AOL takes spammers to court

• Apr. 15, 2003

AOL is working for their customers in an effort to end spam.

Today a legal battle was launched that pits the internet giant against a group of companies and individuals it feels are spammers. Spam can be loosely classed as any form of internet communication which lessens a users experience, whether it involves cloaking or actually bombarding users email inboxes with promises of wealth or intimate relations.

AOL is targeting those who feel that it is their right to send unsolicited emails to millions of users every day. I'm sure you've all seen them, in fact your inbox has probably been victim to them for far too long.

Many companies develop anti-spam software, or filters, which delete or move the offending emails, but not enough has been done in the past to combat the problem head on. AOL isn't the only company going head on against spammers. MSN, Earthlink and other major US ISP's are also gearing up their efforts to take on spammers head on.

We applaud AOL and others efforts to take on spam. We don't consider these forms of solicitation to be good search engine optimization techniques. These people should invest their time and energy into performing legitimate SEO on their site to encourage people to want their services, and not tie up innocent people's email inboxes with things they don't want.

Wouldn't it be something to one day be able to check your email and see only the messages you want?

Rob Sullivan
Production Supervisor
Searchengineposition.com
Search Engine Positioning