Postage Is Due On Companies Sending E-Mail
 

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/05/te...rtner=homepage

Postage Is Due for Companies Sending E-Mail

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By SAUL HANSELL
Published: February 5, 2006
Soon companies will have to buy the electronic equivalent of a postage stamp if they want to be certain that their e-mail will be delivered to many of their customers.

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 Internet companies say that this will help them identify legitimate mail and cut down on junk e-mail, identity-theft scams and other scourges that plague users of their services. The two companies also stand to earn millions of dollars a year from the system if it is widely adopted.

AOL and Yahoo will still accept e-mail from senders who have not paid, but the paid messages will be given special treatment. On AOL, for example, they will go straight to users' main mailboxes, and will not have to pass the gauntlet of spam filters that could divert them to a special bulk e-mail box or strip them of images and Web links.

Yahoo and AOL say the new system is a way to restore some order to e-mail, which, because of spam and online scams, has become an increasingly unreliable mode of communication even as it has become more important in people's lives.

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I only posted the first couple of paragraphs because it is a long two page article but it is certainly an interesting read to be sure. Worth checking out.

Re: Postage Is Due On Companies Sending E-Mail
 

They're spinning it, but what they're saying is that they'll let you bribe 'em to let spam thru.

Re: Postage Is Due On Companies Sending E-Mail
 

No way will I pay AOL to send mail to their members. If they don't have a real address, I guess I'm out of luck.

In my 28 years of doing internet, BBS and other online biz, I don't think I've ever sent a serious e-mail to an AOL member. I'm sure I've never sent a biz e-mail. But, I also don't spam AOL.

Re: Postage Is Due On Companies Sending E-Mail
 

Hmmm.. that's an interesting theory that probably has a lot of merit to it. :)

Re: Postage Is Due On Companies Sending E-Mail
 

Ten years from now, we'll all be paying to send email by buying electronic stamps and right there will be noted as the turning point. :(

Re: Postage Is Due On Companies Sending E-Mail
 

I know Ive made som good money off of AOL members in the past but it was all SE related.