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How many mail clients load those by default nowadays? Gmail doesn't, Thunderbird doesn't.
by antsar 11y ago
How many mail clients load those by default nowadays? Gmail doesn't, Thunderbird doesn't.
- mynameisvlad 11y agoUm, Gmail does: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/145919?hl=en https://support.google.com/mail/answer/145919?hl=en > Gmail automatically shows you the images in your messages It does have an option to turn it off, but the default is on. They will load up the image themselves, then serve it from their domain, but, as the help information shows, that still indicates an "open", it's just that all the information on who opened the email (IP address, etc) would be wrong.
- julianj 11y agoI believe gmail is caching these images on their own servers. One source: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/12/gmail-blows-up-e-mail-marketing-by-caching-all-images-on-google-servers/ http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/12/gmail-... EDIT: I get what you're saying. I guess the count would depend on how long Google caches that image- or do they load it on a per email basis?
- mynameisvlad 11y agoYep, we're on the same page. The wording they use is "In some cases, senders may be able to know whether an individual has opened a message with unique image links." but I'd expect the tracking URLs themselves to be unique (most are, they are tied to an email so they know who opened the email and who didn't) so they would most likely bypass this cache. I expect the "some cases" refers to the ones where it simply gives you a count of people who opened your email, and does it by simply having a generic tracking URL.
- antsar 11y agoD'oh, thanks for the correction! I knew about their caching mechanism, but failed to realize that it wouldn't prevent this sort of tracking pixel from working due to the pixel URL being unique (in most cases).