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how can i track email if it is read
Hello i am using gmail how can i track if an email is been read ? there some trick to add an image but it get to my attention there many email provder like gmail also disable in the fact image or html content unless user enable it so what is the best trick ?
Hi,
It is not possible to do it directly in GMail. There are a couple of options though:
1. You can enable POP3 in GMail and then use something like Outlook where you can request a read receipt
2. You can use a service like readnotify: http://www.readnotify.com/
Hope this helps,
John
It is not possible to do it directly in GMail. There are a couple of options though:
1. You can enable POP3 in GMail and then use something like Outlook where you can request a read receipt
2. You can use a service like readnotify: http://www.readnotify.com/
Hope this helps,
John
Best trick is to incorporate an ajax function into the body of an email, which reports back information about that email.
provided that the recipient can read HTML email (Outlook, hotmail, browswers, etc...) the ajax function will fire when the email is loaded, and the "web content" will be displayed for the user.
when this web content displays, you will be posting information back to your servers, which tells if an email has been opened.
You can also employ other ajax functions to fire when it is closed, or on other events.
Know when it was opened and closed can give you the"how long was it open" answer.
Alternatively, if the email has a call to action such as "download this" or "go to this link" you can generate individual hashes for each email sent out and track them in a database to see what user actually acted upon the email; however this is different from "reading" the email. This would measure actions not just opens.
Measuring opens is not entirely accurate because not all email clients allow ajax / javascript functions to execute.
provided that the recipient can read HTML email (Outlook, hotmail, browswers, etc...) the ajax function will fire when the email is loaded, and the "web content" will be displayed for the user.
when this web content displays, you will be posting information back to your servers, which tells if an email has been opened.
You can also employ other ajax functions to fire when it is closed, or on other events.
Know when it was opened and closed can give you the"how long was it open" answer.
Alternatively, if the email has a call to action such as "download this" or "go to this link" you can generate individual hashes for each email sent out and track them in a database to see what user actually acted upon the email; however this is different from "reading" the email. This would measure actions not just opens.
Measuring opens is not entirely accurate because not all email clients allow ajax / javascript functions to execute.
Use Constant Contact. And accept the fact that many people do not like being "tracked" so you will not get perfect results. But if you use Constant Contact you will get better results than anything you can write yourself. They have a full-time professional staff devoted to issues like this.
ASKER
Sorry Ray but don't get what you mean!
In the effort not to give the spam compaines the privilege to detect which email adresses are valid and read by the recipient, most mail providers decided to block all the methods for successfull detection.
There is NO RELIABLE method of detecting that.
There was a successfull method with images with appended query hash, which was then decoded, like http://host.com/da743d9e.png. If you don't need accuracy, go with this method.
Gmail blocks all the images from untrusted sources and user has to confirm the images to be loaded. The javascript and ajax is also disabled, so DrDamnit's solution is not reliable.
There is NO RELIABLE method of detecting that.
There was a successfull method with images with appended query hash, which was then decoded, like http://host.com/da743d9e.png. If you don't need accuracy, go with this method.
Gmail blocks all the images from untrusted sources and user has to confirm the images to be loaded. The javascript and ajax is also disabled, so DrDamnit's solution is not reliable.
ASKER
so there no solution ?
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Read this:
http://knol.google.com/k/read-receipts-in-gmail#