From spam to e-stamps
Isn't it a time for intense debate about the prospect of a two-tier internet?
AOL and Yahoo!, two of the world's biggest email account providers, are to roll out a system giving preferential treatment to companies and senders that pay for an e-postage stamp to ensure guaranteed delivery.
As millions of internet users hold email accounts with AOL and Yahoo!, the two companies will place a toll-gate by certifying the emails from companies and email-senders which pay up to 1 cent for speedier email delivery.
However, participating companies must agree to a tough code of conduct. The code demands that companies have adequate systems to combat spam and will only send to customers who have signed up to receive their emails. Companies that sign up will benefit by having their emails certified so consumers know they can safely open them.
AOL and Yahoo! believe the system will help them to identify legitimate email while clamping down on junk mail, identity theft scams and other nuisances that plague their users.
Nevertheless, AOL and Yahoo! will still accept email from senders who do not pay for preferential treatment, but the paid messages would bypass spam filters and other barriers which strip off pictures and other images to land more quickly in in-boxes.
What say you?
Comments
gmail is the savior. i guess bill gates was right about the fees collecting for each email 2 years ago. i penny is not alot for us, but people living in countries like cambodia and africa, i guess they're force to use snail mail again.
Posted by: calvin_fernandez![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jeffooi.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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February 6, 2006 04:25 PM
Guaranteed speed delivery? I wonder what that means. I have used hotmail, yahoo, gmail, etc. All off them are quite fast. All of the time, I received mails within almost immediately, the most is 5 minutes during very peak hours. I'm happy with that speed. I've never lost any mails. Does that means, after they implement the system, mails will get lost and slowed down by a day or so?
Posted by: streetz![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jeffooi.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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February 6, 2006 05:52 PM
I think it's a splendid idea. because people will eventually figure that all the certified mail is nothing but rubbish from companies willing to spend money to fill your inbox with adverts and send all certified e-mail stright to the bin.
So in effect, we can finally get the idiots who send endless advertisements to pay an idiot tax.
Posted by: Viceice![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jeffooi.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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February 7, 2006 01:18 AM
I will not want to pay for sending or receiving emails. If AOL and Yahoo charges, I will switch to other free email account providers. gmail, I believe, for now, will be free but if the trend to charge catches on, I am sure they will charge also.
For AOL and Yahoo to implement the charging, they would require both the sender (to be charged) and the receiver (to create the numbers/popularity of the brand). If there are not enough willing receivers and senders, AOL and Yahoo would soon have to give up this idea :-).
Posted by: caribenar![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jeffooi.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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February 7, 2006 07:07 AM