Tracking, managing, suggesting and confirming receipt of gifts

An apparatus, comprising:

• a processor unit, a computer readable storage device, memory, and first program code stored in the computer readable storage device for execution by the processor unit via the memory, the first program code comprising:
• program code for receiving information, via a web communication network, about a gift from a recipient of the gift, wherein the information about the gift is within a barcode included on or in a package in which the gift is sent to the recipient, wherein said receiving the information about the gift results from a scan of the barcode by a portable computing device of a computer system, wherein the information about the gift identifies the gift as being given by a sender to the recipient and identifies types of media desired by the sender for receiving acknowledgement of gifts;
• program code for storing, after the information about the gift has been received, the information about the gift as a new entry in a stored history of information about gifts previously received by the recipient, said stored history being stored in the computer system;
• program code for, after the information about the gift has been stored, identifying advertising for the recipient from the stored history of information about gifts received by the recipient;
• program code for presenting, via the web communication network after the advertising has been identified for the recipient, the advertising to the recipient;
• program code for receiving, via the web communication network, a numerical rating of the gift, said numerical rating having been selected by the recipient via a rating selection region in a graphical user interface (GUI);
• program code for generating an acknowledgment of the gift;
• program code for inserting, after the numerical rating of the gift has been received, the numerical rating of the gift into the acknowledgment;
• program code for, after the numerical rating of the gift has been inserted into the acknowledgment, sending, via the web communication network, the acknowledgment of the gift to the sender of the gift;
• program code for recording, by the computer system, in the stored history of gift information about gifts, the numerical rating of the gift;
• program code for sending, via the web communication network, the gift information to a service of an advertiser;
• program code for receiving, via the web communication network, from the service of the advertiser, an advertisement whose selection was based on the stored history of information about gifts, wherein the numerical rating, in the gift information, was used in selection of the advertisement, said received advertisement being denoted as an optimal advertisement;
• program code for presenting, via the web communication network, the optimal advertisement to the recipient, said optimal advertisement including a link to a web page for ordering an item identified in the web page;
• program code for, after the optimal advertisement has been presented to the recipient, receiving, via the web communication network, from the recipient, an order of the item placed via the web page;
• and
• program code for sending, via the web communication network, to the sender, the item ordered by the recipient and an identification of the item as a reciprocal gift for the sender from the recipient.