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pointofmail 5.5 - Certified Email Service

About.com Rating fourhalf out of Five
User Rating3.0 out of 5 (5 Reviews)  Write a Review

By Heinz Tschabitscher, About.com

pointofmail - Certified Email Service

pointofmail - Certified Email Service

Heinz Tschabitscher

The Bottom Line

pointofmail is a very comprehensive proof of receipt and reading service for email. Though easy to use, pointofmail can ensure read receipts, tracks attachments and lets you modify or delete sent messages. Unfortunately, working with pointofmail-certified mail can be cumbersome, and most pointofmail modes do not inform the recipient they are watched.
Pros
  • pointofmail offers a mode where reading confirmation is guaranteed
  • It's easy to send pointofmail-certified emails from any email program or service
  • pointofmail can track attachments, too, and lets you edit or delete mail after it has been sent
Cons
  • pointofmail has modes that are not transparent to the recipient, infringing on their privacy
  • Mail sent through pointofmail can be difficult to reply to or forward
  • pointofmail does not allow you to specify options if you send from your normal email program

Description

  • pointofmail notifies you when email you sent were opened and read.
  • You can submit messages via email or send through pointofmail's web interface.
  • The pointofmail web interface also lets you edit or delete mail already delivered, read even.
  • Attachments can be tracked by pointofmail, too, and you learn how long your message was open.
  • pointofmail either uses a hidden image to track mail or includes the message itself in the image.
  • Digitally signed certificates allow you to proof message submission and delivery in pointofmail.
  • pointofmail lets you send self-destructing emails that automatically expire after a certain time.
  • You can learn about the recipient's geographic location with pointofmail.

Guide Review - pointofmail 5.5 - Certified Email Service

With email, it is easy to claim you never received or viewed an unwelcome message. At the same time, proving the contrary is inherently difficult. Social trust is usually better than total control and suspicion, but services like pointofmail can still be very useful.

pointofmail is a particularly feature-rich email return receipt service. Not only does it tell you when your messages have been opened, it can also do the same for attachments and allows you to edit or delete emails even after they have been sent.

To some extent, pointofmail even tells you how long an email was looked at and where on earth the recipient was while doing this. To offer this multitude of options, pointofmail employs a number of sending modes.

Regrettably, most pointofmail modes are not transparent to the recipient. Since modern email clients do not download remote images — used by pointofmail to track emails — by default, the recipient can only speculate and not load the hidden pictures, which also means pointofmail does not know the message has been opened.

To prevent this, pointofmail offers modes that include the original message in these images. This ensures proof of opening, but it can make replying in a sensible manner difficult.

It is also a pity that the mode used for a message cannot be set if the mail is sent from your normal email client (instead of pointofmail's web interface), which is otherwise a really comfortable way to send certified messages.

User ReviewsWrite Review
5 out of 5 5 out of 5
June 12, 2009By SergeantPepper
"Great service, very useful and fairly priced. I had no problem with the support team - these guys realy helped me out in no time. The only downside I found - they have no full history but they promised it will be available the next release."

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