Research Brief in their Email Blocking and Filtering Report for the First Half of 2005 says that 21% of permission-based email did not get delivered to the Inbox as intended during the first half of 2005.

The number is still high although the rate was statistically lower than the first half of 2004, when 22% of legit e-mail failed to get through. This is also the first time in more than 3 years that the rate has improved slightly. In 2002, the rate was 15% and 18.7% in 2003.

Different ISPs (in this case, email provider) have different filtering policies, so of course deliveray rates vary. The most aggressive providers were Gmail and Excite, which blocked 39% of legit email. Mac.com let through the most permission-based email, at 8%, followed by USA.net and Earthlink at 10% each.

The good news, other than the slightly better rate mentioned above, is that some of the email delivery success factors depend on the senders themselves. This fact alone means that there are things we can improve to yield better results.

Some of these factors icnlude maintaining high quality email list, implementation of email authentication standards, appropriate monitoring of delivery rates across ISPs and corporates, keeping complaint rates low, etc.

The study analyzed 140,000 campaigns sent by Return-Path new clients between January and June 2005.

Download: Email Blocking and Filtering Report.

In a current third annual TouchPoints study conducted by DoubleClick, the trend shows continued influence of online media in purchase process.

Web marketing programs collectively (web ads plus opt-in email programs) outranked TV ads in three categories (travel, banking and credit cards, and investment and mortgages).

This third version of the study was fielded in December 2004. Among other key findings:

• Official company websites are the top stop for further learning
• As a cumulative media channel, the Internet’s impact on purchase decisions is obvious
• Word of Mouth is the most consistent factor in purchase influence

Source: Internet Ad Sales.

Email marketers may be surprised to discover they need to comply to the new Child Protection Registry laws taking effect in Michigan and Utah, meant to protect minors from receiving or viewing illegal products and services.

The registries are intended to maintain a list of do not email list. Minors and parents may add their email address to the list. Organization and schools may register the entire Internet domains.

Once an e-mail address is on the registry for more than 30 days, commercial e-mailers are prohibited from sending it anything containing — or linking to — advertising for a product or service that a minor is otherwise legally prohibited from accessing, such as alcohol, tobacco, gambling, prescription drugs, or adult-rated material.

E-mail senders are required to match their mailing lists against the registries on a monthly basis, for which they must pay both Michigan and Utah a per-e-mail-address fee. The Michigan law limits the fee to $0.03 per address, while the Utah law leaves it to the discretion of the state’s Department of Consumer Protection to set the fees.

If your business is not in any way related and contain unpermitted materials or links to them, then you don’t have to worry much about this new law. I can’t and don’t provide legal advice, so please consult your attorney for further information.

Senders found to be in violation of Utah’s law will face up to three years in jail and up to $30,000 in fines, as well as potential civil penalties of $1,000 per message. Violators of Michigan’s law face similar fines and jail time, and may be liable to civil penalties of $5,000 per message or $250,000 per day of violation.

Read the whole story at ClickZ News.

Microsoft deployed Sender ID e-mail authentication alerts via a new safety bar in the Hotmail user interface to further protect e-mail users from malicious spam and scams.

The Hotmail safety bar is designed to alert customers to potential deceptive e-mail messages and provide more meaningful information on e-mail authentication. The alerts are available in 20 languages today, supporting more than 200 million customers worldwide.

Sender ID is the Microsoft implementation of the popular SPF authentication system. Microsoft will begin filtering messages that don’t authenticate to the junk/ bulk folder, so it is recommended to start publishing Sender ID/ SPF records as soon as possible.

More information about Sender Policy Framework (SPF), Sender ID.

PandaLabs reports on a new type of spam distributed malware, with phishing still in a very concerning state. The malware, Downloader.DBR was distributed by mass mailing messages to users around the world using a spoof story about a suicide attempt by Michael Jackson. This spam is nothing more than a new episode in social engineering.

The report finds pharmaceuticals are the most predominant product in e-mail sent by spammers, with 38.6 percent of spam in the category. Finance ranks second at 14.8 percent, and scams and frauds including stock-alerts, phishing and “Nigerian-sting” variations grab a 11.5 percent spam share.

Websense also surveyed IT decision-makers and reports 45 percent say employees have clicked on URLs embedded in phishing scams. Half dono believe employees can accurately identify phishing sites. A further 32 percent said phishing attacks caused security problems for their organizations in the past year.

Top 10 celebrity virus ranking includes Britney Spears, BIll Gates, Jennifer Lopez, Shakira and others. Please keep your virus definition file updated to better protect your PC.

Link to ClickZ Stats, Panda Software press release.