Weekly, I keep an eye to the horizon to assess new developments
in the Internet environment. In noting the changes, I sometimes
begin to feel overwhelmed by feelings of doom.

The S~P~A~M problem is one such item that leaves me at times
in much distress. I fear the trends of the ISP’s in their
efforts to get control of the S~P~A~M situation.

The ISP’s are pushed and prodded by the ISP’s customers as they
begin to feel overwhelmed by the volume of unappreciated UCE
email.

Now and again, companies spring up to promise a new technology
to combat the growing problems faced by the ISP’s and their
customers.

Early on, the promising technologies included blacklists and
email filters. I say “early on” because I have been fighting
to overcome S~P~A~M filters for the last five years. The people
who receive mail from me in the form of ezines or newsletters
have ALL double-opted-in to receive my publications.

The sad thing is that as long as I have been publishing an
ezine, I have had subscribers who could not receive my
publications due to email filters.

Just a few months ago, I was feeling very depressed about the
future or lack of a future for email. It seems that the filters
are becoming so intrusive that very few emails will actually
reach their actual and intended recipients. And it seems the
problem will only get worse.

Now, we have a company offering a new solution that is almost
more Draconian than email filters. Habeas, Inc. has created
an email header and filters to assure that the people doing
the mailings are authorized to do so by the anti-S~P~A~M
zealots, a.k.a. the Habeas, Inc. accountant.

Habeas believes that online commercial enterprises should pay
them a fee to guarantee that their email will be delivered to
those who have asked to receive mail from them.

Personally, I am hoping someone will use the one keyword that
has most damaged the Internet to damage the future of the
Habeas concept. That one word is “free”.

Think about this. If someone was to feel secure enough to
stand up to the Habeas saber rattling about Copyrights and
Patents, and to offer a very similar service for FREE, then
we can as a community destroy the pay-to-send-email concept
before it has a chance to build any real momentum.

Today I read a small story about a email hoax perpetuated by
a student at Yale University:

http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=22111

The interesting thing that came out of this story is that the
Yale Administration came up with a simple solution to this
problem. They have directed their IT department to add a link
to every email that shows the URL where the official copy of
the email being sent can be seen on the secured Yale website.

The solution is that if the link does not appear with the email
pointing to where the communication can be seen on the Yale
website, then the reader is to assume that the email is a hoax.

Interesting, eh?

Like I said, a few months ago, I felt very pessimistic about
the future of email. These days, my outlook is not nearly so
bad.

When I realized that I would change the format of my own
publication, I also realized that I would move the publication
to my own mail server and I would also send two copies of the
ezine. The first copy would be a full HTML copy of the ezine,
and the second copy will consist of only a link to the URL
where one can view the ezine online. The second mailing is
only for those whose ISP blocked the original mailing.

Imagine that. There are in fact ways out there to conquer the
email hoax perpetrators and there are ways out there to conquer
the email filtering software. And finally, there is in fact a
way to defeat the Habeas, Inc. pay-to-send-email program.

The future does not look so dim anymore.

Copyright Bill Platt - All Rights Reserved

Bill Platt is the owner of http://www.LinksAndTraffic.com

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In order to keep your mailbox free of spam mails, it is best to know about the best email spam filters to get some idea on how to check spam. There are a number of email spam filters that you can use in your computer for the Windows users. POPFile are very effective in categorizing and separating the unsolicited mails from the personal messages. For POP accounts, Death2Spam is extremely effective. eXpurgate, requiring two different email IDs, works well in filtering spam. SpamPal identifies the well known spammers with the help of spam blacklists. MailWasher Pro is secure and a time-saving spam filter that also protect your computer from viruses. Spamihilator, with the help of Bayesian filters, protects the email accounts. Some of the other effective spam filters include Spam Bully, Spam Inspector, and Zaep.

Time Saving and Economic Spam Filters

Anti spam for outlook includes Spam Bully that keeps your inbox free of spam. They work with Bayesian Spam Filter that makes use of artificial intelligence along with server blacklists. They filter in only the personal and real messages into the inbox. They often put forth a password to be typed in correctly by unfamiliar sender so as to allow that mail into your inbox. They also forward the good mails into your phone. Anti spam software and anti spam solutions are essential to aid you in getting a clean inbox. The server spam filter or anti spam server is a software application that scans all the incoming email messages. There are various anti spam programs that identifies Spam and sends it to the junk mail folder.

Not all spam filters work in the same way. Some of them are pre programmed where the know spammers are inserted. They accordingly block them. Some of the programs filter the emails based on the keywords used in the mails. Some of the email spam filters are configured and you can easily customize it or the network administrator can also customize it according to the requirement of the company. With the help of their unique features, the spam filters gives you a clear and spam free inbox.

We have made the most comprehensive research to find the best anti spam solutions. Find it only on the Anti spam solutions resource. All about spam blockers on LeanderNet - http://www.leandernet.com

If you yourself are thinking possibly about getting the internet in your own house or or perhaps just changing over your existing net company it is however imperative that clients evaluate broadband packages & transactions before making each and every decision. Think about it: you would not primarily walk into a shop and acquire an apartment you would consider the current distinct models alongside each and every other before coming to rest on which to actually buy. customers should always compare broadband packages just like any other consumer item.

And while it could possibly be straightforward to think that compare broadband is going to be an uncomplicated case of looking at 10 or so companies & choosing the ones customers like most, it is only once customers come to compare all the all broadband packages in great detail that customers truly appreciate the overwhelming choice of transactions on proposition.

Once clients take the time to compare all the broadband deals, looking out for features such as price, contract length & client support arrangements, customers will noticeably climb some likelihood of finding a deal that is correct for your own needs and your wallet.

It is also principal to definitely compare all the all broadband bundles in technical terms. What different speeds are on offer for customers. Is there a download limit or maybe fair usage policy? Is the bundle wireless & will you yourself get a router? Make sure you ask does the deal come with any free security or possibly a anti-virus software? These are all the examples of questions one should ask yourself once customers compare broadband deals.

An easy tactic to evaluate broadband packages is to definitely use, unsurprisingly, all broadband comparison websites like compare all the all broadband UK. Those work through first of all measuring the greatest types of all broadband deffinately suit all your families needs, then allowing customers deffinately compare all the al broadband packages that fit the bill. You can display the site’s proposals by cost, the speed, deal time & download limit, making it easy to definitely compare all the all broadband packages at a glance and finally the find the just right one for customers

The Federal Trade Commission is one of the greatest agencies in the United States Government and they are in charge of protecting the consumer from fraud. The United States Justice Departments Federal Trade Commissions Consumer Protection Division is a fine example of how the government protects you the consumer. Or so they say?

Actually considering the Federal Trade Commission’s dismal enforcement of the CAN SPAM Act one would think that they do not know what they are doing. But really they do; they are very good at Public Relations and Press Releases telling us all the wonderful things they are doing while they sit around and jack off all day and SPAM increases by some 3000% from the time they started to enforce it. Worse off this is not an isolated incident.

Now then lets consider Identity Theft and the many consumers who have been harmed; Did the FTC The Mighty Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Protection Division stop Phishing thru SPAM? Absolutely not in fact it is also up and snagging more and more consumers each day.

Now then my question to you is do you really think that the Federal Trade Commission is protecting consumers? Do you really believe that the FTC can follow up on the High Gasoline Prices? Do you really even trust the FTC and their puffery, misrepresentation, embellishment and out right fraudulent claims that they protect the consumer? Not me.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Will a spam filter help you free up time? I spend so much time weeding the spam out of my mailbox that it is unbelievable, or at least I did. It is an unfortunate fact that a good spam blocker is an absolute necessity with any computer that has email and internet access to it. Spam is simply unsolicited email that is usually a part of some sort of commercial advertising strategy. It is the email equivalent of junk mail and has been a part of email life for years now. You should really consider a good spam blocker because the truth is that spam presents a great deal more trouble than just the pain of weding out advertisements.

So why is spam such a problem? I mean do you really have to get a spam blocker? The answer is yes because spam eats up the electronic resources on your computer like memory and storage. Spam may also have viruses that can shut down your computer or your network if you have one. It can also contain scams that can trick some of the less savvy users of the internet and email. What a good spam blocker will do is stop the messages before they ever hit your inbox, thus saving you space, memory, and the threat of unsavory offers.

Another way a spam blocker will help you is in terms of your time. Even if the spam you receive does not contain viruses and really is just a series of advertisements, it takes a lot of time to delete and filter out all the spam in your inbox. If the email in question is one you use for work, then think how much more productive you can be with a spam blocker keeping you from having to read and delete a bunch of advertisements.

If you are a business owner, the same applies. Your employees will be much more productive if you get a good spam blocker put in with the email. It will save time in reading bad emails as well as help protect you from the threat of viruses or spyware. Spam is a problem and can really hold back a business as much as it can an individual, so give some consideration to getting a good spam blocker so that you can save your business time and money.

Spam has been around pretty much since the internet and email first became popular. It is difficult to define and recognize, but laws are still passed to help slow it down or stop it. The problem is that often times the spammers are ignoring such laws and sending their messages out anyway. All this means is that no matter how many laws or acts are passed, a good spam blocker is a necessity to keep your computer and to keep your email running smoothly. In addition, it will save you time and frustration every time you log on to check your email messages.

If you would like to view more of my articles on spam blockers, please feel free to visit my spam blocker software website!

What do savvy marketers have to say about RSS? What are their top tips?

We set to find that out end of 2004 to collect the best possible insights on RSS marketing from top marketers and RSS developers and leaders, for Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS.

Let’s get started …

1. How can RSS be fully integrated in our marketing and communications mix
Answered by Robin Good, MasterNewMedia.org

“From what I can see RSS is an effective marketing channel in that it allows easy and extended distribution of your core news and information channels to the widest possible audience with very low costs, maximum compatibility with a great number of media devices and with the added ability for the customer to take on this information and reuse it to hir (his + her) benefit.

That allows customers to further become marketers and promoters of your own products and services. If we openly allow the content of public RSS feeds to be freely subscribed, syndicated, re-aggregated and republished we will only find that new and greater value can be extracted every time someone goes about doing this.

So it is important not to keep RSS newsfeeds under locks.

RSS is one of the purest viral marketing channels. Its virality being spelled clearly in its acronym: Really Simple Syndication.

Yes, you need to make these three words make sense to you in order to leverage the maximum out of this content format.

Allow syndication. Don’t limit it.

Let others take your RSS feed and do things with it. Encourage them to do so. Have them use it to republish your news (among others) on their home page. Help them achieve that. Write and explain with short stories or simple tutorials how easy it is to search, filter and aggregate content from different RSS feeds and to create dedicated niche newsfeeds on most any topic you can think of. Explain openly that if you do create such dedicated newschannels they can be as easily republished as news Web site, which can carry contextual ads (Google AdSense) from day one. Very sustainable if not altogether profitable.

Look for example at the work being done by Waypath with their Blender experiment and see other useful and complementary uses of RSS that can be economically profitable.”

And another great tip from Robin: “Create as many RSS newsfeeds for your content as are the topic/themes that you cover. Do not pack all of your content under one generic RSS channel.”

2. What’s really going to drive readers/customers to adopt RSS? Buyers of what products and services are most likely to adopt RSS?
Answered by Bill French, MyST Technology Partners

“I don’t think anyone wants to adopt RSS; rather they want timely information in a controlled and organized way such that it helps them do their jobs better, or manage their personal information diet. This is precisely the reason we adopted (for the most part) SMTP - but none of us considered “adopting SMTP”. Email applications and the benefits of a store-and-forward architecture with reasonable assurance of delivery drove us into the realm of SMTP. And the driving force that seems to be causing early adopters to use RSS feeds has more to do with the volume of information and news that we find ourselves awash in each day.

There’s no question; everyone will eventually adopt RSS (or similar formats) but we’ll know that has happened when no one refers to it as RSS. ;-)”

3. How would you compare RSS and e-mail as content delivery tools?
Answered by Tom Hespos, Underscore Marketing

“RSS is all about consumer control. How many times have you thought about subscribing to an e-mail newsletter but thought, “Nah, they’ll probably sell my e-mail address to spammers” and didn’t subscribe? With RSS, consumers can unsubscribe from feeds at any time, so the risk of getting unwanted content or spam is virtually nil.

I think consumers have been waiting for something like this for quite some time. The added control will make them more likely to want to aggregate content from publishers they read regularly. As a marketing guy, I think it’s appropriate to mention that moving to RSS is not without its risks. Content publishers know that it’s somewhat cumbersome to unsubscribe from an e-mail newsletter, so they’ve taken certain chances with their e-mail newsletters that they won’t be able to take with RSS - they carry standalone sponsor messages, load up their HTML newsletters with animated ads, maybe take a risk with some of the stories they write.

Since the “unsubscribe” button is right there for feed subscribers, publishers might not get a second chance if they screw up. With RSS, there’s no broadcasting a “Please come back” message to people who unsubscribe. If you lose someone, you lose them until they decide to come back. So I’m sure publishers will need to handle RSS with kid gloves until they get a sense of what their subscribers will like and what will make them run for the door.”

Copyright 2005 Rok Hrastnik

Learn how to take full marketing advantage of RSS and get all the expertise, knowledge and how-to information for implementing RSS in your marketing mix, from direct marketing, PR, e-commerce, internal communications and online publishing to SEO, traffic generation and customer relationship management. Including complete interviews with more than 40 RSS marketing experts. Click here now: http://rss.marketingstudies.net/book/

Sooner or later everyone with an email account will receive a phishing attempt from some internet scammer. What is phishing? How can you protect yourself? These are some of the questions this identity theft article will provide, along with some free resources and practical advice on how to protect your online identity.

The Anti-Phishing Working Group estimates that 75 million to 150 million phishing emails are sent every day on the internet. Phishing (pronounced fishing), is online identity theft that uses spoof emails, fraudulent websites and crimeware to trick unsuspecting internet users into providing financial data, credit card numbers, social security numbers, account logins and passwords, etc.

A spoofed email looks like it is from a legitimate company, usually banks, credit card companies, paypal, ebay, etc. These fraudulent emails look like they are from the “real” company, and generally try to get you to log into your account through the links in the email. The spoof email may state that there is a problem with your account and if you do not log in and update your information your account may be suspended, restricted, closed, etc. Generally these emails try to convey a sense of urgency; if you don’t correct this problem your account will be suspended.

Trojans are increasingly being used as a phishing technique according to Sophos, a security firm. The Brizilian police recently arrested a phishing gang of 18 people who stole $37M from online banking accounts. This phishing gang would send out emails that included Trojans. Once a Trojan infects your computer, all internet activity can be monitored and transferred to the phisher. This is a serious threat as you probably won’t know that you are infected with a Trojan.

According to David Jevans, Chairman of APWG, “Attacks can, and are, coming in a variety of other flavors. Instant Messaging, exploited websites, P2P networks, and search engines are all being used to download and run key logging malcode and/or be directed to websites which may contain malcode or be fraudulent. Attackers are also not just interested in username and password access to bank accounts. Social security numbers, credit cards and other identity information are also being stolen.”

Protecting yourself against phishing scams.

• Do not give out personal or financial information through an email request.

• Always log on to your sensitive accounts by opening a new browser and typing the actual URL directly into the address bar. For example, if you receive a suspected phishing email from ebay, open a new browser and type www.ebay.com in the browser bar.

• Do not click on any link in a suspected phishing email.

• Only use a secure website to submit sensitive data. A secure sites’ address will begin with “https://” instead of “http://”

• Check the activity of your online accounts regularly.

• Make sure your browser is up to date and all security patches are installed.

• Report phishing and spoof email to: reportphishing@antiphishing.com , spam@uce.gov, and forward the email to the company that is being spoofed.

• Keep your pc protected with updated anti-virus software, anti-spyware software, and a firewall.

• You may also want to install anti-phishing software.

o Earthlink ScamBlocker is a free browser toolbar that alerts you to known phishing sites. It’s free and can be downloaded at www.earthlink.net/earthlinktoolbar.

o Webroot has a beta version of PhishNet which you can download at www.webroot.com/products/phishnet/

o PC Tools Spyware Doctor offers protection against known phishing sites, spyware and blocks popups.

With the consequences being identity theft, it is imperative that you learn to protect your pc and your identity by exercising caution and installing the proper tools. Hopefully, this identity theft article has given you the information you need to avoid being the next phishing victim. Remember, legitimate companies don’t ask for personal or financial information in an email - so don’t give it to them!

Lisa Smith is the webmaster of 1stSpywareRemoval.com This website offers information on spyware, adware, internet safety, indepth reviews, and news.

RSS and Atom files provide news updates from a website in a simple form for your computer. You read these files in a program called an aggregator, which collects news from various websites and provides it to you in a simple form.

RSS feeds are typically used with news sites or blogs, although any website can use them to disseminate information. When an update is sent out, it includes a headline and a small amount of text, either a summary or the lead-in to the larger story.

When you come across a website you would like to add to your aggregator, you can do so in one of two ways. Most sites that offer an RSS feed have an “RSS” or “XML” button on their homepage that you can click on and it will instantly add that feed to your aggregator. Depending on your aggregator, you may instead need to copy and paste the URL of the feed into the program.

The terms of use?

The RSS feeds are provided free of charge for use by individuals and non-profit organizations for personal, non-commercial uses.

We reserve all rights in and to the Yahoo!, Google!, MSN ! News logo, and your right to use the logo is limited to providing attribution in connection with these RSS feeds.

We are also including the provider of each individual news story in the feed alongside each headline. Please do not alter this for display.

How can I use RSS?

Typical applications for consuming or using RSS include:

• Using a program known as a News Aggregator to collect, update and display RSS feeds

• Incorporating RSS feeds into weblogs

News Aggregators (also called news readers) will download and display RSS feeds for you. A number of free and commercial News Aggregators are available for download. Popular news readers include AmphetaDesk, NetNewsWire, and Radio Userland.

Many aggregators are separate, “stand-alone” programs such as those listed above; other services will let you add RSS feeds to a Web page. Search Engine lets you add RSS feeds to your web page ; to make this easier,

Another way many webmaster use RSS feeds is by incorporating content into weblogs, or “blogs”. Blogs are web pages comprised of usually short, frequently updated items and web links. Blogging as a publishing tool is used for many purposes: traditional journalism, personals blog,personal journals, group discussions around a topic, and many combinations in-between.

Resource provide by Yahoo, Google, MSN Search Engine, and others. For more information contact me -
Seo Expert Delhi, http://www.geocities.com/s_inghak

RSS is THE popular catchphrase, creating waves in today’s Internet world. But exactly what is RSS feed?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary, and is a very cost effective method to bring your information to your clients and potential clients.

When you as a marketer/businessman/company, decide to promote your business through the marketing strategies of the Internet, it’s time to take full advantage of this interactive medium. It pays to know what is RSS feed.

RSS has numerous advantages over the other existing methods, to turn it into the most sought-after, powerful, dominant tool, which will take over the Internet world soon.

Beyond just knowing what is RSS feed, this is how RSS can help you:

* Your website is the gold mine of information on how the public respond to what you say. RSS provides an unbelievable platform to discuss the views of the public without wasting time. Instead, you can spend your time on crafting quality contents. RSS has many special features such as dialog facilitators, RSS radars, and automatic responders to enhance the significance of conversational marketing.

* Your search engine ranking reflects how good your website is! Knowing what is RSS feed and harnessing its power properly will increase the search engine ranking remarkably well, and this helps develop your business.

* What do the visitors get on visiting your website? Interview customers for their feedback, do a research and make changes to your website accordingly. The last part can be done easily by knowing what is RSS feed and using them effectively.

* The look of your website is very important. RSS has made it very easy to understand, see and feel your message for the visitors by mixing video and audio channels to your contents. Also, keep in mind that not only is it enough to have a good website but an appropriate one to your business also, to catch your visitor’s eye.

* Make your website work well in all the browsers. Your website is open to a variety of visitors who can prefer browsers of their choices. RSS is a convenient way since it works on all platforms. Most of the browsers may not face hurdles accessing RSS.

* You can collect a lot of information such as the number of subscribers, their interests, their reading frequency, the topics they are more interested in etc using RSS feeds. These are definitely going to be vital for improving your standards of business.

And do not think it’s a super-techie thing that you cannot use! Once you understand fully what is RSS feed, you are open to the amazing world of RSS and one day, sure to find yourself hooked to it!

So, what are you waiting for? Get going to know what is RSS feed, be familiar with it, and unleash the power of this incredible, powerful tool!

Thomas Choo specializes in Internet Home Based Business. Visit http://www.multiple-revenue.com to learn what RSS can do for you, and for free download of the amazing ebook on RSS and a really useful RSS software (both sold elsewhere for $64).

RSS(Real Simple Syndication) is the newest form of content syndication to hit the Internet and is widely becoming the best known way online to deliver fresh targeted content to your website(s) to whatever audience you’re targeting 24/7/365.

Now for those of you who aren’t quite up to speed on “RSS” here’s the basic definition — RSS is an acronym for “Real Simple Syndication” or “Rich Site Summary”, and the .XML extension is the format used for distributing your news headlines via the Web, which is known as “Syndication”.

“Syndication” is where the TRUE power of RSS is unleashed, getting your message or information across the web in an INSTANT to websites, your subscribers and/or readers.

Why is this such Good News for website owners who publish content on a Daily or Weekly basis for there audiences?

Simple.

By having “RSS” plugged into your website with targeted RSS feeds you’ll now have an endless supply of Fresh targeted content delivered to your website for your visitors and/or subscribers 24/7/365 without you ever having to lift a finger.

Just imagine how much time what would save you and how it would allow you to focus on other important tasks related to your business.

Time is something we are always fighting for and since web surfers primarily come online in search of ‘Information’ it can be a very time consuming ordeal to deal with on a Daily or Weekly basis.

The other great thing about “RSS” is it’ll keep the ‘Search Engine Spiders’ coming back more frequently since “RSS” automatically updates your selected feeds ‘Daily’ with Fresh targeted content.

And if you know anything about Search Engines then you’ll know that they LOVE fresh content to digest.

Now that you have a general idea of what “RSS” can do for you and your website(s), your probably wondering how you can take advantage of this right now and where to find these ever so valuable ‘RSS Feeds’.

The answer is simple — ‘Article Directories’.

Now, not all ‘Article Directories’ have adopted “RSS” at this point But they will soon catch on once they see the value RSS offers there publishers(you) and readers.

Below I have listed a few ‘Article Directories’ offering RSS feeds in every category under the sun for you to choose from.

Article99.com

GoArticles.com

EzineArticles.com

Now, all you need to get your hands on(if you don’t already) is a “RSS Reader Script” and have it installed on your server so that you can display the ‘RSS Feeds’ on your website(s).

All you have to do is a simple search on Google using the keyword “RSS Reader Script”.

Once you’ve done all that and updated your website(s) pages with your RSS code, you can now just sit back, relax and let RSS(Real Simple Syndication) do all the work for you 24/7/365 while you go focus on other important tasks.

About The Author:

Looking for MORE Information or Webmaster Resources on RSS and RSS Feeds? Look NO Further! Go shop Cory Threlfall’s TOP Rated CBmall that carries over 10,000 of the Internets BEST ‘Information Products’ available Online. rss and rss feeds