Researchers at Bristol University in the UK have created a tool called SensaBubble which will make a room fill with scents when a computer user receives an email. The computer-controlled bubble cannon fills soap bubbles and a designated scent to the user, projecting a color on display.

Entrepreneur Tawheed Kader has developed an app designed for sales people to be more effective at emailing clients. The app is called ToutApp and helps salespeople collect and analyze metrics like email open rates and click-through rates in order to help sales people better understand their prospects. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Kader said that 80 percent of sales work takes place over email and argues that making email more productive helps make sales more productive.

Russia Internet giant Mail.ru which has more than 100 million users worldwide, is entering the American market with a version of the service called My.com. The service has multiple features, including MyMail, MyChat, and MyGames, as well as iOS and Android apps. The My.com email service offers users 150 GB of free email storage, much more than Google's free 15 GB of shared storage.

Thirty-four percent of marketers admitted that they did not have a documented marketing plan last year, according to a new report from Marketo. The research indicated that smaller companies were the least likely to have this kind of plan in place and the largest companies were the most likely to have a plan in place. Only fifty-six percent of companies with less than 50 employees had a documented marketing plan in place, and 81 percent of companies with 1,001-5,000 employees had a documented marketing plan in 2013.

Wal-Mart has plans to turn its digital receipts into marketing messages. The retailer has partnered with mobile analytics provider Flurry to collect data about customers who opt for digital receipts. They will use this data to help send targeted messages in future campaigns.

List management company Exact Data has forged an alliance with BriteVerify in order to bring affordable email verification tools to its small- and medium-sized business clients. BriteVerify will clean out a marketer's list and identify addresses that are unknown or invalid for a penny per record. The company's software allows users to upload files from their desktops, email systems or cloud storage sites and clean lists in real time.

AOL has revealed plans to enact a stricter email-validation process than it currently has in place in a move to curb the massive spoofing attack that has been harassing users over the past few days. AOL voted to changed its DMARC policy. Under the updated policy, AOL is instructing mailbox providers to reject any email allegedly associated with an AOL domain that didn't originate from an AOL server.

The Justice Department is fighting back against a federal magistrate judge John Facciola who has criticized the agency's practice of requesting bulk email in criminal investigations for violating the privacy rights of Americans. The DOJ's attorneys filed an appeal this week asking the judge's boss to accept an application from the agency to search and seize several months of emails from a suspect's account. The request is part of an investigation involving alleged kickbacks from a defense contractor.

Spam emails pretending to come from the Canada Revenue Agency have been circulating in Canada. The emails claim to be from an official who is collecting tax on behalf of the agency and promises the recipient that they are eligible for a $400 return if they register for a Government Gateway account. The link goes to a malicious site that steals any data entered onto it.

Dell has partnered with email encryption specialist DataMotion in order to give SonicWALL email security users access to tools to encrypt their emails and attachments. The alliance brings compliance-level encryption to all emails and attachments within Outlook. Together, the DataMotion-Dell SonicWALL offering is designed to stop confidential data leaks and regulatory violations.