Microsoft

Looks like big companies are finally getting involved in the fight against spam and pop-ups. Today Microsoft said it wouldn’t let hotmail subscribers send more than 100 messages a day — at least not unless they paid for more storage. It’s half-hearted, but still a start. Even a small fee might be deterent enough since spam only works by being essentially free.

AOL and other providers are now getting into the act. Mainly their efforts are lame, like the totally ineffective pop-up blocker I have from Earthlink.

With spam now making up half of all email, it’s about time for corporate America to get involved.

REDMOND, Washington (AP) — To cut down on junk e-mail, Microsoft Corp. is capping the number of e-mails that users of its free Hotmail service can send each day.

By limiting to 100 the number of messages that could be sent in a 24-hour period, Microsoft’s MSN division hopes to stop people from using its service to send the unsolicited messages, known as spam.

“MSN is strongly committed to helping stop the widespread problem of spam and this change is one way we are preventing spammers from using Hotmail as a vehicle to send the unwanted e-mails,” said Lisa Gurry, MSN lead product manager.

Microsoft said it viewed the limit as a reasonable cap that would affect less than 1 percent of its active subscriber base of 110 million. The company would not disclose its previous cap.

The limit took effect earlier this month. It does not apply MSN 8 subscribers or those who purchase extra storage on Hotmail.