Reasearchers at IDC predict that this year the number of spam messages sent will eclipse the amount of legit email correspondence for the first time ever, reports USA Today. Approximately 10.8 trillion spam messages will have crossed through inboxes in the past year, compared to 10.5 trillion legitimate person-to-person email messages. The numbers indicate that spam is a growing problem, despite the promise of better filtering technology.
"Two years from now, spam will be solved," said Bill Gates in 2004 addressing World Economic Forum in Switzerland. But 2007 will go down as the worst year yet for spam, a trend that has held for the past four years, according to Rebecca Steinberg Herson, vice president of marketing at Commtouch, an email security firm.
In an interview last month with USA Today, Gates reminded that though the volume of spam has increased, more of it is being deleted by spam filters. "Sure, there's a lot [of spam] out there, but software is deleting 99.9% of that anyway," he said, though Microsoft has revised that claim to 85% - 95%.
Gates does have a point -- spam filters are getting better. For example, last January, 50% of all spam was image based, but due to better filtering technology, Symantec now says that the percentage of image spam has dropped to just 8%. These quick advances in spam-fighting technologies force spammers to constantly change and update their methods. Eventually, researchers believe that better filters will begin to reduce spam from a colossal pain to a minor annoyance.
"As more people have inboxes protected by better and better spam filters, their experience of spam gets closer to Gates' vision," Richi Jennings, lead analyst at email security at Ferris Research, told USA Today. "He was a bit overaggressive with the prediction, of course. But spam isn't an easy problem to solve."
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How are the "Reasearchers at IDC" getting their info?
Spam sure as hell surpassed legit emails in my inbox -- years ago. Mine. My mom, dad, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, every single friend I've talked to about it, my cat and dog, Boobo my hamster, everyone...
Guess it must be nice living in the little fake research world they're dealing with. No spam.
Posted by: King Tut | November 23, 2007 1:30 PMYes, my thoughts exactly, spam outnumbered legit emails for me what, 5 or 6 years ago ??
Posted by: Eddie Truman | November 23, 2007 1:43 PMAnd watch what happens if you register your own domain name for email purposes only, you get the bounced back emails and errors of all the spammers that hijack your domain name; 1,000 plus spam emails a day.
Many providers including spam protection into users email accounts for free now. But now, spammers are getting better (spam in pdf and mp3 files), and spam shields too - it's war, witch has no winner.
Posted by: lukasz | November 23, 2007 2:58 PMYou guys need to change to a better email service (and perhaps also stop throwing your email address around like confetti). Bill was right. I haven't seen spam in years now. The filters work.
Posted by: Rollo | November 24, 2007 3:11 AMI've been getting more spam than legit email for years. Surprised that this is news!
Posted by: akemi | November 24, 2007 5:32 AMspam is bad! Instead of having spam filters, they should target the spammers. An international authority is needed to regulate the Internet.
Posted by: Virtaaj | November 24, 2007 8:25 PMLadies & Gentlemen
I am not into marketing I am not into spamming I am individual that uses computer to communicate with friends and family and that is in very small applications.
So! I ca not comet on subjects that you have outlined in your postings. However?
I can say these that our Government, MSN, and server hosting companies
Have screwed up royally, first MSN by making software that mail can be sent
Without return address. Two servers hosting company that mail without legit return address can pass trough their servers. Third our Government FCC allowing such communication without any rules or regulations.
If rules and software are made that mail without legit address is return to sender. Instantaneously we would limit the spam, hackings, virus and many other unwanted useless communication. For these problems I blame only one Organization and that is FCC (Federal Communication Commission) they are in packets of Manufactures.
Posted by: ante seput | November 25, 2007 8:45 AMIsn't it about time for the next generation of email? We should require all communication to be preceeded by authentication just like in a social network. There is very little spam within social networks and it is far easier to control.
Posted by: Charlie | November 25, 2007 2:44 PM