Importance

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Abstract

An advertisement system and method are provided for inserting into an end user communication message a background reference to an advertisement. In some embodiments, the background reference causes an advertisement image to be tiled, or watermarked, across an end user screen behind the text of an e-mail message or public posting. A message server inserts the background reference after receiving a message originally sent from an end user originator and before sending the message to be delivered to an end user recipient. When necessary, the message server will convert at least a portion of the message into a proper format, such as HTML, before inserting the background reference to an advertisement, which is preferably selected in accordance with end user recipient demographic information and/or ad exposure statistics. The advertisement itself, often a graphical file, is preferably not transmitted with the message, but is typically stored at the message server or other location remote from the end user recipient. Preferably, the message server maintains and refer to records on each end user recipient to allow for selective enablement of background reference insertion and overwriting based upon end user preferences. According to various 'non-web' example embodiments, the message server transmits an SMTP, POP3 or NNTP message with an HTML portion for a respective HTML-compatible client. In other 'web-based' example embodiments, the message server transmits the entire message in HTML to be used as a stand-alone web page or as a portion of a larger page employing frames or tables.

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First Claim