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Yahoo and AOL Announce Pay Per Spam Email Project
Want to get your Spam ... err Targeted Opt-in EMail to the front of the pack, AOL and Yahoo have just the program for you via: New York Times
America Online and Yahoo, two of the world's largest providers of e-mail accounts, are about to start using a system that gives preferential treatment to messages from companies that pay from 1/4 of a cent to a penny each to have them delivered. The senders must promise to contact only people who have agreed to receive their messages, or risk being blocked entirely.
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yes, and from another perspective
Some will say this is a toll booth.. others will say it hinders the underfunded and favors the big corps, but what about privacy?
A sysadmin at my ISP knows if I got an email, even if I say I didn't get it yet. But the sender does not. Now, that sender is paying for "certified email" so they probably have a right to that inside knowledge.
I guess it's probably ok for AOL to do this, but I bet Yahoo will lose plenty of email accounts once people start understanding the business relationships that exist behind the scenes between Yahoo and the mailers.
Worrisome
What confidence I had in Yahoo has been shaken a bit by this.
I'm going to wait and see how this turns out, but I'm already looking for alternatives to Yahoo mail in case I have to jump ship because of Yahoo! Certified! Spam!
I also worry that my real email (you know, email from real people) will get a lower priority than the spammy commercial types that can bribe their way past the spam filters.
And it's a shame because email is one of the biggest reasons I use Yahoo.
Expect Hotmail soon
I believe Bill Gates was the first to propose this idea couple of year ago, so expect hotmail to join the bandwagon soon...IMHO increasing the cost of sending commercial email is the only way to stop spam.
If they execute this idea properly the $$$ value of this will reach that of PPC pretty soon
IMHO increasing the cost of
They need to charge more than a quarter of a cent though. Spam email is so profitable, spammers will just pay it and go on.
Accountability
I think a lot of this comes to down to accountability and Yahoo and AOL keeping closer tabs on those using email marketing. It's going to create a whole new market for "authorized senders" though so expext to see those guarantees of inbox delivery anytime now.
Mild and Soapy
Its all a bit much,the pay per send anti-spam measure, even though in theory its a great idea. Isn't a less perfect but far better solution this:
have a system that everyone agrees to that says in essence "If you want to send more than 1000 emails you have to sign up to a scheme that costs a few hundred a year, the profits of which go to charity"
You could be really strict on the extra measures or relaxed, I dunno, but it would reduce spam at no cost to users, little cost to legit companies and great benefit to charity.
Not to charity ...
... the payment should go to the users who have to wade through that stuff.
Whoohoooo!
I've been waiting for something like this.
(actually, I need ALL to use a pay system)
Reprogram It
Maybe we could reprogram people to be more interested in spam. Thinking outside of the box the box came in.
People are interested in spam
Spam works. Overall, people are not interested in being tricked, but innocent un-solicited email is not much of a bother for the unwashed masses.