System and method for customizing electronic messages

• US 8,285,982 B2
• Filed: 12/21/2006
• Issued: 10/09/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/13/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: RhythmOne LLC (Nexxen International Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Blinkx Incorporated (Nexxen International Ltd.)
• Inventors: Dobronsky, Oren
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu, Kim
• Assistant Examiner(s): King, John B
• Application Number:
  US11/614,430
• Publication Number:
  US 20070162867A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,119 Days
• Field of Search: 380/232, 713/150, 709/206, 715751-759, 715/744, 715/779, 715/825
• US Class Current: 713/150
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

A plug-in is provided to existing electronic message programs, such as electronic mail message programs, to provide a virtual toolbar therein. The virtual toolbar includes one or more virtual buttons that allow a user to select multimedia content to be added to an electronic message. The multimedia content may include, without limitation, any one or more of: graphics, audio, animation, video and text selections. The multimedia content may further include customizable templates in which business messages may be generated. The virtual buttons may be each be assigned to one category of related content, such as: Backgrounds for providing graphic backgrounds to a message, Holiday Themes for providing multimedia content associated with particular holidays, Animations for including FLASH animations or the like to a message, and Text for including pre-formatted text to a message. The content, appearance and number of virtual buttons may automatically be changed or updated by a content provider from time to time when the installed plug-in accesses a content server over a computer network, such as the Internet.

Claims

1. A method for customizing electronic mail messages by a computing device, comprising:

providing a plug-in to a desktop electronic mail message program; and

executing programming instructions from the plug-in to generate a virtual toolbar, independent of a native toolbar of the electronic mail message program, for display within the electronic mail message program, the virtual toolbar including at least one virtual button for selecting content including graphics for inclusion in an electronic mail message, at least a portion of the content being downloadable from a remote server, and the at least one virtual button being associated with at least one item or one category of available content, wherein the virtual tool bar has at least five or more virtual buttons, where a title on the virtual button is changeable from time to time by a content server in communication with the device with the resident electronic mail message program without initiation of any commands by the user the device, and where upon selection of a first virtual button, the installed plug-in retrieves a listing of content associated with the selected first virtual button from the content server and displays the available selections to the user of the device, and the displayed listing of content is retrievable by the installed plug-in when selected by the user of the device.

2. The method of claim 1, the executing program instructions further comprising:

providing at least one automatically executable instruction with the plug-in for associating the plug-in with the electronic mail message program.

3. The method of claim 2, the at least one automatically executable instruction for inserting a programming call by the electronic mail message program for the virtual toolbar from the plug-in.

4. The method of claim 1, the at least one virtual button for implementing a programming instruction for displaying the content.

5. The method of claim 1, the business-formatted content comprising at least one of content and formatting for internal electronic mail messages of a business entity;

and content and formatting for external electronic mail messages of a business entity.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic mail message program and the plug-in are developed by separate manufacturers.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising updating the content available to a plurality of users without updating the plug-in or the electronic mail message programs stored by the plurality of users.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a selection of a virtual button from a user terminal; and

transmitting a plurality of a first set of selectable content associated with the virtual button for display to the user.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting at least one advertisement for display to the user after the executing.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable medium encoded with processing instructions for implementing a method, performed by a computer, for customizing electronic messages, the method comprising:

providing a plug-in to a desktop electronic mail message program;

executing programming instructions from the plug-in to generate a virtual toolbar, independent of a native toolbar of the electronic mail message program, for display within the electronic mail message program, the virtual toolbar including at least one virtual button for selecting content including graphics for inclusion in an electronic mail message, at least a portion of the content being downloadable from a remote server, and the at least one virtual button being associated with at least one item or category of available content, wherein the virtual tool bar has at least five or more virtual buttons, where a title on the virtual button is changeable from time to time by a content server in communication with the device with the resident electronic mail message program without initiation of any commands by the user the device, and where upon selection of a first virtual button, the installed plug-in retrieves a listing of content associated with the selected first virtual button from the content server and displays the available selections to the user of the device, and the displayed listing of content is retrievable by the installed plug-in when selected by the user of the device.

11. A computer-implementable method for allowing customization of electronic mail messages, comprising:

receiving executable programming code for including a virtual toolbar in an electronic mail message program of a user terminal, the executable programming code for displaying the virtual toolbar within a window of the electronic mail message program, separate from a native toolbar; and

receiving, from a user, a selection of a virtual button of the virtual toolbar, the selected virtual button associated with selectable content including graphics for inclusion in an electronic message generated by the user from the electronic message program, at least a portion of the content being downloadable from a remote server, and the at least one virtual button being associated with at least one item or category of available content, wherein the virtual tool bar has at least five or more virtual buttons, where a title on the virtual button is changeable from time to time by a content server in communication with the device with the resident electronic mail message program without initiation of any commands by the user the device, and where upon selection of a first virtual button, the installed plug-in retrieves a listing of content associated with the selected first virtual button from the content server and displays the available selections to the user of the device, and the displayed listing of content is retrievable by the installed plug-in when selected by the user of the device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the selectable content is displayed in a separate window to a user.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

receiving a selection of one of the selectable content from the user; and

transmitting the selected content for display to the user in a message input field of an electronic mail message.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

embedding a call to the content in the electronic mail message for transmission to a second user, whereby when the second user opens the electronic mail message, the content is retrieved from the content server and displayed in the electronic mail message to the second user.

15. The method of claim 11, the selectable content including one of the following for association with an electronic mail message:

holiday-themed content, visual images, animations, audio content, audio/visual content, and business-formatted content.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the visual images include a plurality of animations.