The blandly named Internet Software LLC has completed a hardware, software and network facility, designed to deliver personalized versions of its Signature-mail application to half a million new users a month. Signature-mail enables HTML in email, letting users add handwritten signatures, greetings, messages and drawings to their messages. With an estimated 80 million users, email is the most popular net-based activity by far. Internet Software wants its slice of that market. By custom-producing Signature-mail for each user, the company’s mass customization infrastructure is intended to deliver that slice. It’s not clear how individual versions of Signature-mail will differ from one another, or what technology the company’s five patent applications are supposed to protect. ComputerWire’s own email to Internet Software elicited no reply and the company’s web site at http://www.signaturemail.com is password-protected.
