Review:
Mailblocks anti-spam webmail service

By Andy Walker

Don’t you just hate spam? I got an email recently that asked: “Can you believe the size of them?” “Them” being a rather naughty part of someone’s anatomy.

Size is everything in spam email. Email advertisers want you to buy products that make parts of you grow. Or they want you to see pictures of other people that have clearly taken advantage of these super-sizing products. All I know is spam makes my inbox - and my anger level – grow large.

So when I heard about Phil Goldman’s new project - called Mailblocks - and his ambitious promise that the email service stops ALL spam, I was hopeful and skeptical at the same time.

Goldman became famous when he founded WebTV and then sold it to Microsoft for zillions of dollars. After the acquisition, he went to work for them in 1997, but in 2001, left to consider his next big project.

The Mailblocks service – which Goldman says he is financing from his own pocket - is designed to function like Microsoft’s Hotmail product. In fact he believes it’s a Hotmail killer. I think he may just be right.

When you sign-up for Mailblocks you get an email address – mine, for example, is awalker@mailblocks.com. That gives you access to the mailblocks.com website where you can receive or send email like you would with your Hotmail.com account - although with some notable differences.

Mailblocks uses patented anti-spam technology known as challenge/response. Here’s how it works. When you send an email to me and if I don’t know you, the system challenges you with an email response that says something like: “If you’re a real person, type in this code in this little box and we’ll forward your email to Andy. This proves you’re a human and not an automated spam generator”.

Spammers use computers to send email ad campaigns, and a computer can’t read and respond to challenges. So email always gets blocked if it’s from a machine.

Once you’re validated, you’re put on a list of acceptable email senders and you’re never challenged again. Those that aren’t validated get dumped into a “pending” folder so you can scan them in case there’s an email in there from your grandma or grandkid who can’t figure out how to get on your “whitelist”. In a case like that, you can validate them manually.

The system gets complicated when you sign up for a mailing list - though there is workaround where you can give a mailing list system a unique bypass email address. It’s a bit of an ugly solution with the workaround address turning out to be something like awalker-sheepherdersclub1234@mailblocks.com.

Mailblocks also causes problems for friends who are not expecting a challenge. I had a few emails from pals who said “Hey Andy, what did I do to deserve this?”

You can integrate existing email addresses into Mailblocks including your Hotmail account. So email sent to all your addresses pour into the Mailblocks inbox. The problem is that you can’t send from those outside email addresses. If you write an email to me at my Cyberwalker address and I use Mailblocks to import mail from that account, when I respond you get an email from awalker@mailblocks.com, which can be confusing for the recipient.

Mailblocks can also integrate itself into your existing email program like Outlook, Outlook Express or Eudora. However this seems to delay receipt of some valid mail and leaves deleted email in your inbox with a line through it.

Still, the Mailblocks website is really slick and has the look and feel of Microsoft Outlook. It’s a pleasure to use. That, plus the promise of guaranteed spam-free email, would be enough for me to embrace it. The problem is I have dozens of email addresses and not being able to send email from them is a problem.

The service is also a very good deal. It’s $9.95 a year for 15 MB of storage, however a current promotion gives you three-years of service for the one-year price, working out to just over $3 a year. Super-size it to a 50 MB inbox – there’s that upsell again – and pay $24.95 a year. No discounts for people who go large.

Despite the price, it’s not for heavy email users that have multiple email accounts, though I think the concept has a lot of merit for moderate volume email users.

Ideally this service (available at www.mailblocks.com) would be perfect for people who currently use Hotmail, Yahoo or some other webmail based service.

In fact if I had kids that used Hotmail, I’d move them to Mailblocks immediately. There is a disclaimer on the registration page that says only those 18 and older can sign up for the service, but Goldman reports he is considering lowering that to 13 and older. His staff is looking at liability issues.

Of course that doesn’t stop parents from signing up on their children’s behalf. Goldman adds that the company is looking at password protecting the “pending” folder so that a parent can lock their children out of seeing the filtered bad stuff.

After all, the only thing a child should worry about growing big is themselves.

More info about Mailblocks: Click here

More info on anti-spam techniques: Click here

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