Our “beloved” spam, is 30 years old, if you believe it or not! The first spam was sent out on May 3rd, 1978 by a defunct marketing company. “Spam” actually means “something that keeps repeating and repeating to great annoyance”.

However, their intention of spam was with no ill intent. Just a message to advertise and create awareness.

Now, spam can be seen in a variety of forms, from pure advertising to the intent of causing harm.

I used to receive spam almost everyday on my Yahoo! email. Now, with the increasing advancement of technology, they have managed to keep out most spam from my spam inbox. I now occasionally get a spam or two, asking me in buy enlargement pills, or diet pills, or winning a lottery that I have never heard of. Hooray to Yahoo! spam protection!

Even on this blog, i get spam comments with links to suspicious sites advertising suspicious products. With Askimet, it helps me filter away the spam comments and I can just delete them off with a click of a button! Whee to Askimet!

With the notorious use of spam to flood one’s mailbox or site with annoying messages to buy or trick, it is no wonder why REAL advertisers have difficulty standing out from the hundreds of spam!

Singapore’s laws now require advertisers to send e-mails or SMS starting with the phrase “<ADV>”. This is to help consumers to differentiate that this “spam” is not spam. It also helps to protect the companies from being accused of flooding the consumers mailbox. Advertisers are also required to put in an option in the mail to let the consumer choose to unsubscribe to the mailers and avoid being “bombarded” with unwanted advertisements.

Pondering on this, I wonder, 30 years later, what would spam look like? Perhaps it would not exist at all!

References:

For 30 years now, you’ve been getting spam
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080502/tts-technology-internet-spam-history-30y-c1b2fc3.html

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