Patent ID: 8438059

Claim:
A method of sending, via e-mail, content to which a recipient may respond, the method executed by a system comprising one or more servers, each server comprising a processor and a memory storing machine readable instructions executable to cause one or more of the processors to perform the method, the method comprising: transmitting, from a server, an electronic mail (e-mail) message to a recipient, the e-mail message including: a first uniform resource identifier (URI) for specifying to an e-mail client associated with the recipient a location from which to request an image to display within the e-mail message; and a second URI for specifying to either the e-mail client or a browser client associated with the recipient a location from which to request data when the recipient selects the image displayed within the e-mail message; receiving, at the server, from the e-mail client a first request, the first request for the image specified by the first URI; interpreting, at the server, the received first request to determine a plurality of frames to transmit as an image in a multi-frame image format in response to the first request, the plurality of frames to be sequentially displayed by the e-mail client; transmitting, from the server, the image to the e-mail client in response to the first request, the plurality of frames to be displayed to the recipient by the e-mail client; receiving, at the server, a second request, the second request for data associated with the second URI, the second request indicating that the recipient selected the image; determining, at the server, one of the plurality of frames that was displayed to the recipient when the recipient selected the image to cause the second request; performing, at the server, an action in response to the determination of the one of the plurality of frames displayed to the recipient when the recipient selected the image.