Web Service Covertly Tracks E-mail
June 18, 2004 -- In this week's Cybershake, we take a look at a new Web service that lets users track their own e-mails to see where they end up. Plus, we note how the U.S. Army tries to bring an important event at home closer to its soldiers in Iraq.
Telltale E-mail
With billions and billions of e-mails — undoubtedly many of them junk messages, or spam — winding its way around the Internet, do you know if your messages reached their correct destination?
There are plenty of reasons why an e-mail might get lost. Messages over the Internet have to pass through many computers as they travel from sender to receiver. And just like postal letters, e-mail can get hung up at any one of those stops.
What's more, as the amount of spam grows, more users and Internet service providers are turning toward software that filters out messages based on various rules.
"People don't know if their e-mail has gone through," said Alistair Rampell, chief executive officer of Rampell Software.
That's why his company created a new Web service called DidTheyReadIt.com.
The service allows members to track the e-mail they send to anyone. DidTheyReadIt will not only tell members when recipients got the message, but also when it was opened, how long it was kept open, how many times it was viewed, if it was forwarded to others and if those other recipients read the message, too.
Once a user has signed up for an account, they merely add "didtheyreadit.com" to the end of any address — "anyuser@anyisp.net" becomes anyuser@anyisp.net.didtheyreadit.com. That allows messages to be routed through Rampell's e-mail computers, which provide the tracking functions and information.
There are similar message tracking features offered by other services. America Online's e-mail system can tell its users when other members have opened messages. And Microsoft's Outlook mail program has a "return receipt" feature, which works only if the other party is also using Outlook.
Rampell says DidTheyReadIt.com, however, will work with almost any ISP or e-mail service — including Web-based e-mail services such as Yahoo! and Hotmail.
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