This may sound like an advertisement, but consider this my first product review. I need people to be able to reach me via email. Because I’m involved in so many internet projects, my email addresses are out there in spite of efforts to keep them away from spammers. So, I tend to get a lot of spam and have tried lots of products intended to keep spam out of my inbox. I just started using CloudMark Desktop, and I’m very impressed so far. What I like best about Cloudmark is that you don’t get false positives. With other products, I end up with good emails being blocked, which I think is worse than spam.
Cloudmark works differently from most spam filters. It has a network of users who decide whether a message is spam, rather than relying on software rules. Users send feedback to Cloudmark about which messages are spam, and this information helps everyone in the network. When a user clicks the “Block Spam” button, Cloudmark compares this feedback with feedback from other users. If other users in the network also consider the message spam, then the email is blocked for all users in the network.
Users can earn trust levels for blocking legitimate spam. The more you block, the higher your trust level. However, Cloudmark is so good at blocking spam that I rarely get spam in my inbox. So strange that now I’m happy to see a piece of spam so that I can flag it, increase my trust level, and help the community fight spam.
This is a super piece of software and well worth the $39.95 annual fee. If you’re sick of spam and use Outlook or Outlook Express, try Cloudmark free for 15 days.
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