At the start of last year, Bill Gates told the world"s elite at an annual conference in Davos, Switzerland, that the problem of spam would be solved in two years.
But if the Microsoft chairman was betting on Sender ID to play a major role in achieving that goal, it looks like a losing bet. The Microsoft-backed protocol to identify e-mail senders aims to stem spam and phishing by making it harder for senders to forge their addresses and by improving filtering. So far, though, there"s been a lack of adoption by legitimate businesses. Instead, it"s been proving popular with a group it"s meant to deter--spammers.