AOL, Yahoo to start charging for e-mail delivery

Found on ArsTechnica on Saturday, 04 February 2006
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Aside from speed, one crucial difference between e-mail and snail mail is that e-mail is free. That's about to change, as AOL and Yahoo are going to start charging anywhere from 1/4¢ to 1¢ to guarantee that messages will wind up in the inboxes of the recipients. Free e-mail will still be accepted, but there will be no guarantee that it will find its way through the spam filters and into users' inboxes.

Both companies are defending the surcharge, pitching it as a way to guarantee reputable companies (i.e., those willing to pony up the cost per message) that their messages will make it to their intended audience.

And just like the post office, AOL and Yahoo will be making money on the whole venture. The payments will be made to a third party, a company called Goodmail that says its mission is "to bring safety and reliability to e-mail for the benefit of all participants." Goodmail will keep half of the payments and pass the rest of the e-mail charges onto Yahoo and AOL.

In addition, AOL and Yahoo run the risk of angering their own subscribers if expected e-mail doesn't arrive because the sender decided not pay the surcharge. Cutting down on the volume of unwanted e-mail is a worthwhile goal, but AOL and Yahoo are going about it the wrong way by charging senders.

This will anger users for sure. If the payment will make the difference between spam and ham, then I expect at least the option to turn of their filtering. Many email clients can filter out spam already, and those are not impressed by money.