Method and system for dynamically generating electronic communications

• US 8,626,845 B2
• Filed: 12/28/2009
• Issued: 01/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adknowledge
• Original Assignee: Adknowledge
• Inventors: Lynn, Scott, Brady, Shane, Linden, John
• Primary Examiner(s): BILGRAMI, ASGHAR H
• Application Number:
  US12/647,749
• Publication Number:
  US 20100106788A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,471 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/206, 705/14.51, 705/14.4, 705/14.39, 705/14.49
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/08 Annexed information, e.g. attachments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/18 Commands or executable codes

Abstract

The present invention relates to generating time relevant content for electronic communications, such as electronic mail (e-mail). The time relevant content is delivered when the electronic communications are acknowledged by the recipient based upon receipt of an electronic indicator, such as a returned request(s), at a home server. In the case of electronic mail, the time relevant content is dynamic, as it is assembled at the time the e-mail is opened, as opposed to the time when the e-mail is sent, as is the case with conventional or static e-mail and other similar electronic communications.

Claims

1. A server-implemented method for rendering an electronic mail (e-mail) message to a user of a terminal, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) transmitting, from at least one first server, the e-mail message to the terminal, the e-mail message comprising a content request, such that, when the user opens the e-mail message, the terminal automatically transmits the content request to the at least one first server;

(b) receiving, at the at least one first server, the content request;

(c) retrieving, by the at least one first server, a set of content based on the content request;

(d) converting, by at least one second server, the set of content into at least one image associated with the set of content;

(e) transmitting, from the at least one first server, the at least one image associated with the set of content to the terminal, such that the terminal automatically includes the at least one image associated with the set of content in the rendering of the e-mail message to the user at the terminal; and

,

(f) the set of content is time-dependent, such that;

i) when the user opens the e-mail message at a first time, the at least one first server, in response to receiving a first instance of the content request from the terminal, retrieves a first set of content to be automatically included as at least one image by the terminal in a first rendering of the e-mail message to the user; and

, ii) when the user opens the e-mail message at a second time different from the first time, the at least one first server, in response to receiving a second instance of the content request from the terminal, retrieves a second set of content, different from the first set of content, to be automatically included as at least one image by the terminal in a second rendering of the e-mail message to the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the e-mail message comprises two or more content requests, such that, when the user opens the e-mail message, the terminal automatically transmits the two or more content requests to the at least one first server; and

step (b) comprises receiving, at the at least one first server, the two or more content requests;

step (c) comprises retrieving, by the at least one first server, two or more sets of content based on the two or more content requests;

step (d) comprises converting, by the at least one second server, the two or more sets of content each into at least one image associated with each set of content; and

step (e) comprises transmitting, from the at least one first server, the at least one image associated with each of the two or more sets of content to the terminal, such that the terminal automatically includes each of the at least one image associated with each of the two or more sets of content in the rendering of the e-mail message to the user.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein each of the at least one image associated with each of the two or more sets of content includes location information, such that upon bring transmitted, each of the at least one image associated with each of the two or more sets of content are rendered in different locations in the body of the opened e-mail message.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one image associated with the set of content includes a link to be presented by the terminal in the rendering of the e-mail message to the user, such that, when the link is selected by the user, the terminal accesses a website associated with the link.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein:

in addition to the content request, the e-mail message comprises static content; and

the terminal renders (i) a first portion of the e-mail message based on the static content and (ii) a second portion of the e-mail message based on the at least one image associated with the set of content received from the at least one first server.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the e-mail message comprises location information that enables the terminal to determine where to place the at least one image in the body of the opened e-mail relative to placement of the static content upon rendering of the at least one image to the e-mail message.

12. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least one first server includes a main server.

13. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least one second server includes an imaging server.

7. A terminal-implemented method for rendering an electronic mail (e-mail) message to a user of the terminal, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving, at the terminal, the e-mail message transmitted from at least one first server, the e-mail message comprising a content request;

(b) receiving, at the terminal, an indication that the e-mail message has been opened by the user;

(c) automatically retrieving, by the terminal, the content request from the e-mail message;

(d) automatically transmitting, from the terminal, the content request to the at least one first server, such that the at least one first server retrieves a set of content based on the content request and transmits to the terminal at least one image associated with the set of content, the at least one image created by an imaging server converting the set of content based on the content request, into the at least one image;

(e) receiving, at the terminal, the at least one image associated with the set of content transmitted from the at least one first server;

(f) automatically rendering, by the terminal, the at least one image associated with the set of content into the opened e-mail, and,

(g) the set of content is time-dependent, such that i) when the e-mail message is opened by the user at a first time, the at least one first server, in response to receiving a first instance of the content request from the terminal, retrieves a first set of content to be automatically included as at least one image by the terminal in a first rendering of the e-mail message to the user; and

, ii) when the e-mail message is opened by the user at a second time different from the first time, the at least one first server, in response to receiving a second instance of the content request from the terminal, retrieves a second set of content, different from the first set of content, to be automatically included as at least one image by the terminal in a second rendering of the e-mail message to the user.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein:

the e-mail message comprises two or more content requests;

step (c) comprises automatically retrieving, by the terminal, the two or more content requests from the email message;

step (d) comprises automatically transmitting, from the terminal, the two or more content requests to the at least one first server, such that the at least one first server retrieves two or more sets of content based on the two or more content requests;

step (e) comprises receiving, at the terminal, the at least one image associated with each of the two or more sets of content, transmitted from the at least one server; and

step (f) comprises automatically including, by the terminal, the at least one image associated with each of the two or more sets of content in the rendering of the email message to the user.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the at least one image includes a link to be presented by the terminal in the rendering of the e-mail message to the user, such that, when the link is selected by the user, the terminal accesses a website associated with the link.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein:

in addition to the content request, the e-mail message comprises static content; and

the terminal renders (i) a first portion of the e-mail message based on the static content and (ii) a second portion of the e-mail message based on the at least one image associated with the set of content received from the at least one first server.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the e-mail message comprises location information that enables the terminal to determine where to place the at least one image in the rendering of the e-mail message relative to placement of the static content.

14. A system for rendering an electronic mail (e-mail) message to a user of a terminal linked to a communications network, over a communications network, the system comprising:

at least one first server linked to the communications network, the at least one first server comprising;

a non-transitory storage medium for storing computer components; and

a processor in communication with the storage medium for executing the computer components, the computer components comprising;

an e-mail component for transmitting at least one e-mail message to the terminal, the e-mail message comprising a content request, such that, when the user opens the at least one email message, the terminal automatically transmits the content request to the at least one first server;

a receiver component for receiving the content request;

a retrieval component for retrieving a set of content, which is time-dependent, such that upon receiving a first instance of the content request and a second instance of the content request resulting from the opening of the at least one e-mail message by the user at different times, different sets of content are retrieved, each of the different sets of content corresponding to the different times of each opening of the at least one e-mail message by the user; and

,

a transmission component for transmitting a different at least one image associated with each different retrieved set of content to the terminal, such that the terminal automatically includes each at least one image associated with each retrieved set of content in the rendering of each opening of the at least one e-mail message to the user at the terminal; and

,

at least one second server linked to the communications network and configured for converting each retrieved set of content from the retrieval component into each at least one image.