Electronic mail system for displaying advertisement at local computer received from remote system while the local computer is off-line the

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. In an electronic mail system, a method for displaying advertisements to a user at a local computer when the local computer is off-line, comprising the steps of:

creating an electronic mail message at the local computer;

establishing a communications link between the local computer and a remote system;

receiving an advertisement from the remote system;

storing the advertisement on a storage device at the local computer;

transferring the electronic mail message from the local computer to the remote system;

terminating the communications link between the local computer and the remote system; and

outputting the advertisement at the local computer while the local computer is off-line with respect to the remote system.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the advertisement is output when the user is creating or reading electronic mail messages.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

at the local computer, recording in a statistics file an indication that the advertisement was output; and

storing the statistics file on the storage device at the local computer.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising the steps of:

creating a second electronic mail message at the local computer while the local computer is off-line with respect to the remote system;

re-establishing the communications link between the local computer and the remote system; and

transferring the statistics file and the second electronic mail message from the local computer to the remote system.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the step of outputting the advertisement takes places concurrently with the step of creating the second electronic mail message.

6. The method of claim 4 further comprising the step of utilizing the statistics file to create a billing account related to the advertisement.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the local computer initiates the communications link with the remote system.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the remote system is coupled to the Internet.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising the initial steps of:

receiving, at the remote system, a member profile from the user, the member profile comprising demographic information about the user;

utilizing the member profile to determine which advertisement is to be communicated to the user.

10. In an electronic mail system, a method for displaying advertisements to a user at a local computer when the local computer is off-line, comprising the steps of:

establishing a communications link between the local computer and a remote system;

receiving a plurality of advertisements from the remote system;

storing the plurality of advertisements on a storage device at the local computer;

transferring an electronic mail message from the remote system to the local computer;

storing the electronic mail message on the storage device at the local computer;

terminating the communications link between the local computer and the remote system;

outputting the electronic mail message at the local computer;

concurrently with the previous step, outputting one of the plurality of advertisement at the local computer while the local computer is off-line with respect to the remote system.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising the step of replacing the output advertisement with a second one of the plurality of advertisements while the local computer is off-line with respect to the remote system.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising the steps of:

at the local computer, recording in a statistics file an indication of the advertisements that were output; and

storing the statistics file on the storage device at the local computer.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising the steps of:

creating an electronic mail message at the local computer while the local computer is off-line with respect to the remote system;

re-establishing the communications link between the local computer and the remote system; and

transferring the statistics file and the second electronic mail message from the local computer to the remote system.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein a third one of the plurality of advertisements is output while the electronic mail message is created.

15. The method of claim 13 further comprising the step of utilizing the statistics file to create a billing account related to the advertisement.

16. The method of claim 10 wherein the local computer initiates the communications link with the remote system.

17. The method of claim 10 further comprising the initial steps of:

receiving, at the remote system, a member profile from the user, the member profile comprising demographic information about the user;

utilizing the member profile to determine which advertisements are to be communicated to the user.

18. In an electronic mail system, a method for displaying advertisements to a user at a local computer when the local computer is off-line, comprising the steps of:

creating a first electronic mail message at the local computer;

concurrently with the previous step, outputting a first advertisement at the local computer while the user is creating the first electronic mail message;

establishing a communications link between the local computer and a remote system;

receiving a second advertisement from the remote system;

storing the second advertisement on a storage device at the local computer;

transferring the first electronic mail message from the local computer to the remote system;

transferring a second electronic mail message from the remote system to the local computer;

storing the second electronic mail message on the storage device at the local computer;

terminating the communications link between the local computer and the remote system;

outputting the second advertisement at the local computer while the local computer is off-line with respect to the remote system; and

concurrently with the previous step, displaying the second electronic mail message at the local computer while the local computer is off-line with respect to the remote system.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the first advertisement is stored on the storage device of the local computer.

20. The method of claim 18 further comprising the step of outputting the first advertisement in place of the second advertisement while the second electronic mail message is displayed and while the local computer is off-line with respect to the remote system.

21. The method of claim 18 further comprising the steps of:

at the local computer, recording in a statistics file an indication that the first advertisement was output; and

transferring the statistics file from the local computer to the remote system when the communications link is established between the local computer and the remote system.

22. The method of claim 21 further comprising the step of utilizing the statistics file at the remote system to create a billing account related to the advertisement.

23. The method of claim 18 wherein the local computer initiates the communications link with the remote system.

24. The method of claim 18 further comprising the initial steps of:

receiving, at the remote system, a member profile from the user, the member profile comprising demographic information about the user; and

utilizing the member profile to determine which advertisements are to be communicated to the user.

25. A method to operate an e-mail system having a server system and a plurality of user computers, comprising the steps of:

enabling the creation and reading of e-mail messages at user computers while the user computers are off-line with respect to the server system;

transferring e-mail messages between the user computers and the server system while the user computers are on-line with respect to the server system;

transferring advertisements from the server system to the user computers while the user computers are on-line with respect to the server system;

storing the transferred advertisements locally at the user computers; and

outputting the stored advertisements at the user computers when e-mail messages are being created or read and while the user computers are off-line with respect to the server system.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein the advertisements are output at the user computers in turn, according to a predetermined scheme, independent of content of the e-mail messages created and read at the user computers.

27. The method of claim 25 wherein each advertisement transferred to a user computer is output a plurality of times at the user computer.

28. The method of claim 25 wherein advertisements are output regardless of whether e-mail messages are received.

29. A method of operating an e-mail system having a plurality of user computers operated by users and a server system, comprising the steps of:

enabling the creation and reading of e-mail messages at user computers while the user computers are off-line with respect to the server system;

determining, at the server system, advertisements that are relevant for each user;

transferring e-mail messages between the user computers and the server system while the user computers are on-line with respect to the server system;

transferring relevant advertisements from the server system to the user computers while the user computers are on-line with respect to the server system;

storing the transferred advertisements locally at the user computers;

outputting the stored advertisements at the user computers when e-mail messages are being created or read while the user computers are off-line with respect to the server system.

30. The method of claim 29 further comprising the steps of:

recording in a statistics file at the user computers which advertisements are output; and

electronically providing the statistics file to the server system.

31. The method of claim 29 further comprising the steps of:

outputting each advertisement a plurality of times;

recording in a statistics file at the user computers a count indicating how many times each advertisement is output; and

electronically providing the statistics file to the server system.

32. In an electronic mail system, a method for displaying advertisements to a user at a local computer when the local computer is off-line, comprising the steps of:

coupling the local computer to a remote system;

receiving a first advertisement and a second advertisement from the remote system;

storing the first advertisement and the second advertisement on a storage device at the local computer;

transferring an electronic mail message from the remote syste