Patent ID: 7640322
Filing Date: 2009-12-29
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method for providing electronic communications comprising at least one of marketing and advertising information from a plurality of senders to a plurality of recipients via a platform disposed therebetween, the method comprising the steps of: receiving, from the plurality of senders, information associated with the generation of the electronic communication comprising the at least one of marketing and advertising information for distribution by the platform to the plurality of recipients; generating by the platform the electronic communication to be transmitted to a recipient as a recipient-specific Web page based at least in part on the information received from the sender and permission criteria specified by the recipient with respect to the at least one of marketing and advertising information; publishing by the platform the Web page on a server maintained by the platform that is accessible by the recipient using a network connection when communicating with the platform to receive the electronic communication from the platform; determining by the platform whether a utility program is installed; downloading by the platform the utility program to a recipient's computer when the utility program is not installed; installing by the platform the utility program to the recipients computer when the utility program is not installed; generating by the utility program a recipient-specific security key determining, by the utility program installed on a computer of the recipient, that the electronic communication is available by polling the server; using the recipient security key generated by the utility program to verify that the recipient should be provided access to the electronic communication prior to the step of providing the published Web page to the recipient; providing the computer of the recipient with an indication that the electronic communication is available as a published Web page when the utility program verifies that the recipient should be provided access, wherein the indication includes location information relating to the location of the published Web page; receiving from the recipient computer a request to receive the electronic communication; providing by the platform the published Web page to the recipient, using the location information, following the request by the recipient to receive the electronic communication from the sender; tracking the request received from the recipient with respect to successful receipt of the indication that the electronic communication is available; and providing by the platform electronic communication statistics comprising at least one of a total number of queued deliveries, a number of deliveries that are still being processed, a number of deliveries that have already occurred, a number of deliveries that were bounced, a number of deliveries that were opened, a number of deliveries that were clicked, a number of electronic communications delivered using different delivery methods, and a number of clickthroughs to determine the effectiveness of the electronic communication responsive to said tracking.