Patent ID: 7663652

Claim:
A method for transferring to a recipient's electronic mail (e-mail) receiving device an e-mail message and inserting an advertisement into the e-mail message as it is transferred to the recipient's e-mail receiving device, comprising the steps of: (a) receiving at a server servicing the recipient e-mail messages from a network, which is connected at least periodically to a Wide Area Network or Internet, and storing said received e-mail messages in the recipient's private mail box; (b) the server, in response to receiving a send list from the recipient's e-mail receiving device indicating that the recipient wishes to view a summary list of brief headers of said stored e-mail messages in said private mail box, transferring the summary list of brief headers of said stored e-mail messages to the recipient's e-mail receiving device; and (c) the server, in response to receiving a selection signal from the recipient's e-mail receiving device indicating that the recipient wishes to read a specific one of said e-mail messages stored in said private mail box, selecting from said stored e-mail messages an e-mail message which relates to the selection signal received from the recipient's e-mail receiving device, selecting from a plurality of advertisements stored in an associate database an advertisement which corresponds to the recipient's name in said selected e-mail message header and which is aligned with the recipient's personal interests, and transferring said selected e-mail message to the recipient's e-mail receiving device and inserting said selected advertisement into said selected e-mail message as it is transferred to the recipient's e-mail receiving device for reading, printing, text-to-speech and/or storing.