Patent ID: 7836132
Filing Date: 2010-11-16
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
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.