Fred says the spam crisis is over. It’s ironic with all of the controversy roiling about Sender ID that — from the investor standpoint, at least — the problem is negligible. (It’s happened even faster than Bill Gates predicted.)
Still, I tend to agree that the problem is becoming more manageable. Filtering technologies (I use P2P tech from Cloudmark and a Bayesian filter called SpamBayes) have gotten more effective. We’re beginning to see the promise — if not the fruition — of technologies for e-mail authentication. Still, plenty of resources (time, money, personnel) are being employed to deal with the spam problem — and that situation would have to improve immensely for me to say spam was no longer an issue.
Will all the dough companies now spend on “ISP relations” and “deliverability” be saved when authentication becomes a reality? I doubt it. That money will probably end up going to “reputation management” and maintenance of correct Sender ID and SPF records.
UPDATE: Matt weighs in.