Hmm... lots of us in the email marketing world did stuff like this years ago. Almost every top-flight email marketing vendor can do this today. Perhaps I'm missing what's the truly new, but customized emails linked to when/where they are opened crossed by profile variables and up-to-second content like auction prices is old hat. Looking at the demos, it looks like they either generate an image live on the fly with whatever content you have linked in, or use GeoIP to make a map image for local relevance.

Over the years, we found that these features don't always mesh with the "mental model" folks had about email... so that sometimes, the effort to create really dynamic content like this didn't really pay off; in some cases, however, such as auctions, limited offers, and other countdown situations, it could work really well. Some folks tried to send one mail and tell people "hey, keep this mail, whenever you open it, it's new!" hoping that they would go back to it during the day or even across a few days. But it would get buried in the flood of mail. And many people assume email is static, that what they saw this morning is what will be there that afternoon. Having it change (deal of the hour stuff, for example) can really confuse some readers.

So, glad to see that what's old is new again, and I wish these guys luck. I'd love, however, for someone to point out what's really new compared to the stuff that's been done in the past. Because yes, the email game could use some spice, and if it does something really new, perhaps this could help improve the email experience.