Granted Patent B2

US 8,438,059 · App. 12/695,775 · Granted May 7, 2013

Inventors: James John Bohannon (Pleasanton, CA); Robert B. Bushman (San Francisco, CA)

Assignee: Mypoints.com Inc.

Abstract

Claims (103)

1. 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.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the first URI and the second URI includes an identifier, and further comprising interpreting the identifiers to determine from the identifiers the message that caused the first request to be transmitted.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein:

the identifier is associated with one or both of the recipient and a marketing campaign; and

interpreting the identifier comprises determining the one or both of the recipient and the marketing campaign with which the identifier is associated.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the identifier comprises a value determined by first information associated with the recipient and second information associated with a marketing campaign.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the identifier is an encrypted value.

6. The method of claim 2 , wherein the identifier comprises a lookup value associated with a table or a database, the table or the database comprising at least information associated with the recipient and information associated with a marketing campaign.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the lookup value is randomly generated.

8. The method of claim 2 , wherein the identifier comprises a browser cookie.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein transmitting the image further comprises:

transmitting an indication to the e-mail client that the server is sending a plurality of frames; and

transmitting the plurality of frames.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein transmitting an indication to the e-mail client that the server is sending a plurality of frames comprises transmitting an indication to the client that the server is sending an animated GIF file.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein transmitting the image further comprises transmitting the animated GIF file comprising the plurality of frames, wherein the plurality of frames have a known sequence, and wherein each of the plurality of frames is displayed for a known period of time.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein transmitting each frame comprises either transmitting each frame two times with no intervening delay or transmitting an initial portion of a subsequent frame with no intervening delay.

13. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

determining a time when the recipient opens the e-mail message; and

determining a time when the recipient selected the one of the frames; and

wherein determining the one of the plurality of frames displayed to the recipient at the time the recipient selected the image comprises calculating a length of time that the e-mail message has been open.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein:

determining a time when the recipient opens the e-mail message comprises determining the time at which the server received the first request; and

determining a time when the recipient selected the one of the frames comprises determining the time at which the server received the second request.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein determining the one of the plurality of frames that was displayed to the recipient at the time the recipient selected the image comprises determining a last time of view for plurality of frames.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein determining a last time of view for plurality of frames comprises adjusting the last time of view by a pre-determined interval.

17. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:

associating the received first request with either or both of a user agent and an IP address;

associating the received second request with either or both of the user agent and the IP address; and

matching the received first request with the received second request according to either or both of the user agent and the IP address.

18. The method of claim 9 , wherein transmitting the plurality of frames comprises:

transmitting the plurality of frames through a first connection that remains open; and

identifying, at the server, each frame with the time of transmission.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein determining the one of the plurality of frames displayed to the recipient at the time the user selected the image comprises determining the most recent frame transmitted to the e-mail client.

20. The method of claim 18 , wherein the server receives, while the first connection remains open, a third request identical to the first request, and wherein the server transmits in response to the third request the plurality of frames over a second connection that remains open.

21. The method of claim 20 , wherein the server synchronizes the transmission of the plurality of frames such that the server transmits each frame at the same time through each of the first and second connections.

22. The method of claim 9 , wherein transmitting the plurality of frames comprises either transmitting each of the plurality of frames twice with no intervening delay or transmitting after each of the plurality of frames an initial portion of a subsequent frame with no intervening delay.

23. The method of claim 9 , wherein transmitting the image further comprises transmitting an image map associated with the image.

24. The method of claim 1 , wherein performing one or more actions in response to the determination of the one of the plurality of frames displayed to the recipient at the time the recipient selected the image comprises at least one from the group consisting of:

recording a transaction associated with the recipient;

awarding the recipient with points;

transmitting information to the recipient;

initiating participation in a survey;

entering the recipient into a sweepstakes; and

redirecting a web browser associated with the recipient to a corresponding web site.

25. The method of claim 1 , wherein:

a first server associated with a first entity transmits the e-mail message to the recipient; and

a second server associated with a second entity receives the second request and transmits the image.

26. A method of communicating with a recipient of an electronic mail (e-mail) message, the method executed on one or more computer processors, the method comprising:

transmitting the e-mail message from a server to the recipient, the e-mail message including:

a first uniform resource identifier (URI) specifying a location from which to request an image to display within the e-mail message; and

a second URI specifying a location from which to request data when the recipient selects the image displayed within the e-mail message;

receiving at the server a first request, the first request for the image specified by the first URI;

transmitting from the server, in response to the first request, an image in a multi-frame image format comprising a plurality of frames, each frame associated with particular information, and each of the plurality of frames displayed sequentially to the recipient;

receiving by the server a second request, the second request for data associated with the second URI, which second request indicates that the recipient has selected the image;

determining in the server which of the plurality of frames was displayed when the recipient selected the image; and

performing an action by the server based on the determination of which of the plurality of frames was displayed when the recipient selected the image.

27. The method of claim 26 , wherein the first URI includes an identifier and the second URI includes an identifier.

28. The method of claim 26 , wherein the particular information is associated with a plurality of sequentially-displayed frames.

29. The method of claim 26 , further comprising selecting in the server which of a plurality of available frames to transmit in response to the first request, wherein each of the plurality of available frames is associated with one of a plurality of available offers or information pages.

30. The method of claim 29 , wherein selecting which of a plurality of available frames to transmit comprises selecting the frames according to the particular information page or offer associated with each frame, and further selecting the frames according to one or both of information related to when the server receives the first request or demographic information associated with the recipient.

31. The method of claim 30 , wherein the information related to when the server receives the first request comprises one or more of a time of day, a day of the week, and a date of the year.

32. The method of claim 30 , wherein the demographic information associated with the recipient includes one or more of the recipient's gender, age, income, location, marital status, employment status, occupation, and favored activities.

33. The method of claim 30 , wherein selecting which of a plurality of available frames to transmit comprises selecting, at a particular time, to send a particular frame.

34. The method of claim 29 , wherein the selecting which of a plurality of available image frames to transmit comprises determining a general location of the recipient according to an Internet Protocol (IP) address from which the server receives the first request.

35. The method of claim 26 , further comprising:

determining in the server a round-trip latency parameter; and

adjusting the determination of which of the plurality of frames was displayed when the recipient selected the image according to the latency parameter.

36. The method of claim 35 , wherein the method of determining the round-trip latency parameter comprises determining calculating the difference between the sequential arrival times at the server of two image requests on the same network connection.

37. The method of claim 26 , wherein determining in the server which of the plurality of frames was displayed at the time the recipient selected the image comprises:

determining that the recipient selected the image within a predetermined quantity of time after either the transmission of a particular frame or a change to display a particular frame; and

determining that the frame displayed at the time the recipient selected the image corresponds to the frame immediately prior to the particular image frame.

38. The method of claim 37 , wherein determining in the server which of the plurality of frames was displayed at the time the recipient selected the image further comprises factoring in a human response time.

39. The method of claim 26 , wherein transmitting from the server, in response to the first request, a plurality of frames, further comprises transmitting one or more incentive frames, each incentive frame associated with an incentive offer.

40. The method of claim 39 , wherein performing an action in the server based on the determination of which of the plurality of frames was displayed at the time the recipient selected the image comprises awarding to the recipient, when the server determines that the frame displayed is an incentive frame, points associated with a loyalty program.

41. The method of claim 26 , wherein transmitting from the server, in response to the first request, a plurality of image frames comprises:

receiving at the server an identifier associated with the first request;

interpreting in the server the identifier to identify one or both of a recipient of the e-mail message and a marketing campaign associated with the e-mail message; and

selecting in the server which of a plurality of available image frames to transmit in response to the first request, wherein each of the plurality of available image frames is associated with one of a plurality of available offers, and wherein the server selects the image frames according to the one or both of the recipient of the e-mail message and the marketing campaign associated with the e-mail message.

42. The method of claim 26 , wherein the e-mail message further comprises an image map associated with the image.

43. The method of claim 26 , wherein receiving the first request further comprises receiving an identifier stored in a browser cookie associated with the first URI and second request further comprises receiving an identifier stored in a browser cookie associated with the second URI.

44. A method of presenting dynamic content, the method comprising:

transmitting, from a server, hypertext markup language (HTML) code comprising:

a first uniform resource identifier (URI) for specifying an image to display; and

a second URI for specifying a location from which to request data when the image is selected by a user;

receiving, at the server, a first request, the first request for the image specified by the first URI;

transmitting, from the server, an image in response to the first request;

receiving, at the server, a second request, the second request for data associated with the second URI;

determining, at the server, a temporal relationship between the first request and the second request; and

performing, at the server, one or more actions in response to the determined relationship.

45. The method of claim 44 , wherein the image comprises a plurality of offers assembled into a single image.

46. The method of claim 45 , wherein the image comprises a multi-frame image format.

47. The method of claim 46 , wherein each of a plurality of frames transmitted in the multi-frame image format replaces one or more of the offers assembled into the single image.

48. The method of claim 44 , wherein transmitting from the server HTML code comprises transmitting a web page.

49. The method of claim 44 , wherein transmitting from the server HTML code comprises transmitting an HTML e-mail message.

Assignments (8)

Continuity (1)