AOL Starts Tacking Ads on Bottom of Emails
As of Tuesday, AOL will begin appending a 34 word advertisement for AOL services to the bottom of all emails sent. This tactic has been used in AOL’s webmail service for about eight months, but has now spread to the desktop software as well.
This is not a new thing for free email providers, but definitely an annoying one. I have seem these advertisements throw spam filters out of whack as they increase the spam score for Bayesian spam filters. In my humble opinion, you are not going to get me to sign up for a service by using these types of tactics; instead it only reinforces the reasons I do not use the service. It’s like saying “Hey… you… over her!. Sign up for AOL email services and get a really annoying message at the bottom of all of your emails just like the one you are reading right now.”
What do you think?
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Comments
OK, fair comment. But comparing emails and websites isn’t quite even.
1) Websites are public domain, emails are private sensitive information
2) The text of websites are not scanned for by a spam filter, emails are and advertisements can be the difference between you receiving the email and not
3) Emails are archived, and saved, it’s actually the law for companies (hopefully they are not using AOL :)) a lot of little ads can add up in space over time (granted a lot of time)
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Good thought on the gateway, I will have to look into that.
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I’m not a big fan of the ads, but a friend of mine made a good point: How many ads are on a typical Web content-service page — like on YouTube? They give you the ability to post your videos for free, and all they demand is the right to make money so they can keep the service running. So AOL puts an ad at the bottom of the email, below your sig. You get free email. Or you could choose to pay for your email with someone and not get any ads, I guess.
One more thing: Use AOL’s IMAP gateway from Outlook, Thunderbird, or Mac Mail (or whatever client you choose) and there won’t be any ads attached to your email, I believe.
-Bruce