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Has Joe Read The Email I Sent Him? - Part 2

When I originally wrote the article "Has Joe Read The Email I Sent Him?", I published it in my weekly newsletter.

The following week, a reader from The Netherlands wrote:

Quote: how can I tell someone has read the email I sent?

"From a practical matter, you won't be able to tell unless you're on a closed business network which the IT guys have set up to show that.  Although many email programs have the ability to request a "receipt," unless the receiver's email is (1) capable of sending a receipt, and (2) the receiver has it set to send a receipt and (3) no other configuration acts to block the receipt, then you won't get it. ..........................."

I ask your attention for MSTAG: http://www.msgtag.com/home/

Regards,

Ben [last name removed] The Netherlands

Thanks, Ben, for the information about MSGTAG.  That looks like an interesting program and service -- and it even has a free version.  This neat program installs on your computer and inserts its message tracking code into each email you send.

Their web site shows that the new version MSGTAG version 2 is now available [editor's note: it wasn't when the original newsletter article was published.].  MSGTAG comes in three versions -- MSGTAG Free, MSGTAG ($19.95 online) and MSGTAG Status ($59.95 online).

The MSGTAG site does not mention how this program works.  I suspect it does this via inserting a 1-pixel transparent image, with a unique url, into the email.  If so, when the reader's email program opens the email, the program would automatically request that image from MSGTAG.com's servers -- therefore telling the servers that the email had been opened.

Of course, if the email's recipient has his mail program options set to "do not show graphics," "do not use HTML," "do not automatically download HTML graphics," or "display text only," this process would not work.  Many people who are concerned about email security and spam have their programs to disable this kind of tracking.

The following week, another reader David wrote to say that he has been using MSGTAG "for ages" and has been very happy with it.

David mentioned that he used a program called Benign (B9) from Firetrust (the makers of Mailwasher Pro), which removes any "non-standard nasties" from incoming emails.  In his experience, if he sent an email to himself, Benign blocked MSGTAG's receipt-confirmation function.

We experimented a couple times with emails between us.  By looking at the emails' source code, we could see that MSGTAG was putting a small MSGTAG logo into the email.  The free version also added the words "has notified the sender that this message has been received."

The URL used to download the MSGTAG logo had to seemingly-random character strings -- apparently identifying David's account and the particular message.   Benign, as part of its control of "web bugs," blocked the download of the logo, so that was why David's messages to himself would not generate a receipt notification.

In my case, I use Eudora with "Use Microsoft's Viewer" turned off and I also have "download web graphics" turned off.  As a result, when I read an email from him, I did not download the logo and he did not get a receipt notification.  When I turned on the "Use Microsoft's Viewer" setting, Eudora downloaded the graphic and David got his receipt.

Cool -- it worked just the way I speculated in the first article!

Link to this page — just add this code to your web page!

<a href="http://www.terryscomputertips.com/computers/has-joe-read-the-email-i-sent-him_2.php">Has Joe Read The Email I Sent Him? - Part 2</a>

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