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A question I am sure has been asked before but as opposed to 'how do I...', I am curious what the best practice is for programmers looking to implement a 'mass email' option on our website when an existing customer authorizes (via gmail api, yahoo mail api, etc) their own contact list.

Goal

The idea is simple: a user wants to share something about his/her site. They can of course use social media or select to import/email their existing contact list from say Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, or CSV then in turn an email is sent to each recipient with marketing message.

Problems I see

  1. We use the basic version (free) of Google Apps currenlty for one site. This limits us to I think around 500 emails at a time and a threshold per day. Users not only will be limited in how many contacts they can upload but also ->
  2. I fear of being 'blacklisted' possibly sending out hundreds/thousands of emails at a time. We are on a pretty tight budge to start so using something like mailchimp for delivery is just too expensive

Primary Question

What is the proper method of the 'share by email' functionality which you see on so many sites today. This is typically noticed next to facebook share buttons, twitter tweet buttons and more. The 'ShareThis' functionality mentioned below seems like a viable option but given the edit by Blake below, clearly Google's Contact API was in some way meant for this.

Update to original post

I am not sure how this is coming across as spam given so many large websites allows for 'sharing' things via email. I am trying to solve what I consider a fairly basic problem but if others see differently then additional suggestions are welcome. Calling this spam, however, is not accurate given we did not obtain the email addresses unethically or illegally and I would plan on allow an opt-out/unsubscribe option (with tracking for any future attempts).

Direct From the Google Contacts Data API:

Here are some of the things you can do with the Contacts Data API:

  • Synchronize Google contacts with contacts on a mobile device
  • Maintain relationships between people in social applications
  • Give users the ability to communicate directly with their friends from external applications using phone, email, and IM
JM4
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2 Answers2

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I'm not a laywer, and I think you should NOT do this. But from my experience, as long as:

  • the data come from the user.
  • the submitting action is triggered by the user
  • you do not store the email that come from the user

... the law consider that the user have send the email(s), but using your service (your SMTP server).

Further reading: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/archive/index.php/t-201195.html

FMaz008
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    wow, I cannot believe this was voted closed but in either case thank you for your help with the link and advice – JM4 Sep 22 '11 at 22:39
  • Perhaps also design a way to opt-out. Like storing SHA1/MD5 hashes of email addresses that chose to opt-out, and checking that before sending – Sander Rijken Sep 22 '11 at 22:39
  • @JM4 Well, I think it's good that people are very careful with these kinds of things. Spam is a huge problem, and StackOverflow shouldn't be the site that explains you how to spam people. – Sander Rijken Sep 22 '11 at 22:40
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    Basically, you're suppose to ask 1 question per question, you've asked 3 at the same time, and on a topic that hit a raw nerve of many developpers willing to have a better web out there... – FMaz008 Sep 22 '11 at 22:43
  • @SanderRijken - We can agree to disagree on the topic. This is not spam. Over 100 of the top 1000 websites by traffic utilize similar technology. I can respect somebody disagreeing and providing alternative advice as you did but I think there is a good amount more of user input which could be given on the matter than the brazen comments by some of the SO users. – JM4 Sep 22 '11 at 22:45
  • @FMaz008 - good point. I went ahead and edited the question to the primary issue at hand. Hopefully it may be reopened and others can provide their feedback on the issue. – JM4 Sep 22 '11 at 22:50
  • @JM4 I wasn't saying that I disagree? I tried to answer the question for a reason. I'm just saying it's good that people are careful. – Sander Rijken Sep 22 '11 at 22:58
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If I absolutely needed to build this, I'd go with a Google AppEngine site, with a web service that accepts incoming requests (better make sure this is secure to avoid people using this as a way to spam!). You can send 2000 messages/day for free, and above that it's $0.10/ 1000 Emails.

Also consider using ShareThis. This provides several ways to share content (also social media), and allows a user to user his/her Google + Yahoo address books.

Sander Rijken
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  • Thank you for sharing information about Google AppEngine, I was unaware this was around. I will read the documentation on it and see if it might benefit our needs at this time. Thank you again. – JM4 Sep 22 '11 at 22:46
  • do you know if it is possible to customize the size of the javascript window function within ShareThis? Each time a widget is clicked, it opens a full fledged new window. Perhaps this is an SO question. I tried modified the JS myself but seems to be overwritten by the sharethis code each time. – JM4 Sep 23 '11 at 00:28