Anti-Spam Alliance, Team Formed

As increasing volumes of unsolicited commercial e-mail, or “spam,” continue to raise costs for Hotmail and MSN Internet Access and dampen consumer excitement about the Internet and computing, Microsoft will work with AOL and Yahoo to define acceptable terms for commercial e-mail, share information and technology, and take legal action against spammers. The initiative will be overseen by a new team at Microsoft which will also concentrate on developing new antispam technology for Hotmail, Outlook, and Exchange.

2.4 Billion Spams per Day Intercepted

According to market researcher Message Labs, up to 50% of all e-mail sent today is spam. The main reason for spam’s prevalence is simple economics: for less than US$100, an advertiser can send messages to millions of customers, meaning that even minuscule response rates can generate positive revenues.

Spam impacts businesses and the consumer market. Corporate IT departments and ISPs make major efforts to block spam from reaching their users and may have to invest in bandwidth and e-mail server capacity that would otherwise be unnecessary. Wading through piles of spam could also cause consumers to sour on the Internet experience, reduce the amount of time they spend with their PC, and make them less likely to upgrade their hardware and software.