JP2003006117A - E-mail system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To facilitate classification and analysis of return mail to a questionnaire which used e-mail. SOLUTION: A change function 13 changes the user log in name of an e-mail address, a setting function 15 sets e-mail with a mail address, including the changed user log in name as the address of a transmission source, and a transmission function 11 transmits to the Internet 3 e-mail in which the e-mail address, including the changed user log in name is set as the address of the transmission source. Since return mail to the e-mail is transmitted to its return destination (i.e., transmission source mail address), and thereby the return mail is automatically classified by setting the transmission source mail address in various manners to transmit e-mail in this way.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a technique for collecting reply e-mails using e-mails. For example, the reply destination of reply e-mails for questionnaires sent using e-mails is sent to the questionnaire e-mails. The present invention relates to a technique for controlling by setting an original email address.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, information communication using electronic mail has been widely used with the spread of Internet communication. In addition to exchanging mail between individuals, electronic mail is also used for the purpose of collecting information for a large number of people, such as direct mail for advertisement and advertisement, questionnaire e-mail for preferences and ideas in the market, etc.

Here, since a variety of emails are transmitted in particular for electronic mails used for the purpose of collecting information, a large number of emails returned from the recipients can be sent to any outgoing mail. Accurate classification is important to make effective use of the collected information. The categories of such reply mails are as follows: (1) The title of the sent mail (“R
e: (title of sent mail) ") is classified by the worker, (2) The worker opens the reply mail and reads whether the contents of the sent mail are described in the text, and classifies the mail. 3) It was done that the worker classifies based on the replyer mail address of the reply e-mail.

[0004]

However, the above conventional method for classifying reply mails has the following problems. In the above conventional method (1), the description in the title column of the e-mail can be freely rewritten by the recipient, so that the description in the title column of the reply mail is “R”.
If it is not “e: (title of sent mail)”, there is a problem that the classification associated with the sent mail cannot be performed.

In the above conventional method (2), it takes a lot of work time to open reply mails one by one, and when the content of the sent mail is not included in the text of the reply mail, the reply mail is returned. There is a problem in that it is extremely difficult to work, such as reading the content description of the above and distinguishing the corresponding outgoing mail from its context. In the above conventional method (3), when a plurality of e-mails are sent to the same recipient, the reply mails for these e-mails cannot be classified because they are the same replyer mail address. However, when the recipient has a plurality of mail addresses (for example, home and office) and replies using different mail addresses, the reply mail cannot be classified.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional circumstances, and an object thereof is to facilitate classification of reply mails and to easily automate the classification. Another object of the present invention is to facilitate management of questionnaire results using electronic mail. A further object of the present invention will be apparent from the following description.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is an electronic mail system for returning a reply electronic mail to a sent electronic mail to a predetermined electronic mail address, and a changing function for changing a user login name of the electronic mail address. , A setting function to set an e-mail with the e-mail address including the changed user login name (also referred to as a user account) as the sender address, and the e-mail address including the changed user login name A sending function for sending an e-mail set as an address.

Therefore, according to this e-mail system, the e-mail can be sent by setting various sender e-mail addresses, so that the reply mail to the e-mail depends on the reply destination (that is, the sender e-mail address). It will be automatically classified. In other words, if you set different sender email addresses for multiple emails, the reply emails for each email will be sent to different addresses. It becomes possible to classify whether it is a reply to an electronic mail.

Here, the electronic mail address has a structure in which a user login name and a domain name are connected by @ (at mark). For example, aaa @ bbb. cc
c. co. It has a configuration such as jp. The part (aaa) before this @ (at mark) is the user login name, which can be arbitrarily set for each unit of mail server such as a provider or a company.
The part (bbb.ccc.c) before @ (at mark)
o. jp) is the domain name, the host name of the mail server (bbb), the organization name (cc) of the provider or company name, etc.
c), organization attribute (co, or, ac, etc.) and country code (jp) are described as necessary.

Since the e-mail address has such a structure, if the description of the user login name is changed, the user will be different. However, even if the user login name is changed, the reply mail is managed by the same server. It will be sent back to the domain to which it belongs. Therefore,
If you change only the user login name of the e-mail address and send the e-mail, the reply mail for this will be sent to different users within the same domain (eg mailbox).
Can be received at. If the description of the domain name is changed, the reply mail will be returned to the changed domain, which is also used in the present invention as described below.

Further, according to the present invention, in the above-mentioned electronic mail system, the receiving function for receiving the electronic mail returned to the changed electronic mail address and the received electronic mail for reply are classified by the changed electronic mail address. A management function for managing is further provided, and the reply mail is automatically classified and managed according to the sender mail address in the receiving server or the receiving terminal device.

According to the present invention, in the above-mentioned electronic mail system, the changing function also changes the domain name of the electronic mail address, and the setting function uses the electronic mail address including the changed domain name as the sender address to send the electronic mail. The setting and sending function sends an e-mail in which the e-mail address including the changed domain name is set as the sender address. Therefore, a reply e-mail to an e-mail sent from a certain domain is received by another domain, for example, a reply to the questionnaire e-mail sent from the distribution center is returned to a server of a predetermined company. Service can be realized.

Since the electronic mail system according to the present invention can automatically classify reply mails as described above, it is possible to say, for example, how many replies have been obtained for each questionnaire electronic mail. It also has a function of totalizing reply e-mails according to predetermined conditions.

According to the present invention, in the above electronic mail system, the setting function sets a plurality of electronic mail addresses having different electronic mail addresses in the text of the electronic mail, and the plurality of electronic mail addresses are the electronic mail addresses. It supports multiple answers to textual descriptions.
Therefore, for example, by setting the e-mail addresses respectively corresponding to a plurality of answers to the description content in the text of the questionnaire e-mail,
By clicking and selecting an answer described in RL, a reply mail is sent to the electronic mail address associated with the answer.

Further, the present invention is a method for collecting questionnaire answers by using electronic mail, wherein different sender email addresses are set in the questionnaire electronic mail, and the questionnaire electronic mail is distributed via the Internet. This is a method of collectively managing reply e-mails returned to the sender's e-mail address in a mailbox for each sender's e-mail address.

Further, the present invention is a method for collecting questionnaire responses using electronic mail, wherein different electronic mail addresses are set in the questionnaire electronic mail depending on the answers to the questionnaire contents, and the questionnaire electronic mail is distributed via the Internet. A method of collectively managing reply e-mails returned to the e-mail address of the answer selected by the respondent in a mailbox for each e-mail address.

[0017]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The present invention will be specifically described based on an embodiment shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an outline of the electronic mail system of this example. This electronic mail system is a terminal device (computer) operated by a mail sender.
1 and terminal device (computer) operated by the mail recipient
2 exchanges e-mails with the Internet 2 via the Internet 3, and sends the e-mails sent from the terminal devices to the Internet with the transmission servers 4 and 5, and sends the e-mails to the terminal devices via the Internet. Receiving servers 6 and 7 are provided for receiving from.

Therefore, when the sender sends an electronic mail in which the recipient's mail address is set from the terminal device 1, the electronic mail is received by the receiving server 7 of the destination domain from the sending server 4 via the Internet 3, The received mail can be received from the reception server 7 by the terminal device 2 operated by the recipient of the destination mail address. Then, when the recipient operates the terminal device 2 to open the received e-mail and display it on the screen and sends a reply mail to the received mail, the reply mail is sent to the sending server 5.
From the terminal device 1 which is received by the receiving server 6 of the sender email address domain of the original electronic mail from the Internet 3 via the Internet 3 and the recipient (original sender) of the sender email address operates the received reply mail. Receiving server 6
Can be received from.

That is, the transmitted electronic mail can be received by the receiving server specified by the domain name of the destination mail address, and can be received and output by the terminal device of the user specified by the user login name in the domain. . Then, the reply mail is sent to the sender address of the original electronic mail, is received by the receiving server identified by the domain name of the sender email address, and is received by the terminal device of the user identified by the user login name in the domain. Can be received and output. The sending server 4 (5) and the receiving server 6 (7) of the same domain may be configured by the same mail server computer, or such a server and the terminal device may be configured by the same computer.

Here, among the above-described servers for transmitting and receiving electronic mail, particularly the server that is the sender of electronic mail has the functions shown in FIG.
In the figure, the transmission server 4 and the reception server 6 are shown as a transmission / reception server integrally configured. Each function described below is configured by executing a predetermined program by a server computer.

That is, the sending / receiving server for sending e-mails for obtaining reply mails from many recipients such as questionnaires has a sending function 11 for sending e-mails to the Internet 3, and an e-mail from the Internet 3 In addition to the functions that a mail server generally has such as a receiving function 12 for receiving, a changing function 13 for generating and changing a mail address that is a sender of an email, an address management for storing and managing a sender mail address to be changed Function 14, setting function 15 for setting the sender email address to be changed to email to be sent, outgoing mail holding function 16 including a memory for temporarily storing the email to be sent sent from the terminal device, Internet 3
A management function 17 that saves the reply mail received from each destination address (that is, a sender address) and performs a totaling process and a summary creating process described later, and stores a plurality of reply mails that each destination address (that is, a sender address). A mailbox function 18 including a memory in which a storage file BoxA ... Is formed is provided.

Here, the electronic mail is generally shown in FIG.
The configuration is as shown in (a). That is, a title column describing the title of the e-mail (eg, “Questionnaire request”), transmission date and time of the e-mail (eg, Mon, 23, Apr 2001 08:
59:22) is automatically described in the date field and the sender's email address (for example, aaa.bb@ccc.dd.c).
o. jp) is automatically described by the setting function 15 F
rom column, destination email address (for example, eee-ff
@Ggg. com) is described, followed by a header section description such as a To field, and the text 20 of the text is described.

Then, in the reply mail to the electronic mail, as shown in FIG. 3B, for example, the title of the reply mail ("Re: request for questionnaire" if the recipient does not rewrite) is automatically described. Title column,
Transmission date and time of the reply mail (for example, Wed, 25, A
pr 2001 12:41:15), the From field in which the reply source mail address (that is, the original destination address eee-ff@ggg.com) is automatically described, and the reply destination mail. Address (ie, original source address aaa.bb@ccc.dd.
co. jp) is automatically described, followed by a header section description such as a To field, and the reply content 21 described by the recipient and the citation of the original electronic mail text 20 are described.

Therefore, when an e-mail as shown in FIG. 3 (a) is sent, and the recipient who receives the e-mail creates and sends a reply mail, the reply mail is as shown in FIG. 3 (b). In the destination address (To column), the sender's mail address (aaa.bb@ccc.dd.co.j
p) is automatically described and returned. It should be noted that other specifications of the electronic mail have various modes depending on the system design.

Here, the electronic mail is transmitted and received with a data structure including control data, destination mail address, source mail address, title description data, and text data of text description. In the current electronic mail system, a reply mail is sent. Although the description in the title field can be edited and changed arbitrarily by the recipient, the sender's mail address that is automatically set in the destination address (To field) cannot be changed by the recipient.

More specifically, according to the electronic mail system of this example, the mail transmission / reception processing can be executed by the functions of the transmission / reception servers 4 and 6 in the following procedure. In the following description, the delivery of the questionnaire survey mail will be described as an example.

STEP 1: "Request for transmission of questionnaire survey mail from the sender terminal device 1 as a client" The mail sender creates a questionnaire survey mail by the terminal device 1 and sends the transmission request together with the questionnaire survey mail to the transmission server 4. To do.

STEP 2: "Sending of survey mail by sending server" The mail sending server 4 used by the mail sender has: 1) Different "one-time mail addresses" for different mail senders and contents (text, title). Is assigned to the survey mail by the change function 13, (example:
From: user1.12345@domainmain
ime. co. jp) 2) Save the assigned information (who has assigned what one-time email address to which email) to the database of the address management function 14 and 3) set the one-time address as the sender address by the setting function 15. The set questionnaire survey mail is sent from the sending function 11 through the Internet 3 to the receiving server 7 of the recipient (destination). Note that the destination email address of the questionnaire survey email is set to the email address of one or many recipients (transmission destinations) to be surveyed.

Here, the setting of the one-time address in the electronic mail can be performed by the following method, for example. First method: "From:" in the header part of the outgoing mail
Describe the "one-time email address" in the "Sender" field. (Example: From: onetime @ doma
in.co. jp) Second method: "Reply-" in the header part of the outgoing mail
“One-time mail address” is described in the item “To: (destination)”. (Example: Reply-To: oneti
me@domain.co. jp) Third method: "In-Rep" in the header part of the outgoing mail
“One-time mail address” is described in the item “ly-To: (destination)”. (Example: In-Reply-T
o: onetime@domain.co. jp)

Fourth method: 11 or a plurality of "one-time mail addresses" are described as a character string in the mail text portion of the transmitted mail. In addition, this method uses the options (“No”, “No”) to answer the questionnaire in the text of the questionnaire survey email.
One or a plurality of "Neither" or the like is described in advance, and it is used when the visible and invisible "one-time mail address" is associated with these option answers.

Therefore, by preparing a plurality of destinations (one-time mail address) of different reply mails for each type of reply, the answers to the questionnaire survey mail can be automatically classified according to their contents. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 6, the content of the questionnaire asking “Who is the next prime minister?” And the answer options “(A) ○○ ××, (B) ××× ○, (C) XX
In the questionnaire survey email with "XX" written in the text, one-time email address (ab
x110 @ domain. com), answer options (B)
For one-time email address (abx111 @ d
omain. com) and the answer option (C) to the one-time mail address (abx112@domain.com).
com), the respondent (recipient) simply selects one of these options by pointing operation, and the reply mail is returned to the mail address corresponding to the option.

STEP 3: "Reception of questionnaire survey mail by receiving server" The receiving server 7 used by the mail recipient receives the questionnaire survey mail. STEP 4: “Request for sending reply mail from terminal device” The mail receiver receives the questionnaire survey mail from the receiving server 7 by the terminal device 2, reads it by displaying it on the screen, etc., and includes impressions and answers to the questionnaire. The terminal device 2 requests the transmission server 5 to reply to the reply mail.

STEP 5: "Sending of reply mail by sending server" The sending server 5 used by the mail recipient sends a reply mail to the one-time mail address which is the sender address of the original questionnaire survey mail. STEP 6: "Reception of reply mail by receiving server" The receiving server 6 used by the mail sender receives the reply mail.

STEP 7: "Determine who sent the reply mail to the reply mail received by the receiving server for which investigation mail" The receiving server used by the mail sender determines the reply destination of the received reply mail ( By checking the one-time mail address) by the management function 17, it is determined which questionnaire survey mail the reply is, what kind of reply the questionnaire survey mail is, and the like. In addition,
The received reply mail is stored in the mailbox for each reply destination (one-time mail address).

STEP 8: "Display the information obtained from the reply mail by the processing by the management function 17 and the analysis result thereof on the sender terminal device" The result obtained from the reply mail on the screen of the terminal device 1 of the mail sender Is displayed. The display contents are as follows, for example, depending on the reply mail analysis process executed by the management function 17.

When the management function 17 totalizes the "total number" and "response rate" of the reply mail for each questionnaire survey mail, the result of this total processing is displayed on the screen of the terminal device 1 as shown in FIG. Is displayed. In this example, questionnaire survey mails are sent several times using the same one-time mail address (reply destination), and the total number of reply mails and the reply rate obtained each time are calculated.

Further, as shown in the example of FIG. 6, different one-time mail addresses (reply destinations) are set for each option of the questionnaire response (opinion) in the text of the questionnaire survey mail, and the same questionnaire survey mail is sent. When sent once, the management function 17 totalizes the “total number” and “response rate” of reply emails for each opinion option for each questionnaire survey email, and the result of this aggregate processing is shown in FIG. As shown, it is displayed on the screen of the terminal device 1.

In the above example, the transmission / reception server is provided with the change function 13, the address management function 14, the setting function 15, the management function 17, and the mailbox function 18, and the request from the sender terminal device 1 as a client is provided. In response to this, the sending and receiving server sets the one-time mail address and analyzes the reply mail. However, some or all of these functions are provided in the sender terminal device 1 to set the one-time mail address and analyze the reply mail. It may be performed by the sender terminal device 1.

The domain name of the one-time mail address which is the reply destination of the reply mail may be different from the domain name of the sender. In this case, the sender terminal device (or the sender side) A reply mail to the electronic mail sent from the mail server) can be received by a terminal device (or mail server) different from the sender domain and the above-described analysis processing can be executed. This is effective when carrying out a service business that distributes e-mails such as advertisements, information, and questionnaires to a large number of people. The requester can send a reply to the terminal device or mail server, and the requester can maintain the confidentiality of the reply mail analysis result.

[0040]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since the sender's e-mail address is arbitrarily set and the e-mail is sent, the reply e-mail to the e-mail can be automatically classified based on the sender's e-mail address set and further analyzed. . Further, according to the present invention, the reply mails are automatically classified and analyzed, so that the questionnaire survey using the electronic mails can be carried out easily and efficiently.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an electronic mail system according to an example of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a functional configuration diagram of a transmission / reception server according to an example of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of an electronic mail.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of electronic mail data.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of the reply mail tabulation processing result of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of an electronic mail according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of reply mail tabulation processing results according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: sender terminal device, 2: receiver terminal device, 3: internet, 4, 5: transmission server, 6, 7: reception server, 11: transmission function, 12: reception function, 13: change function, 14: address Management function, 15: Setting function, 1
7: Management function, 18: Mailbox function,

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. An e-mail system for returning a reply e-mail to a sent e-mail to a predetermined e-mail address, including a changing function for changing a user login name of the e-mail address and a changed user login name. It is characterized by having a setting function to set an e-mail with the e-mail address as the sender address and a sending function to send an e-mail with the e-mail address including the changed user login name as the sender address. And an e-mail system. 2. The e-mail system according to claim 1, wherein the receiving function for receiving an e-mail returned to the changed e-mail address and the reply e-mail received are classified by the changed e-mail address. An e-mail system characterized by further having a management function for managing. 3. The electronic mail system according to claim 2, wherein the changing function also changes the domain name of the electronic mail address, and the setting function uses the electronic mail address including the changed domain name as the sender's address to send the electronic mail. Set and send function sends an e-mail with the e-mail address including the changed domain name set as the source address, and the reply e-mail to the e-mail sent from one domain is received by the other domain. An electronic mail system characterized by: 4. The electronic mail system according to claim 2, wherein the management function totalizes the returned electronic mail according to a predetermined condition. 5. The electronic mail system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the setting function sets a plurality of electronic mail addresses with different electronic mail addresses in the text of the electronic mail, Multiple email addresses correspond to multiple answers to the content of the text of the email, and the recipient's reply email is returned to the email address corresponding to the answer selected by the recipient of the email. An e-mail system characterized by being. 6. A method for collecting questionnaire responses using an electronic mail, wherein different source e-mail addresses are set in the questionnaire e-mail, and the e-mail is distributed via the Internet. A questionnaire method using e-mail, characterized in that reply e-mails returned to an e-mail address are collectively managed in a mailbox for each sender e-mail address. 7. A method of collecting questionnaire responses using an electronic mail, wherein different electronic mail addresses are set in the questionnaire electronic mail depending on the answers to the questionnaire contents, and the questionnaire electronic mail is distributed via the Internet. A questionnaire method using an e-mail, characterized in that reply e-mails returned to the e-mail address of the answer selected by are collectively managed in a mailbox for each e-mail address.