Spam - It's Not Just Email Anymore

The term spam has gradually been expanded to include many things besides just unwanted email messages.

- Advertisements placed in other people's Weblogs or Wikis
- Entire Weblogs, setup only for the purpose of advertising
- Other sites setup with junk content for the singular purpose of attracting search traffic
- Street signs of questionable legality ("street spam")
- Unwanted faxes
- Automated telephone solicitations

All of these things have something in common. They are extremely inexpensive mediums, with the potential for profit. The cost of deploying a campaign utilizing any of these methods is trivial, so little discretion has to be used to control quality of targeting of the messages.

As a result, the effected mediums are overwhelmed with noise. In some cases, various systems can be used to help filter out the junk. For example spam filters for email spam, requiring better authentication to post to blogs and various services to block unwanted telephone calls.

It should be noted that several of the above advertising techniques are illegal, or at least violate the terms of service of the providers utilized. When the law is rarely enforced, its effect becomes trivial.

The only way to deter spammers from using these mediums in the long run is to make them unprofitable. Exactly how that can be accomplished is up for debate.

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