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Thursday, March 27, 2003
Now Yahoo is Suddenly Against Spam, Too
Microsoft has made news in the past few weeks with its newly adopted anti-spam platform. Now Yahoo's getting in on the act. In Yahoo Mail, when you mark a message as spam in Yahoo Mail, there's an option to also enter the "rid the world of spam" sweepstakes.
According to Yahoo, you can win a free year of Yahoo! Mail Extra Storage, Yahoo! Mail Plus, or an Indestructible Steel Mailbox and a Paper Shredder (for "spam's evil cousin, junk mail"... heh). Be sure to check the rules before you gleefully report all of your e-mail as spam!
While it's nice to see the portal heavyweights make a concerted effort to battle this serious epidemic of junk mail, I can't help feeling that there's some tomfoolery going on here. After all, Yahoo is the same company that surreptitiously changed everyone's e-mail preferences last year to allow spam e-mail from Yahoo and its partners. And who knows what Microsoft has to gain from their battle against spam. Rarely has Microsoft done something out of the kindness of its heart. (Mr. Gates' charitable efforts aside)
Much like politicians that change their spots to match the mood of whatever constituency has the most political clout, and with an eye toward re-election, the portals' spam war may be less than genuine. But, anything that helps rid the world of spam mustn't be too bad, eh?
Posted by
Cory Kleinschmidt
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