I’m on an executive mailing list from Microsoft and today got a message from the Chairman himself, Bill Gates:

“During the past year, Microsoft has taken a number of important steps to help curb the epidemic of junk email, which is a major headache for computer users worldwide. We’ve made significant progress, including blocking more than 95 percent of all incoming junk email – an average of 3 billion messages a day – on Hotmail. But more work remains to be done. We’re committed to finding additional ways to counter this costly nuisance.”

The message continues…

“Over the next 12 months, we will begin to introduce several additional innovative technologies and processes that should further reduce the volume of junk email reaching customers’ inboxes. Because you’ve subscribed to receive executive emails from us, I’d like to update you on what we’re doing in this area. On the Web at www.microsoft.com/execmail, I’ve posted an in-depth explanation of Microsoft’s technology vision and strategy for ending the junk email epidemic as a major problem. I hope you’ll take a few minutes to read it.”

Think of that. Three billion spam per day flowing into hotmail (and, oddly, Mr. Gates doesn’t mention how much spam flows out from hotmail accounts, does he?).

And the Microsoft solution? You can go here to read about it (ignore the ‘undefined’ header expansion on the page, though! 🙂 and you’ll find that they’re talking about the Anti-Spam Technology Alliance that I’ve already talked about here in my weblog as a potentially good idea, except for the rather draconian cutting off spamming PCs, even if the PC owner is clueless that they’ve been infected. Nonetheless, go and read what they’re saying. It’s interesting and it will affect us sooner or later…