Tracking Tools for Email & Documents

Back in May I posted a few thoughts on a service called Didtheyreadit.com, which lets you attach invisible tracking tags to your e-mail so you can confirm a recipient did indeed receive the message you sent. For PR purposes, this is a tempting tool to put into place, but ultimately, the “scary implications” and costs far outweigh the benefits.

Rafe Needleman at AlwaysOn posted an interesting piece today on a similar service called NextPage which is expected to roll out a new service that allows you to track documents (e.g., Word, Excel, PPT, PDF, etc.) that are delivered via e-mail. The biggest difference, he states, between NextPage and a service like Didtheyreadit.com is that of social contracts:

The difference between tracking e-mail and tracking documents is purely a difference in our social contract. If I create a business document, it is generally seen as intellectual property belonging to me or my company. E-mail, once it's sent, is usually seen as the property of the recipient. And that's enough to base a product on.

I think NextPage is doing some interesting stuff and I’m planning to look into it. I’ll report back on my experience.