from an e-mail store, copying the composed text from the first e-mail message to the new e-mail message, and providing the new e-mail message with identifiers of the sender and the recipient.

12. The non-transitory computer readable media of claim 11, wherein:

each link comprises a link to a web server; and

the web server tallies a vote for an associated choice responsive to selection of one of the links by the recipient.

13. The non-transitory computer readable media of claim 11, wherein separate copies of the first e-mail message are sent to multiple recipients, each copy including a link having an identifier of the associated recipient, and the method performed further comprises:

identifying specific recipients among the multiple recipients who vote for a specified choice according to the identifiers.

14. A computer-implemented method for confirming delivery of an e-mail message, comprising:

receiving at an e-mail server, a first e-mail message which includes, in a body of the first e-mail message, text which was composed by a sender of the first e-mail message on a user interface of the sender, the first e-mail message is received from a host computer of the sender, and is addressed to a recipient selected by the sender, where the sender and recipient are human users of an e-mail application;

delivering the first e-mail message from the server to an inbox of the recipient once the sender has finished composing the first e-mail message and sends the first e-mail message, the first e-mail message is delivered with the text which was composed by the sender, such that when the first e-mail message is opened by the recipient on a user interface of the recipient, the user interface of the recipient displays, in the body of the first e-mail message;

(a) the composed text, (b) a link which includes at least one identifier, the link is selectable by the recipient to provide a confirmation e-mail message to an inbox of the sender indicating that the recipient received the first e-mail message, and (c) instructions for instructing the recipient to use the link to provide the confirmation e-mail message;

when the recipient has not yet selected the link, displaying, on the user interface of the sender, an indicia for the first e-mail message in a folder view to indicate that the first e-mail message was previously sent, and that the sender is awaiting confirmation that the recipient has received the first e-mail message;

receiving a re-send command from the sender upon selection of a re-send indicia on the user interface of the sender; and

in response to the re-send command, executing software which generates a new e-mail message by retrieving the first e-mail message from an e-mail store, copying the composed text from the first sent e-mail message to the new e-mail message, and providing the new e-mail message with identifiers of the sender and the recipient.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, further comprising:

sending the new email message to the recipient.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein:

the generating the new e-mail message further includes retrieving identifiers of the sender and the recipient.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein:

the generating the new e-mail message further includes retrieving the instructions of the first e-mail message, and inserting the instructions into a body of the new e-mail message, along with a new link;

where the new link is selectable by the recipient to provide a confirmation e-mail message to the inbox of the sender indicating that the recipient received the new e-mail message.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, further comprising:

displaying, on the user interface of the sender, an indicia for the new e-mail message in the folder view, where the indicia for the new e-mail message appears separately from the indicia for the first sent e-mail message.