E-mail providers continue trying to come up with new and innovative ways to make sure that unsolicited mails don't reach people, and frustrate the life out of them. Ofcourse, not everyone can come up with a killer spam filter like Google did with GMail (spam reduction, 90%) ... so they have other ways, which the companies might not like a lot. Introducing, e-postage stamps!

That's right! As an initiative to protect consumers from getting unwanted mails from companies (yes, companies only, not individuals), AOL and Yahoo! are going to start charging the companies for every mail that they send to people. Quote from New York Times:

They will be charged from 1/4 to 1 cent for each email; the email thus paid for will receive preferential treatment. For example, with AOL the email will go straight to inboxes, and not have to pass through any of the spam filters AOL uses. Messages will also be marked as AOL Certified E-Mail. Don'€™t worry, unpaid-for email will still be delivered, but it won't get this special treatment.

However, all can't be good when it comes to this. People will get frustrated when they don't receive their mail, and when they complain to the companies, they'll easily say, 'Its your provider's fault!' Can't do much in a situation like that now, can you? But it will still reduce the companies outgoing mass mails, because they have to pay for every one of them if they they have to make it to the inbox! Let's hope such measures help to curb and finally remove Spam! Those things can get very pissing off! ;)


Filed Under: spam, aol, yahoo