“Companies spent $10 billion last year on spam and virus protection,” Pathlink’s Director of Marketing, Joe D’Alessandro, told XBiz. “And the problems has only gotten worse. Pathlink has created a software and outsource solution for webmasters.”
D’Alessandro said that most filtering systems “use a global blacklist. SpamHippo has created a menu for filtering, so users can choose what they want to filter out. Selecting the tools is left in the end user’s hands.”
The Pathlink marketing director stated that SpamHippo “eliminates more than 99.99 percent of spam and viruses. But it does not delete legitimate mail.”
D’Alessandro said that SpamHippo is “a value-added feature for webmasters. It can provide their surfers with an email service. If they already have one, webmasters can take advantage of the spam and virus protection functions,” D’Alessandro said.
He added that webmasters can choose whether or not to charge their members for SpamHippo. It costs webmasters $5 a year per email account.
In other company news, Pathlink is also reintroducing NewsKabob, a service that provides webmasters a simple, low cost way to put 30,000 highly trafficked discussion groups into their website’s pre-existing design. Members can have the benefit of thousands of picture and video postings each day.
D’Alessandro said NewsKabob features “a customized Web interface. It has private password protected newsgroups.”
As for copyright infringement issues, D’Alessandro said: “Pathlink has been providing Usenet groups for 12 years. We are in full compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act [of 1998].”
However, D’Alessandro went on to say that “If we are contacted to remove content [because of copyright concerns], we will do so within 24 hours. And the party responsible for posting the material will be terminated from NewsKabob.”
The service can be activated at NewsGuy. As with SpamHippo, there’s no hardware or software to install. Webmasters retain complete control through a web-based admin area. Tech support is available via phone, email and fax.
D’Alessandro said that Pathlink is re-launching NewsKabob because when it originally debuted, the Northern California-based Internet company didn’t widely market and promote it. D’Alessandro added that Pathlink is also aiming NewsKabob at adult webmasters.