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Mark,

> I'm building something which needs to send emails but also
> track when then emails (both html and text) are opened.
>
> [snip]
>
> Any thoughts or comments?

You're never going to be able to track 100% of emails read.  If you're
trying to track a text only email, the only method available to you is
read receipts, but a lot of clients either have them turned off or just
don't send them (e.g. most webmail accounts).

With HTML emails, you have the option of a bug, but that's still not
guaranteed at all: a lot of clients (e.g. Outlook on default settings,
Gmail etc) won't show external images unless you explicitly say so for
that message.  Or what about people who download all their mail and then
read it off line?

Depending on what you're actually trying to do and the audience you'll
be mailing, forcing people to read "online" by getting them to click on
a link is an option, but I can guarantee that if it's just a general
mailout then the vast majority of people won't click (I know I probably
wouldn't).  If the mails are more targetted and you know you can
instruct the recipients that they *must* read via the browser, then
you're in a better position.

Basically, tracking reading of emails is an iffy science at the best of
times; you'll get nothing more than a rough approximation, and even this
figure can be widly wrong.

Tim.


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