It appears that soon companies will have to buy the electronic equivalent of a postage stamp if they want to be certain that their email will be delivered to many of their customers. America Online and Yahoo, two of the world’s largest providers of email accounts, are about to start using a system that gives preferential treatment to messages from companies that pay 1/4 of a cent to a penny each to have them delivered. The Internet companies say that this will help them identify legitimate mail and cut down on junk email, identity-theft scams and other scourges that plague users of their services.
The two companies also stand to earn millions of dollars a year from the system if it is widely adopted. AOL and Yahoo will still accept email from senders who have not paid, but the paid messages will be given special treatment. On AOL, for example, they will go straight to users’ main mailboxes, and will not have to pass the gantlet of spam filters that could divert them to a special bulk email box or strip them of images and Web links.
Critics of the plan say that the companies risk alienating both their users and the companies that send email. The system will apply not only to mass mailings but also to individual messages like order confirmations from online stores and customized low-fare notices from airlines.
Check this link for more details (or just google it).
