dmv wrote:
] ] WASHINGTON (Reuters) - EarthLink Inc. ELNK.O and Yahoo
] ] Inc. YHOO.O said on Monday they would begin tests of a
] ] new anti-spam technology that encodes digital signatures
] ] into customers' e-mail as a way to separate legitimate
] ] messages from unwanted spam.
] ]...
] ] Yahoo's DomainKeys embeds outgoing messages with an
] ] encrypted digital signature matched to a signature on the
] ] server computer that sends the message.
]
] In the absence of a consensus, we will again have a
] competition of who carries the most weight and includes the
] most users. This is a good start toward that. If AOL comes
] onboard, we'd have a significant percentage of usage;
] considering that Microsoft, the other big player, has worn out
] its welcome, that may be enough to be declared Critical Mass.

The nice thing here is that consensus isn't really necessary. I think there will be on the order of a dozen authentication technologies out there. The big choice is not which one you verify on inbound mail -- they're not mutually exclusive so check them all -- but which one you use to certify outbound mail. And that choice will be one of which technology fits best into your mail system and users' habits.