Studies show that as much as 80 percent of corporate email is either outright spam or virus/phishing attempts. While the industry has spent an enormous amount of time and money fighting both of these, the volume of bad email is still huge. Is there light at the end of this particular tunnel?
Without a doubt, there is light. First, massive investment in spam and phish fighting (look at IronPort and CipherTrust VC investments and Microsoft setting up a group dedicated to safety) means we're seeing great technologies emerge. Second, it's not just venture capital that's flowing. Email security products and services are being bought in the hundreds of millions of dollars. That doesn’t happen if they don’t work.
The pump is being primed with new technologies that include the accountability triumvirate of authentication, accreditation, and reputation. I’m very excited by the promise of these to make further inroads in the spam and phishing war and turn messaging systems into systems where you get much more of what you want and much less of what you don’t want.
You talk about messaging as moving from stand-alone application to mission-critical part of all business processes. In many organisations, email is the most important computer application. However, we are starting to see the rise of desktop search tools from both Google and Microsoft, which have the potential to change the way people work. How do you see desktop search and related functionality working with messaging?
Three search-related stories last year presaged what I think we’re going to see. First, Google’s Gmail opened some eyes and threatened some companies with what they came out with in beta form. Second, Stata Labs was acquired by Yahoo! for its desktop-based search capabilities. Third, a small, quiet, but virally successful plug-in for Microsoft Outlook, called "Lookoutsoft," was acquired by Microsoft.
What does this all mean? I think it means that the big data gateways, such as Google and Yahoo!, want to parlay their power in Web-based access into more desktop capabilities. Microsoft will look to defend their ownership of the bulk of desktops and to be the primary interface to search. And, quietly, Apple will continue to shine a light on search possibilities with the forthcoming release of Tiger. We’re facing a battle on the desktop for predominant ownership of search. That battle will not just be about Web page search, but email search too.
I’m intrigued to see what both Yahoo and Google will do to enable desktop email search. I can "pop" my Gmail email today. But what will Google do to reach out to that "popped" desktop email with ad relevance? Will it top or tail my email with ads? And how will instant messaging play into this battle and the evolution of search capabilities? This is going to be a fascinating year.
