Goodmail, the email certification company that was caught in the middle of the AOL pay-for-email-delivery kerfuffle a while back, just raised a $12M round from Softbank, Doll Capital Management, and Emergence Capital Partners. Congratulations are in order for that crew.

I also noticed that the media (and the activists), have been pretty quiet about the AOL issue for a while. Hmm.

AOL has turned on their pay-for-email-delivery service, engineered by Goodmail Systems. You know the one - it was causing a big stink not too long ago.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is still speaking out against the plan, telling folks that the little guy will suffer - little guys like non-profits that AOL already said they’ll give a free ride to.

Of course, the first big guy through was purportedly Overstock.com, which creates a most interesting little circle for the tin foil hat crowd (which is rumored to include the Overstock CEO himself). See, billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban has repeatedly voiced his contempt for the company while simultaneously catching email flack for his own stance on net neutrality.

You go figure. I say it is just free markets at work, and everyone should get off their ass and figure out how to stay competitive in a increasingly complex world, and quit their bitching while they are at it.

I am not sure if Guy Kewney is trying to one-up Bill Gates, or leave readers’ heads spinning, but the point of this post doesn’t match the title. Maybe sensationalism at work, because the feed hit my aggregator forthwith.

Yes, it will mean that people will send advertising to you; but the problem with advertising isn’t just “it’s advertising!” - it’s the amount.

One advert a day, I probably won’t notice. It’s three hundred a day that makes email unmanageable; and no marketing operation can afford to send three hundred emails to every user on the planet every day, if it costs on a per-mail basis.

If Goodmail changes advertising from 300 a day to one a day, then nobody will mind. If paid-for mail still runs at 300 a day, people will drop AOL and other Goodmail customers, and move to other ISPs who don’t allow it.

Sounds like someone is under the impression that the Goodmail method creates an open door to “@Whatever_Url_Is_Paying.com” to spam anyone and everyone.

Then again, maybe my reading comprehension skills have just gone to shit.

Straight talk and common sense, in today’s New York Times.

Many are calling the AOL/Goodmail partnership just another way for big corporate to make big moola off little guys and gals. If this is so, then I have to ask why Goodmail is rejecting up to 75% of its Certified Mail applicants?

Or is that news just propaganda?

Carl Hutzler gives some serious information on the whole AOL/Goodmail issue. In depth, and a heck of a lot better that AOL has dispensed to date (link compliments of the Happy Software Prole).

More “straight from the horses mouth” that AOL, Goodmail, or the DearAOL campaign, and certainly heads above my crap. Thanks Carl.

AOL (and Yahoo) are about to implement Goodmail sender payment systems into their email, and it has already been noted that individuals have little to fear - the process is for bulk mailers. Invariably, there will be a few delivery problems, but the onus will be on Goodmail and their clients to figure this out. Or, users will simply go to another provider.

Unfortunately, the news will probably cause more problems than the system, as people will misinterpret it as a hit on them. Why do I think this? Because the news is traveling fast - I get this, this, this, this, this, and this in my “inbox” on SuperBowl Sunday.

***UPDATE***

It isn’t about to ensue - it already has. From the “inbox” - eleven more reports on impending doom, although only one really cut to the chase.

Its easy, just shut up about it already. There has been a lot of chatter about AOL dropping its whitelist in favor of Goodmail certification, mostly from people who don’t understand how it is going to affect them.

For most, it isn’t. The whitelist, and the new program, are for bulk or “high volume” mailers. If you have a web service that requires signup and email confirmation, you may have a problem and you may wind up paying. Of course, you could just require your subscribers to use an address other that AOL.

For the individual, you will still be able to send email to your great-great-great-great grandmother.

Goodmail Systems, developers of an email certification platform, recently inked a deal for $8 million from Doll Capital Management and Emergence Capital Partners. The Company has brought in two new board members from the VCs as well.

Hot on the heals of this deal, Goodmail announced that AOL and Yahoo will soon be offering their services to combat phishing exploits.

Goodmail is on a roll. Hopefully their offering can stand up to the test of billions.