New Outlook version to fight "Spam" - It Is About Time!!

Microsoft's new version of Outlook, Outlook 11, will no longer automatically grab data from outside servers when previewing Web page formatted e-mail. Data files (i.e., sound, image and video) in HTML-formatted e-mail are usually pulled from a Web server similarly to the way a Web browser grabs this data when a user is surfing the Internet. However, when content is accessed through a Web browser, it is because a user has chosen to visit that site; with Web-based spam mail, the content is delivered to the addressee uninvited. The spam e-mail content is downloaded so that it can function as a "Web beacon," which then notifies the spam sender that the e-mail address is valid. Even viewing the message in a 'preview pane' in Outlook without opening it can trigger the Web beacon, according to analysts, and the beacon can produce more unwanted mail from the original sender and from other spammers who have access to the same mailing list.

Outlook 11 will reportedly block much unwanted spam. "We've taken a step backward, so to speak, by blocking external content when you preview e-mail," said Simon Marks, Office XP product manager for Microsoft, and says this new feature is an important spam-fighting tool.