"RETURN RECEIPT NOTIFICATION" Does gmail provide a tool that can b
used to notify me (the sender) of the Delivery Status of my outgoing
mail? I.e. I receive notification that my (sent) mail has been opened
by the receiving party.
> "RETURN RECEIPT NOTIFICATION" Does gmail provide a tool that can b
> used to notify me (the sender) of the Delivery Status of my outgoing
> mail? I.e. I receive notification that my (sent) mail has been opened
> by the receiving party.
GOOGLE needs to ADDRESS THIS ISSUE NOW. At this time our only
alternative for a Return Receipt is
to switch to MICROSOFT OUTLOOK. ReadNotify.com is hightly
recommended -BUT- I've never been able to get it to work c o n s i
s t e n t l y and it takes a while to get your money refunded - with
a snippy response that only served to justify my request!
> "RETURN RECEIPT NOTIFICATION" Does gmail provide a tool that can b
> used to notify me (the sender) of the Delivery Status of my outgoing
> by the receiving party.
> GOOGLE needs to ADDRESS THIS ISSUE NOW. At this time our only
> alternative for a Return Receipt is
> to switch to MICROSOFT OUTLOOK. ReadNotify.com is hightly
> recommended -BUT- I've never been able to get it to work c o n s i
> s t e n t l y and it takes a while to get your money refunded - with
> a snippy response that only served to justify my request!
You're not going to like this response, but the fact is, return
receipts don't work consistently on the internet period.
The basic technique used by outlook is to add a header asking for a
receipt notification. This works fine if the receiving email client
supports it, but many clients (including most webmail providers)
simply ignore this request. And decent email clients will ask the
recipient's permission before confirming receipt, so you might not get
the confirmation even if the recipient supports it.
Sights like ReadNotify.com get around the problem of recipients that
don't send confirmations by using all kinds of tricky techniques. For
example, sights like this often use web-bugs (links to tiny external
images embedded in html emails) to see if the message is opened. This
is very rude in my opinion (because you are collecting information
without the permission of the recipient) and only works if
readnotify.com can find ways around the web-bug blocking that is
included in most decent email programs.
So if you want to know if your recipient got the message, just ask
them to reply. There is no other technique that is reliable and not-
rude.
Well, I must agree with this last reply. Most web-based email clients
just ignore this request or, as you said, any decent client will ask
you for permission, which if you're not at work, it's just a
temptation to click on "NO".
In my opinion, read receipts are especially useful only in work
environments, using an Exchange server where the settings are
configured by an admin and cannot be modified (i.e. if you receive an
email, you'll automatically send a read receipt and you CANNOT change
this setting). It makes sense, from a work environment point of view,
that the sender gets to know wether his/her email has been read or
not, the same way he/she may also want to know if it was delivered
properly.
In short, off work I see no utility for read receipts, since either
they are ignored or simply intentionally not sent by the recipient.
> > GOOGLE needs to ADDRESS THIS ISSUE NOW. At this time our only
> > alternative for a Return Receipt is
> > to switch to MICROSOFT OUTLOOK. ReadNotify.com is hightly
> > recommended -BUT- I've never been able to get it to work c o n s i
> > s t e n t l y and it takes a while to get your money refunded - with
> > a snippy response that only served to justify my request!
> You're not going to like this response, but the fact is, return
> receipts don't work consistently on the internet period.
> The basic technique used by outlook is to add a header asking for a
> receipt notification. This works fine if the receiving email client
> supports it, but many clients (including most webmail providers)
> simply ignore this request. And decent email clients will ask the
> recipient's permission before confirming receipt, so you might not get
> the confirmation even if the recipient supports it.
> Sights like ReadNotify.com get around the problem of recipients that
> don't send confirmations by using all kinds of tricky techniques. For
> example, sights like this often use web-bugs (links to tiny external
> images embedded in html emails) to see if the message is opened. This
> is very rude in my opinion (because you are collecting information
> without the permission of the recipient) and only works if
> readnotify.com can find ways around the web-bug blocking that is
> included in most decent email programs.
> So if you want to know if your recipient got the message, just ask
> them to reply. There is no other technique that is reliable and not-
> rude.
Well, I would beg to differ and side with Professor Pat.
Many times in personal like, not just inside the work environment,
a person for legal reasons needs to know and have proof,
as advised by an attorney, that their email was received and read.
There are many deadbeats out there that choose to live below the radar
and do not want to reply to your requested emails....
Thus the need for proof at least that they received it.
If Gmail can not get their act together to figure out
a way to do this, that should be simpler than
going to the moon, than this is a very sad comment
on the quality of their product.
For those that can't see beyond their work situations,
maybe they need to get out of their cubicle
and realize that others have a life that have needs also.
What he probably meant by his reply was that return receipts WORK in a
professional environment, where email accounts are managed by a
company server and administrator. On the wide open internet, there is
simply no way to make such a protocol work more than half the time,
because of the wide plethora of email providers and resistance to new
protocols. We wouldn't want them working anyways, as that would be a
spammer's dream come true. Any return receipt that is optional half
the time would kill the point of a return receipt anyways, since it's
those least likely to send a return receipt that we would want one to
begin with.
In short, it comes down to the fact that return receipts only work
properly if recipients are forced to send them. And if something is
forced on the internet, people will hate it, find a way around it, and
then it won't work anyways.
> Well, I would beg to differ and side with Professor Pat.
> Many times in personal like, not just inside the work environment,
> a person for legal reasons needs to know and have proof,
> as advised by an attorney, that their email was received and read.
> There are many deadbeats out there that choose to live below the radar
> and do not want to reply to your requested emails....
> Thus the need for proof at least that they received it.
> If Gmail can not get their act together to figure out
> a way to do this, that should be simpler than
> going to the moon, than this is a very sad comment
> on the quality of their product.
> For those that can't see beyond their work situations,
> maybe they need to get out of their cubicle
> and realize that others have a life that have needs also.
And while I'm at it... Nor does it excuse Gmail's inability to comply
to the request, at least to the same extent that Outlook or Eudora do.
I.e., Send the receipt verification after confirmation from the
receiver.
If Google exepcts to replace traditional Email clients, they should at
least support all of the features that are built into the protocol.
> And while I'm at it... Nor does it excuse Gmail's inability to comply
> to the request, at least to the same extent that Outlook or Eudora do.
> I.e., Send the receipt verification after confirmation from the
> receiver.
> If Google exepcts to replace traditional Email clients, they should at
> least support all of the features that are built into the protocol.
