The Email Wars

Microsoft launched tools and services yesterday to help ISPs fight spam and phishing, in what was good news for email marketers, DM News reports. Microsoft introduced a preview of Smart Network Data Services, a tool designed to help ISPs fight spam by providing them with information on the volume of email being sent from the ISP to MSN Hotmail and what percentage of that email has been marked as spam.

ISPs can then clean compromised machines, increase security measures for the host or network, and work with the party that sent the message to determine whether it is spam or legitimate email.
Microsoft also announced its MSN Postmaster site to help bulk emailers, ISPs and others to better understand issues regarding emails sent to Hotmail accounts. Postmaster helps fight junk email, improve delivery of legitimate bulk emails, streamline the reporting of email abuse and assist with troubleshooting, according to MSN.