We don't have to tell you that unsolicited commercial email, or spam, is completely out of control. Most of us receive hundreds of messages a day pimping porn, Nigerian largesse, get-rich-quick schemes, and the enlargement of body parts — it's killing productivity all over the country. Nucleus Research reported in June that spam cost U.S. enterprises an average of $1,934 per employee in lost productivity over the past 10 months, versus $874 per employee for the same period in 2003.
Looking for a solution? Here are some of the hottest spam filters currently available, each of which brings to the table a different collection of tools for attacking and eliminating unwanted email.
Cloudmark SafetyBar
Perhaps it takes a village to stop spam. That's the premise behind Cloudmark SafetyBar (recently renamed from Cloudmark SpamNet), which is available at $39.95 for a one-year subscription. After a quick installation, SafetyBar starts blocking spam based on existing filters.
If a spam message does get through, the user can mark the message as junk. This information then goes out to a network of users — more than 1 million, according to Cloudmark — and begins blocking similar messages for all users. In essence, we all fight spam together.
This begs the question, what if some vindictive user decides to block legit messages? Here SafetyBar relies on something like eBay's famed ratings system. Each user is graded on the timeliness and accuracy of his or her blocks. Based on the timeliness and correctness of your contributions, SafetyBar's automated trust system determines your reliability.
In addition, users can "unblock" a message if something legitimate, such as a newsletter, ends up in the trash heap. With the unblock function, such messages will be destined for the regular inbox in the future.
SafetyBar does carry a couple of drawbacks relative to some competing clients. First, the client must repeatedly connect to a Cloudmark server in order to filter out spam. This means that if a Cloudmark server is down — which does happen on occasion — you'll be unable to access your mail without modifying your mail settings to directly access your mailbox.
Additionally, with its yearly subscription cost vs. the flat-fee price of many competing anti-spam clients, you're likely to pay more for Cloudmark SafetyBar in the long run. Of course, a SafetyBar subscription does ensure you'll be able to obtain the latest software and anti-spam updates for free.
Pros: Vast community of users working together to identify and stop spam, separate editions for Outlook and Outlook Express, highly effective and accurate spam protection
Cons: Requires Outlook or Outlook Express in order to run, requires repeated contact with SpamNet server (so if a SpamNet server is down, you won't be able to access your mail), depends on users making the effort to submit feedback in order to keep the system effective, $39.95 per year subscription fee makes it more costly than comparable flat-fee anti-spam clients
