AOL and Yahoo are planning to hand web marketing
companies a “postal charge” for each e-mail they successfully
deliver to their e-mail users.
The move is designed to cut down the level of spam, as well as
make money, said the two web portals.
Companies signing up for the scheme will see their messages
given priority on the network, and without the chance of the e-mail
ending up in the junk folders both AOL and Yahoo currently provide
to their users.
Companies using the scheme will also have to agree to only send
e-mails to recipients that have agreed to receive them, or risk
being axed from the system.
Web marketing firms not signing up for the service will still be
able to send the same number of messages, but will risk seeing
their messages stripped of images, web links and others features,
or being stopped altogether.
AOL and Yahoo said the scheme will help them identify legitimate
e-mail and cut down on junk e-mail, identity-theft scams and other
threats that have plagued users of their services.
