Yahoo's false positives: When to worry

I've been wondering about this as well. Google does an amazing job of killing spam. I think I've gotten one single spam message in my GMail in-box and I get at least five or six a day (and usually much, much more) in my Yahoo in-box while real email gets tossed in the Junk folder again and again.

If GMail would incorporate folders, I'd abandon Yahoo Mail altogether.

And it doesn't help that Yahoo Mail has some pages with headers like "The Web's Best Email" when it clearly is not.

Crude spam is pesky at best, dangerous at worst. But lite spam? I'm new to blogging and am trying to get a handle on the 'rules'. Obviously, unsolicited emails are out, but I want to join in whereever appropriate, even if it's indirect (like here!). Tips?

Stephen – Sorry to hear about your experience. We're constantly working to stay a step ahead of spammers and I would welcome the opportunity to talk with you about what you are seeing in your account. As I'm sure you understand, many factors beyond algorithms are at play when comparing spam filtering and false positive rates.

We work hard to avoid false positives, and there are some things users can do as well, such as including important contacts in the address book, careful use of the “this is spam” button, etc.

When comparing spam filters, I'm sure you can appreciate that it's useful to consider how the Yahoo! Mail and other email addresses have been used over time – if one was shared in more public forums than the other, for example, this may impact the results.

--Miles Libbey, Yahoo! antispam Product Manager

I'm with Miles Libbey on this one. I've got both Yahoo! and Gmail accounts, and there is virtually no difference between the two. Both let minimal amounts of spam through, and both have segragated valid email as spam. I don't think it's possible to prevent this, given that spammers are constantly changing their techniques.

Today I dealt with a client who was getting many legitimate emails filtered as spam in Yahoo (Plus version). That combined with few tools for managing spam (does the Plus version have more?) definitely makes it an inadequate service.

Hi, I've never posted before, but my recent experience with Yahoo mail has been dire. I've had an account for over 6 years, & the spam has been getting mountainous (over 1000 pieces/day!).Tried to contact Yahoo, who promised to contact me in 24 hrs (never did).Anyway, I've finally had to give up on them.I wonder whether its all a scheme to get us onto their paying service? Well in my case it has backfired on them. If you won't help me, I'm certainly not giving you my money.

hindsight is a great leveler... even in summer 2007, gmail was nothing compared to yahoo by volume. so spammers spent way more time beating yahoo. as it transpires now, i'm seeing the same false positives in both spam filters. still prefer gmail personally but that's a moot, subjective point -- don't think Goog was any smarter about spam than yhoo has been.