Postage is due for companies sending e-mail

[geekerati]

Companies will soon 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 controversial 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 senders must contact only people who have agreed to receive their messages, or risk being blocked entirely.

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 gantlet 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 worries about online scams, has become an increasingly unreliable way for companies to reach their customers, even as online transactions are becoming a crucial part of their businesses.

"The last time I checked, the postal service has a very similar system to provide different options," said Nicholas Graham, an AOL spokesman. He pointed to services like certified mail with return receipts, "where you really do get assurance that if what you send is important to you, it will be delivered, and delivered in a way that is different from other mail."

But critics of the plan say that the companies risk alienating both their users and the companies that send e-mail. The system will apply not only to mass mailings but also to individual messages like order confirmations from online stores and customized low-fare notices from airlines.

"AOL users will become dissatisfied when they don't receive the e-mail that they want, and when they complain to the senders, they'll be told, 'it's AOL's fault,' " said Richi Jennings, an analyst at Ferris Research, which specializes in e-mail.

As for companies that send e-mail, "some will pay, but others will object to being held to ransom," he said. "A big danger is that one of them will be big enough to encourage AOL users to use a different e-mail service."

Source/read more

[andrew247]

I disagree strongly. Emails are free. Full stop.

[physik3r]

It was only a matter of time. Nothing stays free for long. Just another way the *man* steals from us

[mondine]

I see AOL is going back to their original premise: "We do what we want because our customers are dumb".
And I've had a Yahoo adress for years, because of a Yahoo Groups mailing list I'm on. It's about as reliable as a politician's promise, the day after the elections.
Anybody that would pay for a premium grade of incompetence shouldn't be in business.
I don't see the market tolerating this.

[Lupine1647]

I will hate it so much if they go through on this.

[andrew247]

Haven't ideas like this been proposed in the past, and fallen through due to market outrage?

[mondine]

I'm not sure. I know it's been the subject of a number of frauds, and chain-letters.

[andrew247]

Originally Posted by mondine

I'm not sure. I know it's been the subject of a number of frauds, and chain-letters.

Possibly
(Chain letters going to my inbox get deleted immediately)

[IamTheKing9]

This is impossible. Has Yahoo! notified it's users as of yet? Because I want to see what their users will write.

[andrew247]

Originally Posted by IamTheKing9

This is impossible. Has Yahoo! notified it's users as of yet? Because I want to see what their users will write.

Well not many hardcore Yahoo fans will be vegitating here, I don't think