SMTP server, POP server, mail server, mail processing system and web server

• US 7,035,901 B1
• Filed: 12/20/1999
• Issued: 04/25/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: GMO Internet Incorporated
• Original Assignee: GMO Internet Incorporated
• Inventors: Kumagai, Masatoshi, Watanabe, Toshihiro, Osada, Kenichiro, Miyatake, Nobuhiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Caldwell, Andrew
• Assistant Examiner(s): BLAIR, DOUGLAS B
• Application Number:
  US09/466,813
• Time in Patent Office: 2,318 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/207, 709/217, 709/218, 709/223, 709/224, 705/14, 705/26, 705/27
• 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: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0271 Personalized advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/063 Content adaptation, e.g. replacement of unsuitable content

Abstract

According to the present invention, an SMTP server sending a mail having a predetermined mail address as a recipient to a server that receives and manages the mail having the predetermined mail address, includes: an advertisement information memory operable to store advertisement information to be added to the mail; an advertisement information detector operable to detect the advertisement information to be added to the mail from the advertisement information memory based on at least one of user information about a user having the mail address of the recipient of the mail, user information about a user having a mail address of a sender of the mail and a sentence included in the mail; an advertisement information adding portion operable to add the advertisement information to the mail; and a sending portion operable to send the mail to the server.

Claims

1. An SMTP server arranged to send an electronic mail having an intended recipient to a server that receives and manages the mail, comprising:

an advertisement information memory operable to store advertisement information to be added to the mail;

a user information memory operable to store a plurality of mail addresses and a plurality of pieces of personal information about users for the plurality of mail addresses so as to be associated with each other, respectively;

an advertisement information detector operable to detect the advertisement information which is to be added to the mail that is associated with at least one of;

(a) user information about a user having the recipient mail address, (b) user information about a user having a sender mail address corresponding to a sender of the mail and (c) a portion of a message in the mail, from the advertisement information memory;

an advertisement information adding portion operable to add at least the advertisement information, which is detected from the memory by said advertisement information detector, to the mail;

a sending portion operable to send the mail, on which the advertisement information is added by the advertisement information adding portion, to the server;

an addition refusal information memory, operable to store addition refusal information specifying a mail address of the recipient that refuses the addition of the advertisement according to an intention of the recipient; and

an addition controller operable to stop the addition of the advertisement information by the advertisement information adding portion to the mail, in a case where the mail address specified by the addition refusal information is the mail address of the recipient of the mail.

2. The SMTP server of claim 1, wherein the advertisement information includes page specifying information that specifies a predetermined homepage.

3. The SMTP server of claim 2, wherein:

the advertisement information memory stores the advertisement information and personal information about a user who is an object for which addition of said advertisement information is performed so as to be associated with each other, the advertisement information detector detects the personal information associated with the mail address of the recipient of the mail from the user information memory, and detects the advertisement information associated with said detected attributed information from the advertisement memory.

4. The SMTP server of claim 3, wherein the attribute information is at least one of age, gender and a zip code.

5. The SMTP server of claim 4, further comprising a target key word memory, operable to store the advertisement information and a key word to be included in a sentence of a mail to which said advertisement information is added, so as to be associated with each other,

wherein the advertisement information detector detects advertisement information that is associated with a key word corresponding to a phrase included in a sentence of the mail to be sent.

6. The SMTP server of claim 5, further comprising a non target key word memory operable to the advertisement information and a key word to be included in a sentence of a mail to which said advertisement information is not added so as to be associated with each other,

wherein the advertisement information detector removes the advertisement information associated with a keyword corresponding to the phrase included in the sentence of the mail to be sent from an object of detection.

7. The SMTP server of claim 6, wherein the mail has a plurality of mail addresses of recipients,

the sending portion sends the mail to each of the mail addresses of the recipients when the mail has the plurality of mail addresses of the recipients,

the advertisement information detector detects the advertisement information to be added to the mail that is to be sent to each of the mail addresses, based on the attribute information of the user corresponding to each of the mail addresses, and

the advertisement information adding portion adds the advertisement information to the mail that is sent to each of the mail addresses of the recipients.

8. The SMTP server of claim 7, further comprising:

a point information memory operable to store a mail address and point information for a user having said mail address to be associated with each other; and

a point updating portion operable to update the point information associated with the mail address of the sender of the mail, when the advertisement information adding portion adds the mail to the advertisement information.

9. A POP server for storing a mail having a predetermined mail address as a recipient and for sending a mail having the predetermined mail address as the recipient to a terminal, based on a sending request from the terminal to send the mail having the predetermined mail address to the terminal, the POP server comprising:

a mail memory operable to store the mail having the predetermined mail address as the recipient;

an advertisement information memory operable to store at least one piece of advertisement information;

an advertisement information detector operable to retrieve at least one piece of advertisement information that is to be added to the mail from the advertisement information memory, based on at least one of user information about a user having a mail address of a sender of the mail, user information about a user having the mail address of the recipient of the mail, and a sentence of the mail;

an advertisement information adding portion operable to add the advertisement information detected to the mail;

a sending portion operable to send the terminal the mail to which the advertisement information is added;

an addition refusal information memory, operable to store addition refusal information specifying a mail address of the recipient that refuses the addition of the advertisement according to an intention of the recipient; and

an addition controller operable to stop the addition of the advertisement information by the advertisement information adding portion to the mail, in a case where the mail address specified by the addition refusal information is the mail address of the recipient of the mail.

10. The POP server of claim 9, wherein the advertisement information includes page information that specifies a predetermined homepage.

11. The POP server of claim 9, wherein:

the advertisement information memory stores the advertisement information and the personal information of a user for which the addition of the advertisement information is performed so as to be associated with each other,

the advertisement information detector detects the personal information associated with the mail address of the mail from the memory and detects the advertisement information associated with the detected personal information.

12. The POP server of claim 9, wherein the attribute information indicates at least one of age, gender and a zip code.

13. The POP server of claim 9, further comprising a target key word memory operable to store the advertisement information and a key word to be included in a sentence of a mail to which said advertisement information is added so as to be associated with each other,

wherein the advertisement information detector detects advertisement information associated with the key word corresponding to a phrase included in a sentence of the mail.

14. The POP server of claim 9, further comprising a non target key word memory operable to store the advertisement information and a key word that is to be included in a sentence of a mail to which said advertisement information is not added,

wherein the advertisement information detector removes the advertisement information associated with the key word corresponding to the phrase included in the sentence of the mail from an object of detection.

15. The POP server of claim 9, further comprising:

a point information memory operable to store a mail address and point information for a user having said mail address so as to be associated with each other; and

a point updating portion operable to update the point information associated with the mail address of the recipient of the mail, when the advertisement information adding portion adds the advertisement information to the mail.

16. A mail server for sending a mail sent from a first information process apparatus to a second information process apparatus, comprising:

an additional information memory operable to store additional information to be added to the mail;

an additional information detector operable to detect the additional information from the additional information memory based on at least one of attribute information about a user having a mail address of a sender of the mail, attribute information about a user having a mail address of a recipient of the mail, and a sentence of the mail;

an additional information adding portion operable to add the additional information to the mail sent from the first information process apparatus; and

a sending portion operable to send the mail to which the additional information is added to the second information process apparatus;

an addition refusal information memory, operable to store addition refusal information specifying a mail address of the user that refuses the addition of the advertisement according to an intention of the user; and

an addition controller operable to stop the addition of the advertisement information by the advertisement information adding portion to the mail, in a case where the mail address specified by the addition refusal information is the mail address of the recipient of the mail.

17. A mail processing system comprising a web server operable to send a predetermined program to a terminal based on a request from the terminal;

and a mail server operable to send a mail having a recipient mail address of an intended recipient to a server that receives and stores the mail, wherein the mail server includes;

an advertisement information memory operable to store advertisement information to be added to the mail;

a user information memory operable to store a plurality of mail addresses and a plurality of pieces of personal information about users for the plurality of mail addresses so as to be associated with each other, respectively;

an advertisement information detector operable to detect advertisement information, which is to be added to the mail that is associated with at least one of;

(a) user information about a user having the recipient mail address, (b) user information about a user having a sender mail address corresponding to a sender of the mail, and (c) a portion of a message in the mail from the advertisement information memory;

an advertisement information adding portion operable to add the advertisement information, which is detected from the advertisement information memory by said advertisement information detector, to the mail;

a sending portion operable to send the mail, to which the advertisement information is added by said advertisement information adding portion, to the server, wherein the web server includes;

a reception portion operable to receive an adding request of advertisement information to the mail from the terminal; and

a setting controller operable to send a program to the terminal, from which the adding request is received, so that the mail, which is to be sent to the recipient mail address from the terminal, is sent to the mail server that adds the advertisement information to the mail;

an addition refusal information memory, operable to store addition refusal information specifying a mail address of the recipient that refuses the addition of the advertisement according to an intention of the recipient; and

an addition controller operable to stop the addition of the advertisement information by the advertisement information adding portion to the mail, in a case where the mail address specified by the addition refusal information is the mail address of the recipient of the mail.

18. The mail processing system of claim 17, wherein the advertisement information adding portion of the mail server adds to the mail, advertisement information including user specifying information that specifies a user of the mail, address of the recipient of the mail, and link information that makes the terminal used by the user send the user specifying information to the web server when an instruction by the user occurs,

the web server or the mail server includes a point information memory operable to a mail address, and point information of a user having said mail address to be associated with each other, the web server further includes:

a user specifying information receiving portion operable to receive the user specifying information sent from the terminal by the link information; and

a point updating portion operable to update, based on the user specifying information received by the user specifying information receiving portion, the point information of the corresponding user.

19. The mail processing system of claim 17, wherein the advertisement information adding portion in the mail server adds to the mail advertisement, specifying information that specifies an advertiser of the advertisement information, and link information that makes a terminal used by the user having the mail address of the recipient of the mail send the advertisement specifying information to the web server when an instruction of said user occurs,

the web server or the mail server includes a charging information memory operable to store information specifying an advertiser and charging information about charging on said advertiser, the web server further includes:

an advertisement specifying information receiving portion operable to receive the advertisement specifying information sent from the terminal by the link information; and

a charging information updating portion operable to update, based on the advertisement specifying information received by the advertisement specifying information receiving portion, the charging information of a corresponding advertiser.

20. The mail processing system of claim 17, wherein the web server or the mail server includes a charging information memory operable to store advertisement specifying information that specifies an advertiser, charging information about charging on said advertiser, and address information of an advertisement homepage to be presented to a user of a terminal, so as to be associated with one another,

the advertisement information adding portion adds to the mail advertisement, specifying information that specifies an advertiser of the advertisement information, and link information that makes the terminal send the advertisement specifying information to the web server in a case where an instruction of the user of the terminal occurs, the web server includes:

an advertisement specifying information receiving portion operable to receive the advertisement specifying information sent from the terminal by the link information;

an instruction information memory controller operable to control the terminal that sent the advertisement specifying information, to store instruction information indicating that an instruction by the user occurred; and

a homepage retrieval controller operable to detect, based on the advertisement specifying information received by the advertisement specifying information receiving portion, the address information of the advertisement homepage associated with the advertisement specifying information and to control the terminal to retrieve the advertisement homepage having said address information.

21. The mail processing system of claim 20, further comprising:

a confirmation receiving portion operable to receive confirmation that the instruction information is stored in a terminal that requested a predetermined target homepage that is linked to the advertisement homepage; and

a goal achievement charging updating portion operable to update, based on receipt of the confirmation, the charging information associated with an advertisement specifying information of an advertiser of the target homepage indicated by the confirmation.

22. A method for enabling a terminal to send a mail, comprising:

receiving a request to add advertisement information to a mail from the terminal by a web server;

sending a predetermined program to the terminal from which the adding request came;

installing the program in the terminal for enabling the terminal to send a recipient addressed mail to a mail server that adds the advertisement information, which is associated with at least one of;

(a) user information about a user having the recipient mail address, (b) user information about a user having a sender mail address corresponding to a sender of the mail, and (c) a portion of a message in the mail, to the mail

storing addition refusal information specifying a mail address of the user that refuses the addition of the advertisement according to an intention of the user; and

stopping the addition of the advertisement information by the advertisement information adding portion to the mail, in a case where the mail address specified by the addition refusal information is the mail address of the recipient of the mail.