• by Masha Geller , March 11, 2003

Following in the anti-spam footsteps of AOL, Yahoo yesterday launched a new version of SpamGuard, a patent-pending spam filtering technology now part of the Yahoo! Mail basic service. According to company officials, the new version of SpamGuard significantly reduces the amount of spam delivered to users’ inboxes and, in preliminary tests, resulted in user reports of spam declining by as much as 40%.

Yahoo says that SpamGuard caught five times more spam in February 2003 than in February 2002 because of the "This is Spam" link, launched in August 2002, which the company says has played an integral role in improving SpamGuard technology by evaluating the feedback received by Yahoo! Mail users to identify and filter spam. Now, SpamGuard's filtering technology automatically detects and directs spam into a separate folder, giving people the option and control to review all of their incoming email. Now, Yahoo! Mail users can block up to 100 addresses (200 for Yahoo! Mail Plus) and set up 15 filters (50 for Yahoo! Mail Plus) to customize protection against spam.

"We are committed to giving our users complete control over their inboxes and we continue to work tirelessly to create the best spam-fighting solution available," said Lisa Pollock, senior director, Yahoo! Messaging Products.

Another feature introduced along with SpamGuard yesterday is a tool that allows users the ability to block html graphics from being downloaded automatically when a message is opened. This optional "block html graphics" feature protects users from viewing images they may not want to see as well as web beacons (tags within an email that trigger an alert back to the spammer that the email has been opened and the address is "live.")

Yahoo join a growing group of ISP taking a tougher stance on spam. America Online announced last week that it had blocked 1 billion spam e-mails from user inboxes in one day. Microsoft has also moved to make spam fighting a central feature of its latest Internet access software, MSN 8. At the same time, experts agree that spam-blosking software is far from perfect and ISPs agree more work needs to be done.

In addition to improving its anti-spam tools and technology, Yahoo! said in a press release that it supports legislation that “provides for effective deterrents, penalties and marketing rules that would give consumers and email service providers additional protection from unsolicited commercial email.”

Last week, the state of Minnesota passed an anti-Spam bill and Texas put a similar bill forth for consideration, bringing the total up to 25 states that have already passed or are about to pass anti-Spam legislation. Experts predict intervention on a federal level in the near future.