Patent ID: 8156185

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for monitoring the status of a transaction performed between a local computer user and a remote computer, the transaction comprising a series of events, the method comprising: electronically receiving via email by a processing device from the remote computer, a list of events involved in the transaction, including one or more future events; electronically storing, via the processing device, the list of events involved in the transaction; automatically monitoring, via the processing device, email messages received from the remote computer to determine an occurrence of events involved in the transaction by associating data in each monitored email message with data in the stored list of events and to determine whether the monitored email message represents an event corresponding to a given event in the stored list of events; notifying the local computer user, via an email message by the processing device, upon the occurrence of the given event involved in the transaction or the failure of a given event involved in the transaction to occur, the email message includes a graphical representation of the list events involved in the transaction and a list of anticipated future emails, not yet received, associated with the one or more future events; providing to the local computer user a representation a given anticipated future email and a form for user selection of receiving one or more future emails corresponding to the anticipated future email, the representation of the given anticipated future email including a graphical object representing a linked node visualization of occurred events and the one or more future events; and encoding the user selection into a reply email to the processing device.