is there some way of being able to tell when someone opens an email from me?

i only really use web based email (yahoo mail, to be exact), and there's really no way of knowing if/when someone has opened my email that i've noticed anyways. i'm nosy, i want to know if people are reading my emails! how do i do that?

 

Many email programs will allow you to request a 'return receipt', then whoever opens their mail will get a notice 'return receipt requested, send now/later/never'. However, it isn't flawless since many people (me, for one ) find it very annoying -as annoying as anything else that pops in my face- and I will hit 'never' if it's just a regular email... I think they should only be used for important stuff about work/finances... wouldn't you find it annoying if every snail-mail letter came registered and you had to sign for it? But well, in the end it's up to you so if you want to, look through Yahoo options for 'return receipt'...

 

thankx, i'll look into that.

isnt there some thing that can embed a little picture into an email, and then when the picture is seen, it sends a notification back automatically? there's no clicking for the person on the recieving end, it just all happens by itself.

 

Hm, if you have any way to host a picture, and good web stats, I'm sure you could do that... still it doesn't guarantee anything, 'cause some people (me again ) don't like all this fancy stuff with email either.. I have my email client set to text only -I love fancy graphics, but I'm really old-fashioned and still believe that's what the web's for, email is just to send a plain, boring, letter with a few smilies at most...

 

http://www.returnreceipt.com/
i found this, but it costs~~it's sort of what i was thinking about

anyone know of something free that does this?

 

the two way you mentioned are about the only way. the return reciept, which they can just say no to, and the picture idea. but, most web based email don't load pictures by default, so that might not work either.

 

Well, that site you found says it somehow keeps the body of the email on their server until it's opened... so I guess if you are good in scripting/programming, and have a mail server of your own, it should be possible to use that same trick on your own. Other than that I really don't know.

 

::snort::cough::laugh::

um, NO! i'm not gifted in the way of computers at all unfortunately

thanks you guys, i was curious more than anything. it all sounds like it's more work than i want to put into it

 

Return recipiets are flawed, most people dont follow the RFC for implementing them, and many servers drop 'READ:' as spam...

Your only solution is to use spyware technology and embed something in it that will cause the opener to come back to you...

e.g. you host 1000 1x1 pixel dot images on your web server and name them 1.jpg, 2.jpg, ect..then yuu embed #1 in email #1, #2 in #2, etc..then IF the person is using an html enable mail client, they will load your picture, (which you can log) and then you will know. This is generally considered rude...

You could try 'Please reply to let me know you got this!'