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February 21, 2006
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AOL postmaster Charles Stiles, Pivotal Veracity and Goodmail executives answered some questions from e-mail marketers. But many senders' questions went unanswered as hundreds in the industry signed up for the Webinar. Pivotal Veracity, the sponsor, cut attendance to 150.
"Most legitimate, AOL-whitelisted mail already goes into the inbox," said Michelle Eichner, chief operating officer at Pivotal Veracity, Phoenix. "For your existing inbox delivery, imaging is not going to get worse just because CertifiedEmail is not [yet] an option."
In the past two months, 92% of Pivotal Veracity customers' e-mails reached AOL inboxes, compared with 86% at Yahoo, 81% at MSN, 81% for Hotmail and 74% to Gmail.
However, Stiles and other AOL executives have told DM News that senders are more likely to get e-mails with images and links through if they sign up for CertifiedEmail.
"We want to increase effectiveness and delivery of legitimate e-mail," Stiles said.
Stiles asked for the industry's help in evaluating other e-mail authentication and reputation systems, including Return Path's Bonded Sender, Habeas and TRUSTe.
Meanwhile, he declined to say when AOL would officially implement DomainKeys or DKIM authentication for e-mail, for which the ISP, along with Yahoo, Cisco and others, has been developing standards.
Stiles also declined to reveal whether AOL's e-mail system of the future would include an "unsubscribe" button, as some e-mail senders had asked.
AOL's implementation of Goodmail's CertifiedEmail service was greeted with sharp criticism from email service providers and marketing experts.
"When I read about the AOL-Goodmail deal, I first thought it must be a hoax," says L-Soft CEO and founder Eric Thomas, who invented LISTSERV in 1986. "I just cannot imagine them as the cast of the IT industry's version of 'Goodfellas,' selling senders protection against a destiny of junk folders for 'a fraction of a cent per message'. Somehow, something has gone terribly wrong."
L-Soft is one of the few potential beneficiaries of AOL's move, since its customers would have no options but to purchase the necessary software upgrade to support Goodmail certification. Yet there are no sounds of champagne glasses clinking to be heard in L-Soft's boardroom.
"A per-message fee will eliminate non-commercial email traffic, such as the hundreds of thousands of discussion lists that serve as online communities for millions of people," says Thomas.
"No operator of a free e-mail newsletter service is going to pay protection on what is legal opt-in traffic," says Dana Blankenhorn, a business journalist for over 25 years who has covered the online world professionally since 1985.
Discussion communities such as the Association for Cancer Online Resources (ACOR) are also speaking out. "In essence, this is going to block every AOL subscriber suffering from any form of cancer from receiving potentially life-saving information they may not be able to get from any other source, simply because a non-profit like ACOR – which serves more than 55,000 cancer patients and caregivers every day – cannot afford to pay the fee. There must be a better solution," says Gilles Frydman, ACOR's President.
"Spam is just one of the many costs of doing business, and far from the largest. AOL's attempts to single out that cost and send the bill to legitimate opt-in senders show a distorted view of the industry. They are barking at the wrong tree, for the wrong reasons," says Thomas.
The saga began on January 30th, when it appeared that AOL and Goodmail were taking measures to pass on the cost of spam filtering to legitimate bulk email marketers.
But AOL says it didn't reverse anything because there was never a change and that all the resulting hoopla was hype and propaganda set up by Goodmail competitors and others as part of a misinformation campaign.
"We have no plans to do so, and anyone who says otherwise is engaging in propaganda," AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham told WebProNews.
But AOL does appear to have said that.
America Online's Postmaster Charles Stiles issued the following statement January 30, 2006:
* * *
AOL has demonstrated consistent leadership in providing the easiest and safest user experience for its Members. In 2006, AOL will make important changes in its email operations and policies to further protect against email practices that can put AOL Members at risk.
In light of the continued growth of phishing attacks, instances of image-based viruses and other forms of email-based fraudulent behavior, AOL will adopt new measures to assure that commercial messages received by our Members are authentic and safe to open.
AOL has led the industry in identifying message functionality (e.g. JavaScript) that can be used to put recipients at risk, and that functionality has been disabled to protect AOL members. AOL has also found that even relatively basic HTML functionality like images and links can be abused for fraudulent purposes. As a result, AOL blocks the use of images on most high-volume messages - though certain volume senders who are on the AOL Enhanced Whitelist and who maintain very low complaint rates are currently allowed to use images in their messages.
AOL has now determined that with the increasing growth and sophistication of fraudulent email behavior it must take additional steps to assure the highest degree of Member protection.
Implementation of the CertifiedEmail Service and Phase Out of the Enhanced Whitelist
AOL announced a partnership with Goodmail Systems in October 2005 to provide a CertifiedEmail premium delivery service - a new class of email that will help shield AOL Members from fraud and phishing and allow Members to be comfortable that CertifiedEmail messages are from highly-qualified senders and are authentic and safe to open.
AOL believes that the CertifiedEmail service provides a higher level of message safety for its Members than any other available practice of volume message processing. To guide AOL Members, the CertifiedEmail trust symbol will be prominently displayed in the inbox next to CertifiedEmail messages and also in the message window that frames CertifiedEmail messages - areas that cannot be spoofed because they are controlled by the AOL Email client.
With the introduction of the CertifiedEmail service, AOL will phase out the Enhanced Whitelist program. This transition will be implemented according to the following schedule:
-- On April 3, 2006, AOL will change the qualification criteria for the Enhanced Whitelist by lowering the complaint threshold to an extent that will significantly reduce the number of IP addresses included in the program.
-- On June 30, 2006, AOL will terminate Enhanced Whitelist privileges. This change will disable links and images by default from all non-certified bulk email viewed from AOL 9.0, AOL webmail and all subsequent client releases. As always, links and images can be enabled by the end user on a message-by-message basis.
Senders who are on the AOL Enhanced Whitelist will be eligible to apply for the CertifiedEmail service and AOL encourages senders to do so. The ability of Goodmail's CertifiedEmail service to hold senders accountable for their sending practices will allow AOL to provide qualified senders with privileges and benefits well beyond those offered by the Enhanced Whitelist program. The CertifiedEmail service will include:
-- Delivery. CertifiedEmail messages will bypass AOL volume and content filters to ensure the message ends up in the inbox. CertifiedEmail messages will not be blocked or delivered to the spam folder.
-- Message Presentation. AOL will allow CertifiedEmail messages to display fully functional images and links by default.
-- CertifiedEmail Designation. AOL will prominently display the CertifiedEmail trust icon in the inbox list view and in the non-spoofable area of the message window to indicate to the AOL member that the message is from a CertifiedEmail accredited sender.
-- Reports. Senders will gain access to accurate message-level data confirming inbox delivery or detailing error reporting in the event of non-delivery.
The rigorous sender accountability enabled by the CertifiedEmail service is not feasible with the AOL Enhanced Whitelist program. With the CertifiedEmail service, AOL members can open their emails with increased confidence that they won't be subjected to fraudulent content or behavior.
Regards,
Charles Stiles
AOL Postmaster
RELATED:
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AOL, Yahoo wide open to bulk e-mail, for a fee
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